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Category: Music

louis-moholo-basil-breakey

LOUIS TEBOGO MOHOLO (1940-2025)

score-fatima-and-the-dust

FATIMA AND THE DUST – a listening session with Leila Bencharnia

Live via the Pan African Space Station, Friday 6 June, from 6.30PM

LISTEN: MBIZO! – a gathering for Johnny Dyani

Performed LIVE at CONSTELLATION, Chicago

asher-black-lung-lp-cover

LISTEN: SOCIAL BREATH – Asher Gamedze and THE BLACK LUNGS

In commemoration of the fighting spirit of 16 June ’76, PASS presents a live recording of a once-off performance of SOCIAL BREATH by ASHER GAMEDZE and the BLACK LUNGS

Chimurenga & Septober Energy presents BACKBREAKANOMICS!

Friday, 21 February from 6pm

KEENAN AHRENDS LIVE WITH BENJAMIN JEPHTA & JONNO SWEETMAN

Saturday 15 Feb from 8pm at Chimurenga Factory, 157 Victoria road, Woodstock

THIS WAY I SALUTE YOU – a gathering for Keorapetse Kgositsile

The launch of two long-awaited books on our dearly departed teacher. Thursday, Jan 30 from 6pm at Chimurenga Factory, 157 Victoria Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.

Traditional Intellectuals

Izithunywa Zohlanga use indigenous repertoire and idioms to produce music and literature that speaks directly to the present

Sungura Stories

Ranga Mberi travels back in musical time to the 1980s and 1990s, the era of sungura music. Dubbed the “authentic sound of Zimbabwe”, sungura weaved together Congolese rumba with Zimbabwean jiti and Tanzanian kanindo.

water no get enemy

Live Broadcast – Water No Get Enemy

In honour of the almighty water we present a day-long broadcast on flows and unflows, tidalectics and water babies, cities and cemeteries, mosi-oa-tunya and motla le pula, drexciya, hendrixian merman and mami wata, ngondo and orin o’lomi, puddles, poem-maps and the rivers in our bellies, nkrumah’s and nehru’s big man dams, saline consciousness and the incessant fear of a wet planet.

The Way I See It: We Need New Myths

Perhaps the use of alternative points of emphasis is an attempt to subvert easy comprehension by those outside the community. “Who no know go know,” as Fela said.

THIS THING CALLED SOUL MUSIC

…There is nothing like art – in the oppressor’s sense of art. There is only movement. Force. Creative power.

MSAFIRI KAFIRI – a conversation and listening Session on the roots and routes of Tanzanian hip hop with Seth Markle

Thursday, 01 August, broadcasting live from 6pm. Tune in at www.panafricanspacestation.org.za

SANKOFA – A Conversation and Listening Session with King Tha

Monday 22 July, from 6pm. Tune in at www.panafricanspacestation.org.za

The New Thing

The Chimurenganyana Boxset volume 1, a handmade collection of rhythmic importance.

NEW RELEASE! Four Stories About Music in Africa, Volume 1

a limited edition handmade box set featuring four publications from our Chimurenganyana series

Unchain the art

Gwen Ansell maps the distance between words and music, fiction and autobiography, subversion and submersion through an epistolary review or two books that operate at the limits of  language and song.

LISTEN: ‘WAR CHORALE’ BY BHEKI KHOZA

‘War Chorale’, composed and directed by Bheki Khoza is a musical exploration into the slipperiness of history, love and memory, and the nearly invisible line that separates fiction from reality.

BHEKI KHOZA TRIO

We are pleased to host veteran guitarist, composer and mbaqanga jazz revivalist Bheki Khoza at the Chimurenga Factory.

Friday, 26 April 2024 – 7pm
Chimurenga factory

Woza Moya

Maakomele R. Manaka revisits a soundtrack of his dreams, long and rhythmic and hypnotic across time, space and struggles. The music and wisdom of Bra Herbie Tsoaeli lives large, therein, at “the foot of memory”. Illustration by Donovan Ward

LISTEN: A TRIBUTE TO KELAN PHIL COHRAN

In honour of the late Kelan Phil Cohran we present, below, a tribute mix, compiled by Guilty, covering the sound journey of Kelan Phil Cohran – from his time with Sun Ra’s Solar-Myth Arkestra.

Compiled by Guilty, covering the breadth of Kelan Phil Cohran’s musical journey

Heliacal Rising of Sothis – a celebration of Kelan Phil Cohran

Chimurenga proudly presents “Heliacal Rising of Sothis”, a celebration of the late great musician and educator Kelan Phil Cohran on his birthday 8 May 2024, also the 59th anniversary of the founding of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).

Wednesday, 08 May 2024 from 8pm
Chimurenga Factory (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock)

AFRICAN DAY – a listening session with Tete Mbambisa

Wednesday, 27 March 2024 from 7pm
Chimurenga Factory

Calabash Afrobeat Poems

Dike Okoro interviews Ikwunga Wonodi

SESASEDI SA TSODIO / SA KOŠA KE LEROLE: a screening of two film-essays

a screening of two-film essays
Friday, 15 March 2024 from 7pm
Chimurenga Factory

MoRa: Mogorosi meets Rampolokeng with ensemble live recording

22 March 2024
6pm
Chiesa Dipazzo Lupi, Melville

EXHIBITORS AND PARTICIPANTS

Ubuhle Bendalo Community Arts Festival plays host to the following exhibitors and participants over 16-18 February 2024.

Ubuhle Bendalo Community Arts Festival

16-18 February 2024
10am-10pm daily
Chimurenga Factory

A Phyllis Hyman Selection, 1976-1982

by Pierre Crépon

The Forest and the Zoo

Johnny Dyani offers a method to the Skanga (black music family) in this extended conversation with Aryan Kaganof. Photographs by George Hallett.

A LIVE BROADCAST WITH DAMOLA OLOWADE

Friday, 24 November
7pm
Tune in at panafricanspacestation.org.za

HOPHUIS: A SITE OF DANCE AND SOLIDARITY

Thursday, 09 November 2023
from 6pm.
Chimurenga Factory

LIBERATION RADIO: MEDU ARTS ENSEMBLE

The music unit of Medu Arts Ensemble consisted of two bands, Shakawe and Kalahari

LIBERATION RADIO: BOKANI DYER’S RADIO SECHABA

Chimurenga Factory
30 September
7pm

EPISTROPHIES

Saturday, 16 September 2023 from 6pm
Chimurenga Factory (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock)

CHIMURENGANYANA: MUSIC NOTEBOOK OUT NOW!

MUSIC NOTEBOOK by Ari Sitas

Chimurenganyana: Music Notebook by Ari Sitas (Aug 2023)

Music Notebook is at once a scrapbook, a bildungsroman, a playlist and a diary of Ari Sitas’ decade-long collaboration with the Insurrections Ensemble.

CLASS STRUGGLE IN MUSIC

Chimurenga Factory – 157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock
Thursday, 17 August 2023 from 6pm

You Ain’t Gonna Know Me ‘Cos You Think You Know Me

a gathering ‘n broadcast for our dearly departed brother Malesela Joey Modiba (1986-2023)

AZANIA EP LISTENING SESSION

Chimurenga Factory – Fri, 07 July 2023 from 6pm

CHIMURENGA PRESENTS SOCIAL BREATH

a collective improvisation
16 June 2023

Chimurenganyana: La Discotheque De Sarah Maldoror (March 2023)

decomposed, an-arranged and reproduced by Ntone Edjabe

LATEST IN STORE: WHEN THREE SEVENS CLASH

A collection of writing and images on Zimbabwe, edited by Percy Zvomuya

CHIMURENGANYANA: LA DISCOTHEQUE DE SARAH MALDOROR

La Discothèque de Sarah Maldoror (tracklisting)

decomposed, an-arranged, and reproduced by Ntone Edjabe

FIELD RECORDINGS WITH SHABAKA HUTCHINGS

FIELD RECORDINGS
WED, 22 FEB 2023 from 6PM

A RADIO PROGRAMME ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE MYSTIC REVELATION OF RASTAFARI

Live on PASS – 14 February 2023, from 6pm

GROUNATION – a tribute to the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari

“Grounation Day” marks the landing of Emperor Selassie I in Jamaica on April 21, 1966.

Chimurenga presents GROUNATION

a tribute to the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari

LIBERATION RADIO: TUMI MOGOROSI’S GROUP THEORY:BLACK MUSIC

The latest episode in the Stories About Music in Africa series

MYSTIC REVELATION OF RASTAFARI

We shall open this new cycle of programming with a month-long tribute to the almighty Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.

LIBERATION RADIO: MASELLO MOTANA’S VOCAL MUSEUM

The latest episode in the Stories About Music in Africa series, now available

MALCOLM JIYANE’S TREE-O

Live at Chimurenga Factory – Fri, 28 October 2022

TUMI MOGOROSI’S GROUP THEORY:BLACK MUSIC

Live at Chimurenga Factory – Sat, 22 Oct 2022

LIBERATION MUSIC AT THE CHIMURENGA FACTORY – OCTOBER 2022

Tumi Mogorosi’s Group Theory:Black Music and Malcolm Jiyane’s Tree-O

LIBERATION RADIO

We’re proud to present a new edition of “Liberation Radio”

MASELLO MOTANA’S VOCAL MUSEUM

Live at the Chimurenga Factory

LIBERATION RADIO: PUNGWE 1

Selected and mixed by Robert Machiri

DIALECTIC SOUL

Friday, 08 April 2022 – 7pm
@ Chimurenga Factory

iPhupho L’ka Biko – live at the Chimurenga Factory

Thursday, 31 March 2022
7pm

CHIMURENGA@20: A Silent Way – Routes of South African Jazz, 1946-1978

Where to begin? Which silences? There are many.

CHIMURENGA@20: Talkin’ ‘bout Survival – The Repatriation of Reggae

Where Apartheid and broadcasters divided South Africans culturally, here comes bongo natty dread to motivate U-N-I-T-Y.

PASS LANDING AT KUNSTNERNES HUS, OSLO

From Wednesday, 17 – Saturday, 20 February, 2021, Pan African Space Station (PASS) broadcast a daily session, produced for ‘Actions of Art and Solidarity’, a group exhibition curated by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) in Oslo and organised with Kunstnernes Hus.

THE BROTHER MOVES ON RETURNS

Chimurenga Factory
Saturday, 06 November 2021

CHE IN THE CONGO, ELECTRIC GUITARS AND THE INVENTION OF AFRICA

Featuring solos by Franco Luambo Makiadi, Pepe Felly Manuaku, Bansimba Baroza, Diblo Dibala, Dally Kimoko, Flamme Kapaya, Sarah Solo, Japonais Maladi and Kimbangu Solo; and commentary by Ray Lema

NEW STORIES ABOUT MUSIC IN AFRICA

PASS presents: Salim Washington, Dalisu Ndlazi, Asher Gamedze in conversation

HOME IS WHERE THE MUSIC IS

The latest addition to the Chimurenganyana series

CHIMURENGA SESSION: THE AFRO EURASIAN ECLIPSE

Bebson de la Rue & Tryonix – LIVE at PASS

Bibi Tanga – LIVE at PASS

Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band – LIVE at Assembly, Cape Town

BLK JKS -LIVE at Assembly, Cape Town

Funsho Ogundipe & Ayetoro – LIVE at PASS

Cindy Blackman Quartet – LIVE at Slave Church, Cape Town

Madala ‘Bafo’ Kunene – LIVE at Slave Church, Cape Town

Toumani Diabate – LIVE at Slave Church, Cape Town (2009)

Studios Kabako presents ‘moremoremore…FUTURE’ – LIVE at City Hall, Cape Town

SONGS FOR BIKO and other stomps, screams and prayers

SALIM WASHINGTON, DALISU NDLAZI, ASHER GAMEDZE… IN CONVERSATION

PASS LANDING AT LAVOIR MODERNE PARISIEN, PARIS

SALIM WASHINGTON, DALISU NDLAZI, ASHER GAMEDZE… IN CONVERSATION

Thursday, 24 June 2021 – 6pm

THE SUMMER OF ’69

Writer Pierre Crépon selects recordings illustrating his essay on the American avant-garde jazz in Paris in 1969.

CHIMURENGA CHRONIC – IMAGI-NATION NWAR – OUT NOW!

PASS in Oslo (17 – 20 February 2021)

PANAFEST, hosted by Chimurenga

A web documentary, audio-video archive and online cartography, that chronicles continuities and breaks, samples and cuts that link four key moments of Pan-African encounter: Dakar ’66, Algiers ’69, Kinshasa ’74 and Lagos ’77.

QAMATA PULA, an ancestral invocation

iPhupho L’ka Biko and Pan African Space Station present QAMATA PULA, an ancestral invocation collapsing past, present and future, over three days at the Chimurenga Factory

Creative Urban Momentum: Witnessing the Black Unity Trio

In anticipation of the release of Black Unity Trios’ legendary album, Al Fatihah, Hasan Abdur-Razzaq recalls witnessing their rehearsals in the late 1960s.

African Cities Reader I: Pan-African Practices

Featuring writing and musings by Rustum Kozain, Jean-Christophe Lanquetin, Gabebab Baderoon, Karen Press and more…

African Cities Reader II: Mobilities & Fixtures

The second installment of the Reader features Sean O’Toole, David Adjaye, Vicotr Lavalle, Martin Kimani, Sherif El-Azma and more…

African Cities Reader III: Land, Property & Value

The third installment of the Reader explores the unholy trinity of land, property and value – the life force of cities everywhere. In this issue António Andrade Tomás reveals the vice and violence that permeate the act of securing land and home in Luanda;

Abbey Lincoln’s Scream: Poetic Improvisation as a Way of Life

We are standing under a glaring spotlight screaming at the tops of our lungs, from the backs of our throats which we grind together to access black blues unwords, thymus against heart, blue in green meridian, that aquamarine plexus that water and sky correct and regulate in us.

FESTAC AT 45: FESTAC ’77, a mixtape by Chimurenga

In this mix, we decompose, an-arrange and reproduce the sound-world of FESTAC ’77 to address the planetary scale of event, alongside the personal and artistic encounters it made possible.

RIP PAPA GEORGE

They Won’t Go When I Go

A Manifesto/ Meditation on State of Black Archives in America and throughout the Diaspora by Harmony Holiday

How Third World Students Liberated the West

In a twist to mainstream tropes of radical student movements of the 1960s, and their impact on the history of political thought and action, Pedro Monaville argues that the terrains of the Third World, and particularly the history of student movements in Congo, are vital to explore if we are to makes sense of how that period informs the present.

IN THE BOOKSHOP: KINSHASA CHRONIQUES / KINSHASA CHRONICLES

Kinshasa Chronicles is a richly textured encounter featuring seventy artists, most of whom belong to a very young generation, telling tales of one of the world’s most vibrant creative hubs.

Who Kill Kabila – Angola Mix

We tune into radio trottoir, radio one battery, radio 33, boca boca to get the word on the street from Angola.

Listen to “Sankomota: An Ode in One Album”

On 31 May, we hosted the launch of Phehello Mofokeng‘s reflective essay on Lesotho’s greatest band, Sankomota.

FESTAC ’77: PASS Playlist

A Festac 77 Mixtape featuring Randy Weston, Mandla Langa, Carlos Moore, The Blue Notes, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michael McMillan, Miriam Makeba, Gilberto Gil, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Ray Lema and of course, Fela Kuti (voiced by Kolade Arogundade).

FESTAC 77 BOOK (Oct 2019)

Early in 1977, thousands of artists, writers, musicians, activists and scholars from Africa and the black diaspora assembled in Lagos for FESTAC ’77, the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. With a radically ambitious agenda underwritten by Nigeria’s newfound oil wealth, FESTAC ’77 would unfold as a complex, glorious and excessive culmination of a half-century of transatlantic and pan-Africanist cultural-political gatherings.

Dislocations in the Congolese World of Sound

A few years ago, while researching the political history of Congo/Zaire/Congo via the country’s music archive, particularly through the output of Luambo Makiadi aka Franco, we turned to the legendary record collection of “Jumbo” Donald Vanrenen.

HIKIMA – a letter from Zaria

She eyed me. A thing wet around her eyes, like water from the evening rain. Lateef, she said, an incurable emphasis on both syllables: Lah-teef.

Denderah Rising with Georgia Anne Muldrow + Thandi Ntuli Quartet + The Monkey Nuts

The Invention of Africa by Franco & T.P.OK Jazz

The output of Luambo Makiadi aka Franco, from the legendary record collection of “Jumbo” Donald Vanrenen

N’Dombolo: the postulation of the post-Zaïko generation

First and foremost, an artistic secretion (the magical respiration of an entire generation of young Congolese), the Wenge generation’s most emblematic creation, a form of humour and a playful ape-like mimicry. The outpouring of Kinshasa, city of dreams, city of turmoil.

P.A.S.S. HARARE

Whatever Zimbabwe is, and is becoming, already exists in the sound-worlds produced in the region.

Georgia Anne Muldrow & Declaime LIVE at Guga S’thebe, Langa

Brice Wassy LIVE at Albert Hall

PASS presents: FOKN Bois (LIVE at Greatmore Studios)

Floating Points LIVE at Gugu S’thebe Theatre

Neo Muyanga – The Sex For Money No Power Mixtape

Revisit moments from the PASS landing in Amsterdam

Udaba with Kgafela oa Mogogodi – LIVE at Centre for the Book, Cape Town (2009)

PASS LANDING AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ZIMBABWE, HARARE

From 9 – 12 November, the Pan African Space Station (PASS) landed in The National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) in the centre of Harare.

STORIES ABOUT MUSIC IN AFRICA – Ingoma Yomzabalazo with Iphupho Lka Biko

Recorded live at Chimurenga HQ, Cape Town, in February 2017

Creating Theatre: A George Hallett Photo Essay

Call for an Archive of AfroSonics

The collective improvisations of black America – and their profound impact on poetry and sound – are near impossible to find in the annals of US academe. In fact, their absence is as stark as the control of archiving is white, writes Harmony Holiday.

Salut Deleuze!

DIPALO a mixtape for those who practice counting

DIPALO: a mixtape for those who practice counting, composed, arranged and performed by Muyanga, was released as an audio supplement to issue 16 of Chimurenga magazine

CHIMURENGA SESSION: KAAPSTAD! (AND JOZI, THE NIGHT MOSES DIED)

A Chimurenga Session to launch Chimurenga Magazine Issue 7 – Kaapstad! (And Jozi, The NIght Moses Died)

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