Description
lsquoRejoicersquo is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and cofounder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. Having first met in the 70s thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two worldrenowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018. With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekelarsquos estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place. lsquoRejoicersquo can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers ndash a union of two freeflowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in ldquoa kind of South AfricanNigerian swingjazz stewrdquo, with its roots firmly in Afrobeat. Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of wellrespected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert Acoustic Ladyland The Invisible, Joe ArmonJones Ezra Collective, Mutale Chashi Kokoroko and Steve Williamson.