| Keep Your Heart Straight | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2012 | |||
| Recorded | October 24, 2011 | |||
| Studio | The Fish Factory, London | |||
| Genre | Free jazz | |||
| Label | Ogun OGCD 039 | |||
| Alexander Hawkins chronology | ||||
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| Louis Moholo-Moholo chronology | ||||
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Keep Your Heart Straight is an album by pianist Alexander Hawkins and drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. Featuring a mix of composed and freely-improvised material, it was recorded on October 24, 2011, at the Fish Factory in London, and was released in 2012 by Ogun Records. [1] [2] [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ [4] |
In a review for JazzWord, Ken Waxman wrote: "Hawkins needs all his keyboard skills finely honed when going up against Moholo-Moholo. Practically every track demonstrates some subtle meeting of the sinewy and the sophisticated... Hawkins appears to have the skills he needs to play any sort of improvised music from standards to on the-spot creativity. Plus Keep Your Heart Straight demonstratess he can hold his own with older Jazz masters." [5]
Writer Richard Williams called the album "an exceptional document," and stated: "It's a record on which Hawkins reminds his listeners that the piano, too, is a percussion instrument. He and Moholo attack the music with a brusque desire to get to the heart of the matter, even when they're playing romantic ballads." [6]
Chris Searle of the Morning Star described the album as "strikingly powerful," "Cape Town and Oxford forging an unlikely partnership with four decades between them," and commented: "it is as if there are two drummers drumming, so much has Moholo-Moholo's pounding and subtle brilliance woven into Hawkins's music over their years of playing together as a touring duo and in the drummer's larger band." [7]
Writing for Point of Departure, Ed Hazell called the musicians "kindred spirits despite the wide difference in their ages," and remarked: "Their joyful duo album displays a rapport that is at times almost telepathic. Like his elder, Hawkins... always leads with his heart, but his intelligence and considerable technique follow closely behind. Together pianist and drummer play with exuberance and openheartedness, yet with a great deal of order and unity, whether they play on compositions or freely improvise." [8]
In an article for Cadence , Jason Bivins wrote: "Alongside the fabulous young pianist Alexander Hawkins, Moholo-Moholo generates music of marvelously contained energy, often sounding spindly and intervallic but with a real gravity that comes as much from the space between notes as from any thunder... what makes the pianist even more arresting than other players who can work in similar areas is his unflinching lyricism, a truly compelling dimension of his work... They audibly delight in each other's playing, diving with real zeal into the more boisterous moments but equally engaged in the sparse silent passages." [9]
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana was a South African saxophonist, composer and pianist.
Louis Tebogo Moholo, is a South African jazz drummer. He has been a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai.
Keith Graham Tippetts, known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary music, as well as modern jazz for more than half-a-century". He held " an unparallelled place in British contemporary music," and was known for "his unique approach to improvisation". Tippett appeared and recorded in many settings, including a duet with Stan Tracey, duets with his wife Julie Tippetts, solo performances, and as a bandleader.
The Blue Notes were a South African jazz sextet, whose definitive line-up featured Chris McGregor on piano, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, and Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums. After moving away from their home country in 1964, they established themselves on the European jazz circuit, where they continued to play and record through the 1970s. They are now considered one of the great free jazz bands of their era, whose music was given a unique flavour by their integration of African styles such as Kwela into the progressive jazz ideas of the time.
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Sibanye (We Are One) is a live album by drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo and pianist Marilyn Crispell. It was recorded at An die Musik Live in Baltimore, Maryland in June 2007, and was released in 2008 by Intakt Records. The recording captures the duo's first musical encounter, and features a completely improvised set, with no prior discussion as to the length or nature of the music to be performed.
Alarm is a live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. It was recorded on November 12, 1981, at NDR Studio 10 in Hamburg, Germany, during the 164th NDR-Jazzworkshop, and was released in 1983 by FMP/Free Music Production. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Willem Breuker and Frank Wright, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonists Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Harry Miller, and drummer Louis Moholo. In 2006, the album was reissued on CD by Atavistic Records as part of their Unheard Music Series.
Spiritual Knowledge and Grace is a live album by drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, bassist and pianist Johnny Dyani, and saxophonist Frank Wright. It was recorded on June 22, 1979, at Jazzclub De Markt in Eindhoven, Holland, and was released in 2011 by Ogun Records.
Khumbula (Remember) is an album by drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo and pianist Stan Tracey. It was recorded on October 23, 2004, at Gateway Studios in Kingston, England, and was released in 2005 by Ogun Records.
Uplift the People is a live album by drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. It was recorded on April 14, 2017, at Cafe Oto in London, and was released in 2018 by Ogun Records. On the album, Moholo-Moholo is joined by members of his band, the Five Blokes: saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings and Jason Yarde, pianist Alexander Hawkins, and bassist John Edwards.
Procession (Live at Toulouse) is a live album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band Brotherhood of Breath. It was recorded on May 10, 1977, at Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, France, and was released on LP by Ogun Records in 1978. In 2013, Ogun reissued the album on CD with three extra tracks.
Blue Notes for Mongezi is an album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, pianist Chris McGregor, bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. It was recorded on December 23, 1975, in a rehearsal room in London, and was released on vinyl as a double album in 1976 by Ogun Records. In 2022, Ogun reissued the album in expanded form as a double-CD set, using tracks that originally appeared on the 2008 compilation The Ogun Collection.
Blue Notes in Concert Volume 1 is a live album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, pianist Chris McGregor, bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. It was recorded on April 16, 1977, at the 100 Club in London, and was released on vinyl in 1978 by Ogun Records. In 2022, Ogun reissued the album in expanded form on CD with the title Blue Notes in Concert, using tracks that originally appeared on the 2008 compilation The Ogun Collection.
Blue Notes for Johnny is an album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, pianist Chris McGregor, and drummer Louis Moholo. It was recorded on August 18, 1987, at Redan Studios in London, and was released on vinyl later that year by Ogun Records. In 2022, Ogun reissued the album in expanded form on CD, using tracks that originally appeared on the 2008 compilation The Ogun Collection.
Legacy: Live in South Afrika 1964 is a live album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonists Nick Moyake and Dudu Pukwana, trumpeter Mongezi Feza, pianist Chris McGregor, double bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. It was recorded during 1964 in Durban, South Africa, shortly before the group fled the country's apartheid regime and went into exile in Europe, and was released in 1995 by Ogun Records. The music was reissued in 2008 as part of the compilation The Ogun Collection, and was reissued again as a stand-alone release in 2022.
The Ogun Collection is a five-CD box set compilation album by The Blue Notes, featuring saxophonists Nick Moyake and Dudu Pukwana, trumpeter Mongezi Feza, pianist Chris McGregor, double bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo. It brings together the contents of four albums previously released by Ogun Records: Legacy: Live in South Afrika 1964 ; Blue Notes for Mongezi ; Blue Notes in Concert ; and Blue Notes for Johnny. The latter three albums appear here in expanded form. The Ogun Collection, which also includes a booklet containing photos and essays, was released by Ogun in 2008. In 2022, the label reissued all four albums as stand-alone releases, using the expanded versions found on the compilation.
Before the Wind Changes is a live album by The Blue Notes, featuring alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, pianist Chris McGregor, double bassist Johnny Dyani, and drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. It was recorded on July 1, 1979, at Jazzclub De Hoop in Waregem, Belgium, and was released in 2012 by Ogun Records.
For the Blue Notes is a live album by the Louis Moholo-Moholo Unit, led by drummer Moholo-Moholo, and featuring saxophonists Ntshuks Bonga and Jason Yarde, trumpeter Henry Lowther, trombonist Alan Tomlinson, vocalist Francine Luce, pianist Alexander Hawkins, and double bassist John Edwards. It was recorded on March 4, 2012, at Theatre Manzoni in Milan, Italy, and was released in 2014 by Ogun Records. The album pays tribute to The Blue Notes, the South African jazz ensemble of which Moholo-Moholo is the only surviving member.
4 Blokes is an album by the Louis Moholo-Moholo Quartet, led by drummer Moholo-Moholo, and featuring saxophonist Jason Yarde, pianist Alexander Hawkins, and double bassist John Edwards. It was recorded on November 12, 2013, at Fish Factory Studios in London, and was released in 2014 by Ogun Records.