CONFLUENCE and significance; that’s what we have here. Those intrepid curators and sound seekers at We Are Busy Bodies announce the release of Kippie Moeketsi and Hal Singer’s Blue Stompin, scheduled for July 23rd on digital platforms and as a delicious vinyl slab.
It’s another prestigious addition to the label’s catalogue, featuring a seminal global jazz intersection from the two touchstone saxophonists recorded in 1974 during Singer’s State Department-sponsored tour of South Africa.
Both players brought weighty bop credentials to their coming together: Moeketsi as a founder member of The Jazz Epistles alongside Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela; and Singer from his time with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins and Don Byas. So you would expect some kind of reaction from the pair when placed in the same room together and on the evidence of the pre-release taster, title track “Blue Stompin”, which you can hear below, that’s exactly what you get: eleven minutes of elemental sparkle, shine and shimmy.
Introduced by Moeketsi’s haunting lone sax that teeters on an emotional edge before gliding into the session quintet’s elegant swing, the track celebrates the vibrant connection between the two horn players and their spontaneous melodic conversations. They may have different voices, Moeketsi’s rasping and raw, Singer’s smooth and suggestive, but they speak the same soulful language.
Forty years on since its original release, Blue Stompin’ promises to be much more than a curio – some dynamic, straight-ahead and very necessary classic jazz awaits anyone who snaps it up.
Kippie Moeketsi and Hal Singer’s Blue Stompin will be released by We Are Busy Bodies digitally and on vinyl on July 23rd and may be pre-ordered here.
