Ntemi Piliso: African Jazz Pioneer Video (DVD)

Ntemi Piliso: African Jazz Pioneer Video(VHS/DVD). In this program, African jazz musician Edmund "Ntemi" Piliso traces the roots of African jazz from the days of apartheid in 1940s Alexandra Township. With musical performances throughout highlighting the various eras, Piliso moves through the days of pennywhistle jive groups hustling change on streetcorners, to the sounds of marabi—a bittersweet fusion of American jazz and the restless rhythm of an uprooted tribal culture. The latter sound, lost for a time amid the African pop music craze of the 1960s through the 1980s, is now being revived by Piliso and his musical group, the African Jazz Pioneers. In this program, we listen as they kick off that revival campaign in small township halls and jazz clubs. (25 minutes)