M.E.L.T. 2000 releases a carefully selected choice of World Music-, Jazz- and Acoustic recordings of artists from the UK, Brazil, Cuba but mainly from Southern Africa. The site features well known names like Byron Wallen, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Fourth World, Madala Kunene, Bernard Mndaweni, Amampondo, Busi Mhlongo and Mabi Thobejane. Recent recordings and filming of new and exciting artists include L.A.P. (Live African Percussion), Castro B., Vivid Afrika, Greg Georgiades, Ashish Joshi, Della Tamin, Thabang Tabane, Syd Kitchen, Johnny Fourie, Carlo Mombelli, Ernest Mothle & Ntombe Thongo's African Band. ELECTRIC M.E.L.T. is undertaking several new projects in conjunction with local South African- and European remixers to be released under the Music With No Name series.

M.E.L.T. 2000 has a vast library of video recordings spanning more than a decade, the footage is being transferred and edited for DVD and Video download release during the course of 2007 & 2008.

MELT "Musical Energy & Loud Truth"

That night, Robert and Airto met the legendary bass player and founder of Sakhile, Sipho Gumede. The encounter, and others with such extraordinary musicians as Pops Mohamed, persuaded the pair that they had to return to South Africa. Gradually, it became clear that their mission was to offer their new musical friends an opportunity for a free exchange of culture and musical ideas; to facilitate the creative collaboration that had been denied to them throughout the cultural boycott. In October '94, this process began with a group of artists travelling to South Africa meeting up and jam with more than 50 local musicians under the banner, 'Outernational Meltdown'. For Trunz this adventure was a step into the unknown - with the help of Airto's creative direction he started to take a more global approach to the label's repertoire. This grew from Robert's view that a mixture of different cultural and ethnic styles both informs and enhances playing styles and works particularly effectively in a jazz-infused world music context. It was his firm belief that, as a purveyor of loudspeakers, which are only animated - given life and soul - by the music played through them, he must pay his dues to those who create the (soul) music. Another factor that shapes M.E.L.T.2000 is Mr Trunz's predilection for percussion-based music, which has led him to work with some of the world's greatest percussionists. There's Airto Moreira, of course and Changuito - José Luis Quintana - from Cuba. From Africa he was joined by Brice Wassy, Mabi Gabriel Thobejane, his nephew Thabang Tabane, Amampondo and more recently L.A.P. (Live African Percussion) from Soweto. Add to this a catalogue that contains unique recordings of some of the finest jazz, traditional and indigenous musicians like the late pianist Moses Taiwa Molelekwa , Madala Kunene, Madosini, trumpeter Byron Wallen (who stands comparison with the mighty Miles and Dizzy), Flora Purim, Busi Mhlongo,Deepak Ram,, Pops Mohamed, Juno Reactor, Greg Hunter and the traditional music and remixes of the Bushmen of the Kalahari (San people) and you have one of the most exciting and innovative musical choices around. In 2001 MELT 2000 in the UK closed down and Trunz moved to South Africa where he continues to release a carefully selected choice of unreleased- and new recordings from the African continent. Gwen Ansell, prominent journalist and musical expert in Johannesburg wrote "MELT 2000 has relaunched from a permanent South African base, under the imprint Melt Music Phase Two. Its first two releases, launched at the Newtown Music Hall last Saturday, appropriately feature some of those names from the past. Kunene presents Uxolo, a series of duets and ensemble pieces - some remastered; some, new originals - with bassist Bernard Mndaweni. Madala is as much the outlaw as ever: though his music fits the shape of a standard maskandi track with its opening flourish and social-message narrative lyrics, his playing rarely stays within the lines. His improvisations, like Ali Farka Toure or Phillip Tabane, add spices from jazz and the blues and discords and dazzling runs straight from his own eccentric imagination. As usual with this label, sound quality and engineering are superb, and sleeve notes attractive and informative. It is good to have Trunz's baby back, providing its always-original viewpoint on the South African scene. "

A vast library of video recordings spanning more than a decade is being transferred and edited for DVD releas, please check the DVD section for releaes.

THE INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION THAT CHANGED THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC

 

Outernational Meltdown - Paul Bradshaw (Straight No Chaser)

This text originally appeared in Straight No Chaser, is reproduced here with permission, and is also available in print as a special 'Sidewinder' supplement.

As post apartheid South Africa celebrates the first anniversary of the free elections, 'Straight No Chaser' is proud to present this story of collusion and collaboration. When we heard that a group of musicians including Airto Moreira was heading fo the new South Africa to play and record with local musicians and spiritual healers it screamed, "the perfect Straight No Chaser story!"

What both Peter Williams and myself encountered was deeper and more illuminating that we could ever have expected. It was a humbling experience to walk the streets of conflict that we'd watched, for over 20 years, in endless news reports was indeed strange. For the people of South Africa the politics of the post apartheid era are frustrating, but they are an optimistic, proud people schooled in struggle. Overcoming the isolation that was forced upon them during the apartheid era has taken its toll but today, in 1995, we have a responsibility to help break that isolation. We at The Chaser are happy and priveleged to help convey the spirit of openness that exists amongst the people of South Africa and illuminate the positive creative energy that has been unleashed. Amanla.

This piece is dedicated to Nelson Mandela and the ANC, the late Joe Slovo, and all those people, young and old who lost their lives, or were scarred by the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa and their former allies around the globe. The struggle continues.

With his mind and body still resonating from the sounds conjured up during the performance of Fourth World, the Brazilian percussionist attempted to make a polite escape from the back stage area. But somehow, one voice the voice of an old man, rose gently above a sea of congratulatory noise to slip into Airto Moreira's well-guarded consciousness.

"Welcome to Africa, you are truly a gifted one " said the voice.

A look of embarrassment flashed across the percussionist's rugged bearded face. Early on in their set a fine drizzle had begun to fall and, as the rain intensified, the crowd at this outdoor event had begun to drift for cover. Seizing the moment his wife, dazzling Brazilian songstress, Flora Purim announced with more than a touch of humour that Airto would deliver a chant to ease the rain. Accompanied soley by the distinctive, metallic, rhythmic vibrations of the Berimbau, his invocation rose into the heavens. The downpour ceased.

"No not me, I could never be so, so as to think I could ever stop the rain", he declared looking into the eyes of the old man who quickly replied: "In Africa rain is very important. Rain is life. when a child is born and it rains, that child is a very gifted one." When you started playing it began to rain then you sang for the rain to stop and it stopped. So we know you are a gifted one. Welcome to Africa."

Outernational Meltdown - 1994 Johannesburg Airport - a year later

Airto had left long-time collaborator and guitarist José Neto in Cape Town and, along with two new school London based musicians, trumpeter Byron Wallen and drummer Andrew Missingham, was awaiting a flight back to Europe. The previous twelve days had been spent immersed in a myriad of exhilarating, unprecedented musical exchanges and conversations in both the recording studio and live onstage. They were all still reeling with the feeling. Airto was in a reflective mood. He has played with a host of eclectic geniuses from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to Hermeto Pascoal and Mickey Hart, but prior to those Fourth World concerts in 1993 he had never played in Africa. "I'd always wanted to play in Africa, " he announced over a guava juice and thinking back he laughed. "that old man I met at the Jo'burg concert, he told me nobody comes to South Africa without a mission and this time, I feel I came here on a mission and the mission is really happening. Just what we did this time shows me the incredible potential that exists here. The people here have been really isolated. they have been starved of music from other parts of the globe and they are ready for it, they want to know what is happening, who is happening, they want to be part of the whole thing." For the fifty three-year-old Airto, this trip was an opportunity to create understanding: to prove that black and white can come together without being afraid. without the fear and mistrust that divides people not just in post-apartheid South Africa, but from Rio to London to LA - all round the world. Unlike the entourages of UB40, Sting and Whitney Houston, who simply arrived in South Africa did what they had to do and left after making a few noises about how they insisted on local musicians as support acts, this modest group of musicians signed to a small independent UK label came to establish a lasting dialogue.

Outernational Meltdown - Hungry On Arrival


Fana Zulu lays down the bassline for 'Hungry On Arrival" (also on Music With No Name)

The studio's in downtown Jo'burg are owned by Gallo Records, a record company that has the rights to around eighty percent of all the music ever recorded in South Africa. Outside the studio, musicians and friends were still discussing the previous days conflict between transport strikers and the police. Frustrations were voiced, as musicians they were vexed at the lack of venues, the lack of support from sponsors - especially compared with foreign acts - and how it all conspired to prevent the development of the music and a new generation of players emerging. From behind a pair of mirrored shades Airto retorted, "it's everywhere man ! Rio - it's dead, there's nothing happening. Even in the States there's nowhere for a new generation to play and reach that higher level."

Inside, the gold and platinum discs that lined the walls of the downtown studio reveal this is where the Soul Brothers, Tananas, Ladyship Black Mambazo and Mathlatini and the Mohotella Queens recorded their finest albums. It was midday and the main studio was already a hive of activity. In a small mixing studio Adrian Hamilton, a young producer, was playing tapes to label boss, Robert Trunz. Despite the constrictions of commercialism, the enticing fusion of Suthukazi Arosi's voice, samples made from field recordings of people singing and working in Transkei, and programmed beats was innovative and laced with promise. Meanwhile in the main studio mixing room one of the producers, the founder of Sakhile and legendary bass man, Sipho Gumede, was listening back to a jam that had carried the musicians into the early hours of that morning. A dangerous b-line, courtesy of Fana Zulu, was framed by Andrew Missingham's fatback drums and Byron's muted horn darted back and forth. Airto peppered the rhythm with sounds, adding new highlights and momentum as did the minimalist punctuations of pianist Moses Molelekwa. These guys had only been in the country eighteen hours. They were indeed hungry.

Outernational Meltdown - Moses : Nobohle/Migrant Workers

Moses Molelekwa

Through the studio window the musicians were already hard at it. There were two tunes on the go. The 21 year old Sowetan, Moses Molelekwa, is definitely a modern heir to Abdullah Ibrahim tradition, and his composition, 'Nobohle', meandered majestically, casting melodic shadows that brought smiles to the faces of all involved.

In a total different vein was a song dedicated to the migrant workers and written by saxophonist/flute player Zim Ngqawana. The percussive intro conjured up visions of dust clouds generated by stamping Zulu feet and through the clouds came the impassioned voice of Shaluza 'Max' Mntambo. A harmonica provided the bridge into a more uptempo beat but the five man horn section failed to meet the challenge and fell apart to roars of laughter.

Outernational Meltdown - Valerie Naranjo : Migrant Workers

Valerie Naranjo

On congas was a woman. A djembe drum was tied to around her waist and propped against the wall beside her was a balaphon, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Valerie Naranjo who we'd interviewed way back in the Summer of 1989. At that time she was playing vibes with New York Latin jazz combo, Carabali, but there was the same mane of hair, the same gently sculpted native American cheekbones, the same intense aura.

"Who's the conga player"? I enquired of Fana. "She's called Valerie...I dont know her second name. "

Valerie Naranjo had been in Jo'burg studying and playing since the Guinness Jazz Festival, three months earlier, and her presence in the session was a positive, vibrant addition to an already outernational mix. Her experiences amid the swift improvisations of Carabali and in her marimba group, combined with a deep knowledge gained while studying balaphon in Ghana, came to bear as she responded to the delicate interplay between the two guitarists - José Neto and a founder member of Bayete, Maskanda guitarist, Johnny Chonco. Negotiating a way between their fleet fingered flurries and circular melodies was no easy feat. It was the kind of playing we grew to accept as the norm and it generated a rolling wave of enthusiasm and broad smiles.

Outernational Meltdown - Pops Mohamed : Healers Brew

Outernational Meltdown - Intethelelo : Healer's Brew

Unlike the Sangomas they do not charge a fee. They offer verbal solutions to the problem or in some cases a kind of alchemy where the pure spring water they use takes on medicinal purposes. Like other churches, the choir of Intethelelo Yabazalwane have released four albums under their own name. Their 'Imani Isibindi' cassette (which is dedicated to the people of South Africa as they enter a new era and the title means "be courageous") sold around 7000 copies. On the cover they are all dressed in white except for the green sashes- and green turbans worn by the women - but on this day they were dressed in normal clothes. They crowded into the recording booth and without prompting delivered a string of delicious songs of praise in pure acapella, laced together with astonishing layers of harmonies and percussive vocal sounds. Each song featured the impassioned lead vocals of a barefoot 18 year old, Bongani Ngcobo. The choir never use instruments but were surprisingly open to experimentation. A range of improvised scenarios spanned one song with male only vocals to a vocal duet that featured Bro Paul and Bongani who made up the song on the spot. It was this duet that was to become an extended, ecstatic improvisation with Airto, Pops and Byron.

Outernational Meltdown - Sipho Gumede

Outernational Meltdown - Sangomas : Healer's Brew

Once in the recording booth they switched their street clothes for traditional dress. Their presence was magnified as they revealed themselves in plumed head dress's and toting fly whisks with short spears. They were adorned with complex, patterned beads and protective amulets. They gathered in a circle beneath the microphone. As they knelt on the floor, khambas (traditional beer pots) before them Suzan launched into a spoken but charged invocation that was to stir the spirit world, praise the god of the sky, Nkulunkulu, and bless the season in progress. Incense was burned as the hair whisk flashed through the air. The drums were like rolling thunder.

Outernational Meltdown - Life On The Reef

Life on the reef is hard. The stories from the drum magazine, collected together in Mike Nicol's hefty volume 'A Good Looking Corpse - Jazz Gangsters, Hope & Defiance In The Townships Of Africa' should be required reading for all visitors. They paint a startlingly accurate picture of contemporary Jo'burg despite being written thirty years earlier. In winter Jo'burg is icy cold and during the summer the heat is stifling. Unemployment stands at around fifty per cent. The main residential area in the city, was once populated by the white business community.

Today, the main business there is crime and prostitution. The legacy of the organised gangs, like the Russians, Americans and the Berliners from the fifties and sixties lives on. Then, the local rude boys were called tsotsis, and in 1995, their heirs, charged-up on an unlikely concoction of dagga (cannabis) and Mandrax, ensure the crime rate spirals ever upward. Max Mntambo told of how a group of Japanese tourists had recently been robbed at AK47 gun point adjacent to Jo'burg's main shopping mall. We were warned not to wander and told to be careful but in a five day span a German photographer, Peter Williams, and his film-making compadre were robbed at knife point in a busy market place. They learnt the hard way.

When the photographer and film maker stepped into a desolate Jo'burg police station to report their loss they were told, "We have the second highest crime rate in the world, you wouldn't wander around the Bronx taking photos would you?" Their interview was terminated when a young, white police officer was carried into the station wrapped in a blanket by several other police officers and laid unceremoniously on the floor, he was dead. Another statistic in a war that has claimed the life of a police officer every two weeks for the past twelve months.

Outernational Meltdown - Megamusic

L-R : José Neto, Baba Mokoena, Andrew Missingham, Sipho Gumede on bass & Sobongiseni Shange

Zim's spiralling horn playing was a reminder of how the spirit of Coltrane was alive and well in Jo'burg. Max Mntambo and his spar stepped on stage to inject the presence of the migrant workers. They dropped some serious dance moves, moves that are perfected each and every sunday during the competitions between the miners' hostels. Valerie Naranjo's ethereal piece on balaphon prompted the sangoma, Esau to murmur gently, "This music is going to the other side!". Indeed, both the living and the ancestors were on a high that night.

Outernational Meltdown - Cape Town

L : The view from Table Mountain with Robben Island in the distance R : Market Street, Cape Town - photos for Sipho Gumede's album Ubuntu were taken in this area

The journey into Cape Town was impressive. Nature has a way of imposing itself and we had touched down on a place that possessed genuine physical energy and power. Here, that great land mass, the continent of Africa, stood firm against the combined force of the Atlantic and the Indian oceans. It seemed remarkable that one could virtually see the meeting of the two oceans, one cold and one warm. As we drove into the city, José Neto scanned the sight of those small communities of shoddy impoverished housing erected by squatters. Poverty is the same the world over and he had been thrown back on his own youth in Sao Paolo, Brasil; "Man, that looks just like where we used to play football as kids and then afterward we would go into the favela (slum) and listen to the older guys play music. We learned a lot there."

We dumped our bags at a hotel that possessed the calm confidence of colonialism, named after Lord Nelsons mistress. One Lady Hamilton, and the walls were adorned with pictures of steamships which would have serviced the colonial classes with a connection to other parts of Africa, India and their own origins in Europe. Behind the hotel, the sheer face of Table Mountain rose into a flat cushion of cloud framed against a clear blue sky.

Outernational Meltdown - Life's A Beach

Max, Byron and Moses on a Cape Town beach that was once forbidden to Blacks

Two young surf/skate dudes approached me in the hope of buying my old skool Puma sneakers. I politely declined their generous offer and asked how the changes had effected them."What changes?" they replied. "Oh, the elections, that doesn't really effect us." Oblivious to a future that demanded their involvement and saw no relationship between their lives and that of those from the townships of Mannenburgor Gugelethu.

They were poles apart from a young white Jo'burg paramedic who had pointed to the spot where he had been arrested for talking to a black friend and described the election results as "the best thing that has ever happened in South Africa." This duo were only interested in watching the surf come up and the latest style report in imported copies of The Face. Most likely they were the sons of those cape Afrikaans who were, in the dawn of 1995, to protest about black students being bussed into their local schools. The complexity of cape politics was revealed during the pre-election period when the ANC had failed to overcome the divisive history of apartheid and unite the so called coloured community with the black community. They had even inflamed fears amongst the capes "coloured" voters. De Klerk's National Party couldn't believe their luck.

Outernational Meltdown - Gugelethu & Club Ubuntu

Tete at his local club in Guguletu Township outside Cape Town

Cape Town was confusing. In this city of colonial ballustrades and modern developments the prevailing atmosphere was one of relaxed affluence. It seemed to gently tick over on an air of liberalism but in reality the black population was relegated to townships which could easily be missed by the casual visitor to the cape. We tasted the realities of the townships on our second day when we visited Gugelethu (our pride) for a late night sunday jam session. We rolled through the largely unlit streets of the gugs (pronounced guks) until we arrived at the entrance of a large compound. The gates were thrown open by the security and we drove in. On the wall a large sign declared Club Ubuntu. "It means humanity" explained Neville Sing, our driver. We were greeted by a young light skinned women wearing a turban that looked like it contained a stack of dreads and we filed into the club to the sound of Dana Bryant and Ronny Jordan's cut of 'The Jackal'. I laughed out loud. The new jazz thing has even found its way to Gugs!

"Its a bit different from the Green Dolphin," smirked Andrew Missingham in a reference to Cape Town's expensive, premier jazz venue which is housed on a waterfront development not unlike St Katherines Dock in London. The drummer was clearly at home as he skipped off to the bar.

It was far from crowded but scanning the venue you knew that on Friday and Saturday nights it would be rammed and jumping. Sunday was jazz night and something of an institution. It continued a tradition that is rooted in the township jazz societies and is the legacy of a jazz-crazy Cape Town of the late fifties and early sixties before apartheid stamped out the notorious area of district six. The erratic musical selection from the deejay booth spanned hard bop and soulful jazz and people, young and middle age, would slide onto the dancefloor to cut some steps. Airto had promised to participate in the jam and both Andrew and Byron were keen to let off but the bandstand was clearly the domain of the regulars who had an affinity to certain tunes, mostly ballads. Airto dropped in behind the drum kits but the musical scenario was too restricting. Moses Molelekwa laughed and agreed the place would have freaked had they heard the kind of spontaneous rhythmic explosions created in the studio earlier that day. However, it was amazing to witness a queue of trumpet players materialise onstage. Trevor Huddleston definitely started something when he sent a horn to that aspiring young jazz man Hugh Masekela.

Outernational Meltdown - Enter Amampondo

Mzwandile Qotoyi and Dizu 'Zungulu' Plaatjies

Amampondo spend much of their time teaching but are no strangers to touring internationally. Their last CD was the first time they had experimented with non-African instruments and they loved it. One afternoon just as they had finished playing a riveting, uptempo, multi-layered marimba groove underpinned by the pounding ancestral drums of Simpiwe Matole, Airto appeared in the studio. Over the microphone the group leader, the mesmerising Dizu Zungulu Plaatjies, declared, "Hey! Hey man, we've been missing you, man ! The spirit is not here without you. We've been missing you."

Outernational Meltdown - Neto in the studio with Byron Wallen

L : José Neto R : Byron Wallen in the studio

Outernational Meltdown - Bo Molelekwa

Moses Taiwa Molelekwa in classic Pharoah Saunders pose

Outernational Meltdown - At The Baxter

That was the vibe they carried with them to the Baxter Theatre in the university complex on the last night in Cape Town. The large luxurious theatre was packed to capacity. There was a healthy balance of black and white faces. The stage was crowded with the equipment of the 17 musicians involved. As they trooped on stage they were a sight to behold. Amampondo were dressed traditionally and had expanded numerically to include three girl singers /dancers. Pops had his face painted. So did Byron who wore Zulu sandals and a flowing Mailian robe. The trumpeter carried his horns in one hand and rolled his chrome Chinese exercise balls around in the other.

The musical flexibility and relaxed freedom of each composition swept off the stage and over the audience. Musicians came and went and the overall set spanned solo to wild extended percussion and even acrobatics and tumbling.

It was Dizu who stepped up to the mic, and looking at the audience, proclaimed what was happening was the future in action and that here was the proof of that. "We have to mix !" he dedicated the final tune to president Nelson Mandela and as our thoughts drifted across that short expanse of ocean to Robben Island, just off the cape, the riddims surged through the theatre to lift people from their seats.

The recordings were not a one off, lightning strikes mission, but part of an ongoing process. It sparked off a relationship between the younger players and as a result, last January, Andrew Missingham, sax man Chris Bowden and bassist Ike Leo left London for Jo'burg to work with Moses Molelekwa and co. The result is a group, Barungwa, and an album called The Messengers (BW070). Also in the can and poised for release, is Pops Mohamed 's 'ancestral healing' debut and plans are being made to record Madala Kunene. At the time of writing Robert Trunz and Airto were holed up in the sound design studio in California where they were engaged with the final mixes of those October recordings.

A phone conversation with the master percussionist revealed that he's back on a musical high, having spent three weeks honing the music from that trip: "Hey people had better be ready for this 'cause this stuff is raw, this is stand up music. This is not what people expect from South Africa, a whole other thing is happening, the energy at work here is something else believe me !" Having lived with a stack of thrilling but rough monitor mixes of the sessions I do believe him and can't wait for the first of several CDs which will be out in the summer. but also be aware that this is jut the beginning 'cause Airto Moreira is on a mission.

Sitting and watching the playbacks of the video shot in Cape Town he looked fit and relaxed and was imbued with a new sense of purpose: "I used to feel like this when I was in Brasil, when I was 18 or 19 and would feel this urge. I dont normally get excited any more I go onstage and play my best and people say, 'Yeah, that was great!' but I think maybe it was good but not great. Here I think everything has been great and I am the one trying to tell myself not to get too excited."

"The source of this music has no ending...it's much stronger, much more beautiful...and it's really important that the African musicians realise how strong and how beautiful it is and how great they are as musicians. I found myself crying already three times. I don't know why 'cause I have no reason to cry. Everything is great. But you know, its the feeling, it's too much man!".