Louis Moholo’s Drum

The drummer, Louis Moholo-Moholo, now 72 and the last surviving member of the famed jazz bands The Blue Notes and The Brotherhood of Breath, is still out there performing.

Dumile Feni and Louis Moholo, exiles in London, 1971. Image credit George Hallett via Wikimedia Commons.

On a recent trip to London, I was hoping to catch a performance by Cape Town–born drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, the last surviving member of the famed jazz bands The Blue Notes and The Brotherhood of Breath. My interest was especially piqued by the release of “Before the Wind Changes,” a live recording of The Blue Notes on tour in Belgium in 1979.

For the uninitiated, The Blue Notes—along with Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela—helped define South African jazz on the international stage between 1960 and 1980. The band featured Chris McGregor on piano, Moholo-Moholo on drums, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, and Johnny Dyani on bass. They left South Africa in the early 1960s after being invited to a jazz festival in France and soon became key figures in Britain’s avant-garde jazz scene.

While I continue trying to get my hands on “Before the Wind Changes,” I’ll make do with YouTube videos—like this five-minute clip of Moholo-Moholo (close to the camera on the right) performing with his quintet in London last year.

Then, another sample of Moholo playing is a nine-minute video, filmed at a festival in London in 2010. Moholo (at the back on the left) with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith and Steve Noble.

Finally, there is an interview Moholo did with musician and composer Neo Muyanga in 2011. It was filmed at the 2011 Pan African Space Station music festival in Cape Town; the festival is the brainchild of Ntone Edjabe and the Chimurenga crew.

Further Reading

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.