Our Dear Friend Maureen Mo England left us here on Saturday - a remarkable talent who went unheard of in the mainstream. Here are 2 early live (Hidden Years Archive) recordings from 1968 & 1970 that I'd like to share with her family & friends. From Robert Kirby's 1968 'Finger Trouble' revue & 'Gypsy Who' by Ben Segal in his lounge 1970. RIP Dear Mo! (Archive notes: 'Finger Trouble' @ The Back Stage in Joubert Park Johannesburg 7th Dec 1968 @ 11.35pm featuring MAUREEN on guitar & Vocals, ROBERT - who produced, wrote & directed - BOBBY LANG & PATRICK MYNHARDT... RIP all. (Archive File notes: TAPE 31 - 7 1/2 ips stereo; ruff open mic recording by David Marks to a domestic Akai tape deck. 'Gypsy Who' by Ben to a ReVox A77 featured on The South African Folk Music Association, Singer-songwriters Anthology "Cross Section" SAFMA 4 - 3rd Ear Music 1970. Finger Trouble was eventually 'banned', as were most of Robert's early revues. We are very proud to have introduced Mo to Robert in 1967 @ The Troubadour, Noord Street, Johannesburg.)

Maureen England in Finger Trou

19th October 1977 was the day that Jimmy Kruger banned The World! Here's DAVID & THE MEDIUM WAVE BAND in 1977 with a recording that couldn't escape & has never been released... with MO ENGLAND on backing vocals, among a cast of thousands. Recorded Dec 1977 at MC Studios in Hillbrow Johannesburg with: Jet Butow & Ken E Henson - Guitars; Barry Irwin - Bass; Joe Arthur, Charles Comyn, Mo England, Michelle Maxwell, Assie O'Donnel & The Mahothela Queens - Backing Vox; Bongani Mdungu & Pete Zimmerman - Key Boards (RMI); Dave Williams - Acoustic Guitar; Martin Edwards - Banjo; Tony Moore - Drums; Manie Bodenstein - Piano Accordian; David Marks - Narration & production; Recorded by Pete Hubner & David. Forgot to mention that Big Mike Faure was the saxophonist on the recording. Sorry 'bout that... typo or age related?

Let The Bad Times Roll 1977 - The World is Banned

An historic magic music moment - Bob Hill introduced here by Diz Dizley on the 1976 Stephane Grappelli tour - one of my most precious (live-desk-mix) recordings ever; hilarious intro to Bob ‘the Phantom Plucker from Hillbrow” - the Bard of The Double Bass. The remarkable thing about Bob, and this Grappelli tour, is that Bob met Stephane for the first time at the sound-check on the Durban City Hall Stage. He'd been flown down from Johannesburg that afternoon, because the Diz Dizley 'trio' bass player never arrived from the UK. Bob ran thru a couple of tunes in the hotel room (across the road, The Royal - with Diz & Ike) & struck up the first tune, "Shine" with Stephane. I had the old ReVox tape-deck running. (As with many of the shows that 3rd Ear Music / Hanley Sound did, we recorded 'blind' - just for reference & rehearsals only.) What a magic show & tour this turned out to be. We have a double CDR HY Archive set of the entire 3 hour show, played to a packed audience. And as usual, Bob was the humour & cynic who, with the wit of Ike, the wisdom of old man Grappelli & the total silence of Ike, made that one of the most memorable tours I'd ever had the privilege of sounding. Paul Zamek & Paddy Lee Thorpe were the promoters. Thank you all, and Bob (RIP) for an unforgettable SAfrican Music Safari. (Photo of Bob Hill with Rob Allingham & Boet Pretorius by David / HY Archive 2000.)

Diz Dizley Intro to Bob Hill - 1976

PAT VUYISILE MATSHIKIZA – (20.11.1938 – 29.12.2014) RIP. Sad to open 2015 with the news that another obscure SAfrican musician friend and legendary jazz pianist has departed into the great unknown, and, unheard of within the confines of our shallow commercial music media mainstream. Pat was an iconic, hidden living treasure. One of South Africa’s jazz greats he was part of a music family dynasty: son of pianist Meekly Matshikiza, nephew to Uncle Todd ‘King Kong’ Matshikiza and cousin to the late John Matshikiza (author & Journalist)from Queenstown, Eastern Cape. 3rd Ear Music suspects that in 2015 the music media and the commercial record industry pack will fall over themselves to look, learn and listen to what Pat Mat The Hat was about; too little too late, again. He was extraordinary – that’s who and what Pat was – and you have only yourselves to blame for missing one of SAfrica’s legendary and colourful jazz musician characters. These 2 tracks were part of a 10 track recording session on the 5th November 1990 and were never issued: FREE AS SOUND / ZIMUNGU featured Pat Matshikiza - Piano Vocals & Grunts / Kevin Gibson & Lulu Gontsana (RIP) - Drums / Zim Ngqawana (RIP) - Sax / Victor Masondo - Bass / Johnny Mekoa – Trumpet. Recorded in the 3rd Ear / Tusk Music Mobile in Durban by David Marks & Produced by Darius Brubeck, and re-mastered in 2006 by David from a VHS PCM Audio tape. HY ARCHIVE AUDIO CDR ONLY - NOT FINALIZED (p)(c) 1990 - 2014. Also see >> http://www.3rdearmusic.com/hyarchive/hyarchive/markettheater2.html
http://www.3rdearmusic.com/hyarchive/hiddenyearsstory/pasafari.html
Photo 1 – PAT MAT THE HAT – playing in the lounge of the Hilton Hotel, Durban in July 2000. Photo by David Marks
Photo 2 - Pat Matshikiza with Zakes Mofekeng, Tommy Masemola and young Flutist (Lungisani Matshikiza perhaps?) Photo by Harold Figlan courtesy Rand Daily Mail - rehearsing at Dorkay House 1976 for Black is The Colour; their 3rd Ear Music / Market Theatre Café production opened at the Market for a week on the 7th November 1977. (David Marks / 3rd Ear Music / Hidden Years Music Archive - now at the University of Stellenbosch - visit the HYMAProject Face Book Page. 01.01.2015)

Free as Sound & Zimungu - Pat Matshikiza (RIP)

'More' is the first single off Cindy Alter's solo album 'Faith & Fire', which will be released on 25 May. 

Music and lyrics by Cindy Alter; Publishing by Alter Music. 

Cindy Alter - More

Silver Creek Mountain Band at Splashy Fen in 1990. Another classic Jeffery's Bay 'surf' song that I was also privileged to record direct from my desk mix to an analogue cassette tape; digitised in 1999 for the double Splashy Fen CD - "Celebrating The First 10 Years". The interesting thing about this recording, is that Rod Dry (double bass) and George Lotz (vocals & guitar) are accompanied here on piano accordion by a 'gypsy' hitch hiker that they picked up in the Free State on the way to Splashy Fen. He'd never played the song before. BTW - The enclosed sketch of the original SCMB 1972(it's been around FB for some years) was done by Obie Oberholzer & used for the SCMB appearance at 3rd Ear Music’s Market Café in 1977.

Jeffrey's Bay

Thomas / Ricardo - THE HIDDEN YEARS - Much better mix and the full song. With backing vox, and no piano.
 
The credits / line up, are not quite the same as I sent earlier. Hope all's OK?
 
If you need it without the vocals, let me know... or you can edit them out.
 
Song Title: THE HIDDEN YEARS
Words & Music: DAVID MARKS
Published by: 3rd EAR MUSIC (SAMRO)
Electric Guitar & Arrangements: ALAN JUDD
Percussion: ALAN BOWEN
Fretless Bass: ALAN BOWEN
Backing Vocal: MARY-ELLEN BLACK
Acoustic Guitar & Vocals: DAVID MARKS
Recorded by ALAN JUDD @ LEOPARD MOON STUDIOS, kZN , South Africa
Produced by ALAN JUDD
Proceeds to: THE HIDDEN YEARS MUSIC ARCHIVES
 


David Marks & Alan Judd - The Hidden Years 2000

3rd Ear Music

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