Constitution Asher Gamedze

• 1 Find Each Other 03:47
• 2 Determining Facts 16:34
• 3 Antagonism 01:31
• 4 Elaboration 03:14
• 5 Constitution 39:22
• 6 Destitution 02:01
• 7 High Land. New Home 04:22
• 8 Melancholia 07:15
• 9 Deposition: A Song for the Dialectician 03:34
• Total Runtime 01:21:40

Info for Constitution

Das neue Album des in Kapstadt lebenden Schlagzeugers, Komponisten und Bandleaders präsentiert sein neues 10-köpfiges Ensemble The Black Lungs. Auf dem 81-minütigen Album werden die dynamischen Avant-Jazz-Arrangements und die expansiven Erkundungen der Musiker durch Wortfragmente und Samples von Gedichten des renommierten Gelehrten und Zugehörigen der Undercommons, Fred Moten, bereichert und vertieft. "Members of the dispossessed, won’t you lend me your ears!" Dies ist der wiederkehrende Ruf und Refrain des fast 40-minütigen Titeltracks und Herzstücks von "Constitution". Auf dem umfangreichen Doppelalbum ist Gamedze am Schlagzeug zu hören, zusammen mit Ru Slayen (Percussion), Sean Sanby (Bass) und Nobuhle Ashanti (Piano), die gemeinsam eine Art Rhythmusgruppe bilden. Das Ensemble wird durch weitere Bläser und Stimmen erweitert – Tumi Pheko (Kornett), Garth Erasmus (Altsaxophon), Jed Petersen (Tenorsaxophon), Tina Mene (Gesang), Athi Ngcaba (Posaune) und Fred Moten (Text) erforschen und dekonstruieren gemeinsam die konzeptionellen, klanglichen und atonalen Möglichkeiten von Themen, die zugleich alte und neue Träume sind.

Tumi Pheko, cornet
Garth Erasmus, alto saxophone
Jed Petersen, tenor saxophone
Ru Slayen, percussion
Athi Ngcaba, trombone
Tina Mene, vocals
Fred Moten, words
Nobuhle Ashanti, piano
Sean Sanby, bass
Asher Gamedze, drums

Asher Gamedze
is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa working mainly as a musician, writer, organizer and an educator. His work as a musician is primarily as a drummer with various ensembles across and between musical traditions of improvised and free music, Pop, Rock, Hip-Hop and Soul. He has performed across Southern Africa, USA and Europe. Some of the artists and ensembles with whom he has played include Xhanti Nokwali, Manny Walters, Nduduzo Makhathini, Angel Bat Dawid and many others. His debut album as a bandleader, Dialectic Soul, (On the Corner Records, July 2020) was released to critical acclaim, achieving #4 on the New York Times "Best Jazz albums of 2020" list, the "Best Traditional Jazz Album" at the Mzantsi Jazz Awards in 2021 amongst many others. As a writer and a researcher, his interests include African history, histories of revolutionary thought and practice, black cultural production, and radical pedagogy. His written work has been published in online popular and news forums, academic journals and independent activist publications. He is part of The Interim which is an autonomous collective in Cape Town for radicalizing cultural work.

This album contains no booklet.