African Songbird Album London Launch Party – 25 May 2013

Join us to celebrate the reissue of a lost South African jazz masterpiece – Sathima Bea Benjamin’s African Songbird – by Matsuli Music. Featuring live afro-jazz performances from Eugene Skeef and Adam Glasser together with eclectic sounds from Matsuli friends Sean Roe and Johnny Bee. Chased down with some vinyl classics from label boss Matt Temple.

Venue: Muxima Café, 111-121 Fairfield Road, Bow, London, E3 2QF
Time: 9pm – late

Eugene Skeef FRSA is a South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and animator living in London since 1980. Eugene’s roots are firmly established in his cultural work with Steve Biko, the late South African civil rights leader. As a young activist he co-led a nation-wide literacy campaign teaching in schools, colleges and communities across apartheid South Africa.

Adam Glasser is an award-winning Jazz harmonica and keyboard player who grew up in South Africa and is currently London-based. Adam has played with a wide variety of artists including the Manhattan Brothers and Dudu Pukwana. Adam won the 2010 SAMA Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. His current album Mzansi has been nominated Best Jazz Album at the 2012 SAMA Awards.

Sseeaann Rrooee is a multimedia artist and musician who has exhibited and performed in the UK, Europe and Japan. Sseeann performs with records on stylus free turntables using amplified paper to carry the sound from the grooves of the record to the speakers, creating an intimate and improvised sound collage.

Johnny Bee’s guitar songs trace love, death and desire in a line from the tops of Manhattans towers to the swamps of Louisiana via the byways of North London.

Matt Temple runs the Matsuli Music record label, dedicated to reissuing lost South African jazz recordings. Matt has been promoting indigenous afro jazz sounds since the early 1980s, producing concerts for, amongst others, Amampondo, Malombo Jazz, Steve Dyer, OLM, Thomas Mapfumo and Sipho Mabuse.