Top Cape Piano players for new album

Press Release 13/8/2018

Mountain Records have issued a number of Cape Jazz albums over the years, in fact they could well be the biggest supporters of the genre on any record label.

Releases by Robbie Jansen, Basil Coetzee, Tony Schilder, Jonathan Butler and many other jazz artists have been on the Mountain label.  A number of the releases have been nominated for industry awards and were the records that cemented the artist concerned as premier players in the SA Jazz scene.

One of the most commercially successful records on the label was the album issued in 1992 simply called Cape Jazz. The album collected examples of recordings made by the label going back to 1980 which had strong rhythmic and melodic characteristics that both Jansen and Coetzee identified as, Cape Jazz.


Since the first issue there have been 3 new volumes in the series. Each had a particular theme but all featured the genre that is today well established as the Jazz of the Cape.

Now the 5th edition is in the works. This time the theme is the piano but it also features many of the songs that have become famous in the genre over the years. This is not however a "best of" songs or players but rather a selection by producer Paddy Lee-Thorp of songs and pianists that have had an association with the publishing company behind the label, Songwrights Publishers, over a period of 40 years or so.
The working title is, Cape Jazz Piano and will present a dozen or so tracks from some of the pianists that have worked with Mountain Records or had some association with the producer, even before the establishment of the label.

The tracks are being mixed this month and there are recordings by Ebrahim Shihab, Mervyn Africa, Hilton Schilder, Kyle Shepherd, Mike Perry and Ramon Alexander. The recording was done at Milestone Studios by engineer, Murray Anderson.

The whole project is part of a recording and live music program that was set in motion over 10 years ago. The live band has been led by veteran drummer, Jack Momple who will also be on the new recordings, as he has been on many of the tracks in the previous releases in this album series.

More details soon.

LINKS - (May not work on some mobile devices).


Recent Mountain releases
Songwrights Publishers
Mountain history (Flash only)







Cape Jazz Vol 1

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