Various Artists - As-Shams Archive Vol. 2: Super Jazz from Joburg & Soweto 1974-1978 (2026) [Hi-Res]

As-Shams Archive Vol. 2: Super Jazz from Joburg & Soweto 1974–1978 is the second major anthology drawn from the catalogue of the legendary Johannesburg independent label As-Shams/The Sun, founded by producer Rashid Vally in 1974. Where the first volume offered ten representative peaks of the label's output, Vol. 2 broadens the map considerably, bringing into circulation artists and ensembles that had remained in the shadows even for devoted followers of the scene.
The collection's time frame — 1974 to 1978 — spans one of the most charged and traumatic periods in South African history, encompassing the Soweto Uprising of 1976 and its immediate aftermath. The music gathered here was forged under apartheid, in venues like the legendary Pelican club in Johannesburg, where jazz served simultaneously as artistic statement and collective defiance.
The programme ranges widely in style: from the expansive afro-jazz of Themba's "Fana Fana" and the township grooves of The Cliffs' "Gu Gu Lethu" — a track first captured on Winston Mankunku Ngozi's Alex Express (1975) — to the exuberant horn-driven jazz-funk of Allen Kwela's "Qaphela." Saxophone colossus Mike Makhalemele appears twice: in the extended elegy "Gone and Forever," and in the collaborative "Togetherness" alongside Winston Mankunku Ngozi, drawn from their landmark album The Bull and the Lion (Jo'Burg Records, 1976), which notably featured the young Trevor Rabin — later of Yes — on guitar.
Batsumi's "Anishilabi," closing the programme, returns the listener to the core of the Black Consciousness movement: their 1974 recordings, made under the philosophical influence of Steve Biko, were lost for decades and are now recognised as one of the highest points in the South African jazz canon. Spirits Rejoice's "Emakhaya" represents the ensemble closely associated with the circle around Pat Matshikiza and Duke Makasi. The lesser-known Soul of the City, The HeadQuarters, trumpeter Ben Nomoyi, and Saul Malapane complete a portrait of the rich and still partly uncharted ecosystem of township jazz of the era.
All material has been restored from original analogue master tapes held in the As-Shams archive, in keeping with the restoration standards established for Vol. 1.

Tracklist:
1-1 Themba - Fana Fana [9:30]
1-2 The cliffs - Gu Gu Lethu [4:07]
1-3 Allen Kwela - Qaphela [6:52]
1-4 The HeadQuarters - Mthuthuzeli [7:21]
1-5 Ben Nomoyi - Jubilee [2:39]
1-6 Mike Makhalemele - Gone and Forever [8:40]
1-7 Soul of the City - City Soul [6:45]
1-8 The Cool Cats - Monty's Bar [7:01]
1-9 Saul Malapane - Dijo [7:29]
1-10 Mike Makhalemele;Winston Mankunku Ngozi - Togetherness [8:35]
1-11 Spirits Rejoice - Emakhaya [6:21]
1-12 Batsumi - Anishilabi [3:26]