Exclusive Premiere: Asher Gamedze “Hope In Azania”

We are delighted to premiere “Hope in Azania”, taken from renown drummer Asher Gamedze’s incredible debut LP, ‘Dialectic Soul’, released via On The Corner Records on July 10th. A joyous jazz piece that is proudly South African.

Asher Gamedze is one of the foremost jazz musicians in Cape Town, and on ‘Dialectic Soul’ he is joined by the cream of his hometown’s musical crop: Thembinkosi Mavimbela on bass, Buddy Wells on tenor sax, Robin Fassie-Kock on trumpe and Nono Nkoane on vocals.

This is jazz at its most spiritual, most progressive and most appealing form. As Asher himself says: “Dialectic Soul is about motion and a refusal to remain static or stay still. It’s the commitment to be continually moving”.

Recorded live over two days at the Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town with renowned musicians (Thembinkosi Mavimbela (bass), Buddy Wells (tenor sax), Robin Fassie-Kock (trumpet) Nono Nkoane (voc)), ‘Dialectic Soul’ is breathtaking in its musical vitality and expression of soul seeking truth. By incorporating the concept of the Total Art for this project, it fits perfectly within On The Corner’s aesthetic of music, art and vision for creative innovation.

According to Asher, “This song, known as ‘Cape to Cairo’ or ‘Azania’, comes from the Pan-Africanist and Black Consciousness traditions of liberation politics in South Africa. It speaks to the urgent desire and project to liberate the continent from ‘Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar.’ ‘Azania’ refers to an imagined liberated South Africa. It resonates with a hope that has galvanised generations of revolutionaries from this country, and links us to the rest of the continent and the diaspora through Pan-Africanism.”

Buy / Support on Bandcamp