Description

1LP Vinyl – MAR051

The album Tete’s Big Sound emerged during a golden age for local South African jazz recordings in the 1970s. Issued by the independent As-Shams/The Sun label in 1976, it was the first album attributed to pianist Tete Mbambisa as a solo artist. Yet, Mbambisa was already a seasoned composer, arranger, bandleader and performer by the mid-1970s – an artist at the peak of his powers who had patiently cultivated his craft to create his enduring debut.
Born in 1942 and raised in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, Mbambisa’s childhood home also served as the family’s small business – an informal tavern where social gatherings orbited around his mother’s carefully curated music collection and live performances by a local pianist. His musical roots are thus deeply embedded in marabi – the syncopated piano sound of urban black South African culture in the 1950s that took cues from American jazz, blues and ragtime while fostering the sensibilities that would shape modern South African jazz.