Ndikho Xaba And the Natives

Reissued last year via Mississippi Records, slip into this long out-of-print South African spiritual jazz LP from 1971. A songwriter, bandleader and pianist, Ndikho Xaba relocated from South Africa for San Francisco in 1964, falling in with the likes of Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra. Recorded in the US, and billed as Ndikho Xaba And The Natives, the eponymous release was privately pressed to a scant 100 copies. Rarity hardly equals quality, especially in the current reissue climate, but Xaba’s solo LP is the exception. Backed by members of Oneness of Juju, expect five cuts connecting the dots between apartheid era South Africa and the burgeoning Black Power movement of the US.

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