Skip to main content
‘They were the heart of an entire nation of musicians’
CHRIS SEARLE speaks with Hazel Miller, founder of Ogun Records
BN

IT'S a significant jazz moment: the re-issue of four powerful, vibrant and deeply moving albums on Ogun Records of the Blue Notes, the South African band which fomented so much dynamism and change in British jazz when they released themselves from apartheid and arrived in London after playing at the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival.


Their first appearance in 1965 at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place in Soho’s Gerrard Street introduced astonishing new sounds, new beats, new inspiration, new musical resistance and the inspiration of direct African artistry into the British jazz scene.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CS+SN
Interview / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
LEDLEY album cover
Men’s football / 4 April 2025
4 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
ineza
Interview / 26 February 2025
26 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
somuah
Interview / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH
Similar stories
CS
Culture / 2 September 2024
2 September 2024
James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Art Tatum Trio and Kevin Figes
DB
Music / 26 August 2024
26 August 2024
KEVIN BRYAN, CHRIS SEARLE and TONY BURKE review new releases from Dickey Betts, Little Johnny England, Greenslade, Benet McLean, Sam Newbould, Sofia Jernberg/Alexander Hawkins, compilation: Walking To New Orleans, compilation: This Is Goldwax: 1964-1968, Jack Bruce
searle
Interview / 21 August 2024
21 August 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to South African pianist NDUDUZO MAKHATINI 
IS albums
Album reviews / 3 June 2024
3 June 2024
New releases from Nat King Cole, Bonny Light Horseman and Frank Turner