The Photographs and Cape Town Jazz Recordings of Ian Bruce Huntley
Edited by Chris Albertyn
Essays by Jonathan Eato and Chris Albertyn
Digital restoration by Cedric Nunn
Design and layout by Siemon Allen
Covering the period 1964-1974, the Ian Bruce Huntley archive opens a window to a little known era of South African music history by documenting an ‘underground’ jazz scene that persisted in creative defiance of all that grand apartheid threw at it. In addition to 120 images (some uniquely in colour), 56 hours of live recordings from many of the photographed performances are indexed in this book and will become available for free download through Electric Jive.
This previously hidden archive documents accomplished South African jazz musicians pushing the creative envelope and entertaining appreciative audiences. Many of the musicians Huntley worked with have passed on, and a large number were never afforded the opportunity to record (whilst others remain woefully under-documented). Combined with the loss to exile of yet more key people in the history of jazz in South Africa and the general inaccessibility of records that do exist, this conflation of events and circumstances has left a big dent in our historical understanding and resources. For students, musicians, artists, scholars, and devotees of South African music wishing to engage with the achievements of a generation of South African jazz musicians the newly found accessibility of the Ian Huntley archive goes a small but invaluable way towards maintaining memory and articulating lost stories.
Published by Chris Albertyn and Associates in partnership with Electric Jive, the cloth-bound hard-cover book is edited by Chris Albertyn. In addition to a biographical sketch of Ian Huntley, the book offers a substantial essay by Jonathan Eato, a full discography of all the recordings, and a comprehensive index. South African artist Siemon Allen is responsible for the design and layout, and photographer Cedric Nunn has painstakingly restored the images.
To order the book, please contact Chris Albertyn or for more information visit Electric Jive.
