Home Is Where The Music Is

One thing I’ve learnt from 1001’ is that I can’t really handle Jazz in most forms.

This is the jazz album I didn't know I was looking for, but definitely was. Blown away. 1. Love the groove. The trumpet/flugelhorn riff is fun. The sax quality has a Canterbury scene sound, which I'm into. Here's the trumpet solo---what a intro!!! Holy cow I am so into this... Piano solo ugghhgbfffnnn 2. Slowing things way down---lovely cocktail bar/impressionistic style piano to start. Trumpet solo starts to heat up... tasty alto sax solo. The band is so in sync, it just feels incredible. The technical imperfections are part of the magic. 3. Another tasty groove holding us down with the winds blowing strong in the skies. The break before the piano solo stops you cold, and in fact you notice the bass before you realize the piano is even taking it, but it gets going. Could be a stronger climax here though. A minor complaint about a great track. 4. Fun bass line. Quiet and kind of mysterious. This doesn't sound like American jazz---it's just more fun. This song by itself doesn't go anywhere new... Except into a fun solo to start the next track! 5. This has a Mariachi/Super-Mario vibe! Moving into a hard swing. To be honest this isn't my favorite part---it almost sounds like the band is having trouble holding it together. But now we're onto solo piano... And back to impressively high speeds. Really in sync at the end here---still a satisfying close to the weakest track so far. 6. Dreamy dark piano. oOOh mmmhm into a funky funky funk! This track is definitely not disappointing. 7. Drum solos! 8. Sounds like a lazy summer day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. I'm into it. The piano solo adds a just a hint of mystery, drums add some edge, open up some new dimensions. I love the unison melody that takes us out. 9. Rhodes piano? Mellow opening into a triumphant wall of horns. back to the mellow groove... Lovely keyboard solo, and now we have a groove going. Very nice. Mmm heatin up. I'm bobbin my noggin. Ready for the trumpet solo when it comes---hits perfectly. I love the topography of this piece. 10. Jungly drum intro with some wanton sax. And vocals! Bantu? Love this as a cap to the album. I assume the vocals are placing the album in South Africa, where Masekela grew up. It's a departure from the rest of the album, but a good one. The final trumpet note leaves you hanging---there is definitely more to come for me: I am going to check out the rest of Masekela's catalog.

Nothing quickens the pulse but then again it's not meant to. By the end you realise that what's seemed like exceptionally good background music has actually occupied the forefront of your mind for an hour and a quarter. Hell of a trick, that.

Listening to anti-apartheid jazz while watching ICE trucks barreling down my street towards the the farms is definitely making me feel a type of way…

Clearly talented but couldn’t really get into it

Too long. A few highlights. Mostly not for me.

Great walking album. Sunset album. Goood vibes all around

5/5. Funky and Jazzy, rambles from awesome big band blues to more mellow, wandering piano solos. A new favorite. Big horns, jammy piano and lots of hi hats. Feels like Art Blakey with slightly more blues/rock influence.

A great listen, love it!

This was a fun one to explore. Big fan of jazz and while I love my jazz to be “unstructured” from time to time, there is nothing more satisfying than a properly laid out jazz tune. Enjoyable from start to finish.

This is a kick ass jazz album. His connection to Fela Kuti is fascinating as well. Weirdly it reminds me of SimCity 3000 music a bit!

Slick and cool. Not normally my thing (I know little about jazz) but this was an easy and smooth listen. I quite enjoyed Ingoo-Pow-Pow with some vocals. The album had some touching pieces and some uplifting ones. Grab a scotch and let this album play.

What a great feast of music this is

What a great album. It's an amazing blend of jazz with african rhythms and instruments. So glad I found this album and this artist!

Now that's what I call background music. I've been listening to these albums mostly as I do my daily walks, and while this wasn't the best album I've heard so far, it was probably the most enjoyable walk I've had. Energetic but serene, with killer horns, drums and bass, this is exactly what I want to hear out of jazz musicians. You could probably cut a track or two, but at the very least, the ones that feel more like filler make me appreciate the standout deviations more. Key Tracks: Minawa, Maseru, Maesha

Warm, soft jazz perfection-- I can actually feel the waves of calm come over me as I listen to this, it's incredible.

First, double albums are notoriously hard to produce with high levels of quality. There are a handful of 5 star examples ("The Beatles" "London Calling" "1999"). This is a solid 4, and some may say 5, because it changed direction and did something new and important -- the fusion of African and American spiritual/soul into jazz.

Mostly pretty inoffensive light 70s jazz. Much of the material was already sounding a bit dated by 1972. Not as funky and edgy as I would like; kind of early 1960s Miles Davis lite. Very lite. Inner Crisis is the best of the bulk of the album. The real highlight in Ingoo Pow-Pow (Children's Song), which is much more like African music with a jazz inflection. If only the rest of the album was more like that.

I used to think jazz was for white men with Art Garfunkel afros who wore burgundy turtlenecks and swirled red wine in a glass presumptuously. Either that or a heroin-addicted black musician who wore shades inside and at any time of the day or night. How wrong I was. Bad jazz is Kenny G or Harry Connick Jr. in an elevator. Good jazz is more than notes on a sheet or sound from a speaker, it’s a feeling, a vibe, a transubstantiation of something intangible into as tangible as music can be. Or whatever. I won’t pretend I ¨get¨ jazz, but I do know what I like and ¨Home is Where the Music Is¨ is a great soundtrack to another morning in the big city. Looking down, seeing the traffic, people walking, the skyline. It paints a picture. Isn’t that what good art is- either painting a picture, taking you out of the moment or making you feel what the artist is feeling? This album does all three. Best songs: ¨Part of a Whole,¨ ¨Inner Crisis,¨ ¨The Big Apple¨

I don't think of myself as a jazz fan... but this site is going to make me one. I don't listen to jazz often and I'm not too familiar with classic records in this genre but so far I've been enjoying most of the jazz records this site is throwing at me. This is another good one.

This album is exactly what I needed to hear at the time that I did. This is a record that takes you through a journey of emotional and geographic artistry. The instrumentation is not over the top, it’s precisely structured that the artists play to each other and never leave an empty void in their sound (even in times of silence). The accompanying keyboard is such a nice addition and shake-up to the traditional piano jazz sound. This is probably one of my favorite jazz records ever, I never want it to stop. Favorite Song: Inner Crisis Least Favorite: Legitimately don’t have one…

Nice and refreshing album. Not my usual style but I wouldn't mind listening to it while reading or working.

South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who has been described as "the father of South African jazz". Great living room lounging album.

Elvis never meant shit to me.

Good but a bit too long and repetitive.

Jazz...all the notes played at the same time

This grooves hard as hell! And it’s anti-apartheid?! I’m here for it! Some of the melodies/chord progressions actually remind me a little of Steely Dan, be less white and cheesy. The traditional African stuff mixed with the jazz piano at the end is super cool too.

Great listen, Hugh played on Graceland with Paul Simon. Slow jazz, perfect for work/study

What an album! it's jazz... but it's world music as well... Masekela, known for his flugelhorn playing and composing... with two African musicians... sax man Dudu Pukwana, and drummer Makhaya Ntshoko... match them with jazz veterans, Larry Willis on piano (Blood, Sweat & Tears, Nat Adderley, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, etc), and Eddie Gomez on bass (Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, and too many more to mention)... bad ass, thought provoking, groovin', interplay... Masekela only wrote one song, "Maseru"... five songs written by Hugh's fellow South African exile, Caiphus Semenya... and a few others... all well crafted... and STIMULATING to listen to... Five Stars!

Home is Where the Music Is My liking for Jazz is definitely increasing in inverse proportion to my disinterest in metal, and I thought this was great. The piano-flugelhorn tandem is fantastic, particularly when it's the electric piano, like on Part of a Whole, Inner Crisis or Maesha, and the drumming is absolutely fantastic, it’s definitely jazzy, but combined with South African rhythms and phrases it gives a brilliant dynamism and variation in tone and feel. Part of a Whole is excellent, it has a great feel, hitting a lovely low key groove, reminding me a bit of Rikki Don’t Lose That Number by Steely Dan, with some great horn and piano interplay. Minawa is excellent too, a great smoky number with some great drumming and The Big Apple continues the superb run of tracks, as does Unhome, the nagging bass and forlorn piano and horns giving it a great, sad, rainy feel. I’m not familiar with Miriam Makeba's original but will check it out Maseru goes a little too jazz-frantic, take the bass for a walk about halfway through, and it is probably the only track I wasn’t keen on, especially as Inner Crisis does a similar thing but better and with a great soul influence, quite Curtis Mayfield-esque. Blues for Huey is perhaps a little too drummy, but there are some great tones and sounds to the recording of it. Nomali is another superb track, the bass is fantastic, kind of loping and stuttering, but keeping things anchored while the piano plays around it. Maesha also has a rainy, soulful feel, the electric piano rippling away a little like Ray Manzarak, before it hits a great up tempo groove. Ingoo Pow-Pow is the most overt display of their South African origins and is great, the tom toms punctuated by the solitary snare and the percussive piano is a superb combination, another excellent track. It was a 4 initially, but it got better and better the more I listened. Apart from Maseru and possibly Blues for Huey, every track is superb, combining piano, rhythms, horns and great production brilliantly, so much so it ends up a 5. 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹 Playlist submission: Nomali or Part of a Whole, I’ll go with Part of a Whole

Masekela's afrobeat-jazz-funk fusion double album creates such a welcoming sonic home that you'll never want to leave its irresistible grooves, making even a sprawling 76 minutes feel too short.

Beautiful, soulful, uplifting every single second.

another i'd never heard of, and would totally have missed - but holy cow, does this album RIP. there's a lot to love here, but i especially liked the panning of the drums at the very end of the last track. it was the best kind of unnecessary.

I love the joy and simple purpose of each groove. A deceptively simple album. Enjoyable, joyful, fun. Harder to pull off than it seems. A few songs drag a bit for me, but otherwise dug it.

I’m 223 albums in, and the biggest revelation so far is how much I’ve enjoyed the jazz albums. This was no exception - I especially loved the funkier tracks like Inner Crisis.

Generating a jazz album doesn't excite me. Generating a double jazz album REALLY doesn't excite me. However, I really quite enjoyed this (in fact I listened to it twice!). I appreciate the variety, with every musician getting tracks where they get to shine.

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm lying in bed on a sunny Oxford spring morning and enjoying some nostalgia literature while I listen to this, but yeah, I'm Extremely digging this

I just pulled an Elf: "I know him! I know him!" LOL. I met him once at my old job. He and his whole group was nice and he included me in the pre show song circle :)

Exactly the beta blocker some of us needed today.

Perfect soundtrack on a slow Sunday afternoon with a coffee and a book.

Super solid jazz/funk/soul record with a touch of Afro-Beat thrown into the mix. Very reminiscent of similar era Crusaders, Mizell brothers, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Headhunters and so forth. As good as anything in this vein from any of those artists and the era in general. You can play this as background music, or you can really dig in and listen to the musicianship. Either way is rewarding. Also check the horns on ‘Inner Crisis’ that Theo Parrish sampled.

T'as un peu commencé à m'agacer sur la fin mais je t'en tiens pas rigueur.

I actually really liked to work to this. Lots of character in his playing.

If i had friends I'd play it at a dinner party

Good chill jazz!

Hugh Masekela is a giant of the African jazz scene. This record exemplifies this, with tons of character and dynamics. No two songs sound the same and the 70 minute run through is a breeze. Best Tracks: - Maesha Worst Tracks: N/A Rating: 7/10

good jazz music, great for feeling like chuck mcgill

This is comfortable, familiar and long, like an amiable work Christmas party conversation that, despite similar will on both sides, neither of you can bring to stop, though you are really very tired and just want a slice of cold pizza and to go home.

Mostly pretty inoffensive light 70s jazz. Not as funky and edgy as I would like; kind of Miles Davis lite. Very lite. Inner Crisis is the best of the bulk of the album. The real highlight in Ingoo pow-Pow (children's Song), which is much more like African music with a jazz inflection. If only the album was more liek that.

Nothing particularly bad about this album. Also nothing I would call exceptionally good. Just some easy listening music I suppose.

Despite it being jazz, I quite liked it. Nice and easy to listen to, good rhythms and flow.

Not my cup of tea.

I imagine 5 grown adults telling each other to “play around” and “get creative” with their instruments. jazz hands ptsd

Make the jazz noises stop. I was going to give a bonus star for some enjoyable Afro beat influenced passes, then it went on for another hour.

With all the freedom jazz is supposed to offer its players, why do so many of them play such safe, unruffled, unchallenging music? Of course, the music of authoratarianism is safe in entirely different ways: it follows the rules and expresses nothing other than the rules. And this album, while unadventurous, is certainly chilled out, not anxious. It’s not watching over its shoulder. In fact, it very patently doesn’t care what I or anybody else thinks. Perhaps, for a black South African musician under Apartheid, freedom sounds exactly like a smooth, unhurried jam around familiar changes, with players too happy in the centre of the circle to push at the boundaries. Fair play to them. 1.5 I thought this was really poor. Plenty of dazzle but no distinctiveness from the musicians. Musically, this was a hodgepodge of styles - bit of Sunday brunch here, a cop show theme there, bit of afrobeat - each explored to, at least, much more memorable effect elsewhere on this list. The themes were rotten, the improv was forgettable. A miscellany of mediocrity. And 76 minutes? When an artist has nothing to say, surely it can be said in less than an hour? 1/5

It’s a good album no doubt, just not my flavour.

I hate jazz Goofy ah trumpets

Jazz is my reminder that my music tastes aren't as diverse as I think they are. This is painful to listen to.

Vraiment, vraiment, j'essaye, mais le jazz c'est pas mon truc

no jazz pls

boring

This album is incredibly changing and varied, and delivered with such mastery that it is nothing but great. There are so many layers here, being not a very easy album to get into, but, surely, it is worth listening. The music is very unique, each song is a different thing, but it is pretty cohesive as an album too. I'm amazed by how everything is so fantastically delivered, with such taste and, at many times, so groovy. I've loved this album. It's a very interesting jazz record.

This was such a relaxing listen. Love love looooved

I loved listening to this while reading about who Hugh Masekela was. Knowing about his history and impact made the music that much more rich to me. He is credited as the flugelhorn player, no trumpet mentioned at all. He didn't play the trumpet even once in this record, only the flugelhorn, which I found extremely interesting bc my mind always assumes trumpet to be the default jazz instrument. But I love the timbre of the flugel. This was an excellent listen.

Miles a un ami! Ça sonne très bien, il y a du fusion dans l'air. Mon premier jazz Sud Africain

Glad to listen to more by Masekela, I loved that Earl sample and I have been searching for more Hugh Masekela since.

That drummer is incredible. Any time he gets any measure to himself, he makes it damn clear that's his time. Everyone else is great as well. I think everyone does really well with the time they have to themselves. It's a very low-key album overall but it has some great energy in some parts. It's good music to go on a nature walk to, which is what I did with the first half of it with my dog. I like psychedelic stuff and some jazz when I'm walking down a canal path. I don't have a whole lot to say about it, it's just some really good jazz. Saxophone bonus points, of course. It's jazz.

Fantastic music

Jazzy, love it.

Incredible African Jazz album, one of the most interesting and pleasant jazz albums I have ever listened to. First half is potentially stronger but never loses interest. Will be returning to it a lot - indeed, I already have, 3 times!

Note to return here with thoughts on rating jazz albums 5

Great jazz that definitely has a 70s feel to it. I know it's a Hugh Masekela album, but that piano player was unbelievable! Liked Songs Added: Part Of A Whole The Big Apple Unhome Inner Crisis

Hugh Masekela's "Home Is Where The Music Is," is a Jazz, Soul, & Folk music studio album released in 1972. Masekela is praised as "the father of South African Jazz," and I find pretty interesting that I had never heard of the guy until now. Perhaps for his history of being a pretty outspoken political activist and several anti-apartheid songs. Right off the bat with "Part of a whole," I knew I was in for a treat as someone who really enjoys Jazz. So much so that I'm not so sure how well this one would resonate with people who haven't heard a variety of Jazz stylings and sub-genres. The different influences of many different Jazz styles in evident in this album so far. It's clear Masekela was a great lover of the genre but he makes it own as he blends them into the soul & folk music I've heard modern African Jazz players emulate. I'm not being so snobby as to say "you wouldn't get it unless you're a true Jazz listener," or whatever else the elitist modern Jazz enthusiasts have a habbit of saying. I'm trying to emphasise that this was made by a Jazz lover who loved many different styles. And with this album being overwhelmingly instrumental, it feels impossible to describe in what way you can hear that love. I wish I could share that somehow. Now this one is a difficult one what with Hugh Masekela's legacy seems to mainly be as the father of South African Jazz and also being a big influence in Africa's Jazz scene. It's nigh impossible to find critics of the time in Africa I could read over. I thought I found one through online-translators but nope. I did find a journalist who talks about what reactions in Africa of the time were to Hugh Masekela but it never cites anything, references any particular outlets, or brings up a person's name. All very vague and hard to go off. American critics of the time and retrospectives seem to be in abundance however that all equally gush and glow over Masekela's fusion and style. There's a bredth of emotion throughout this album. Upbeat and dancy numbers, somber and soulful contemplations, triumphant and heart-rendering outpours, haunting melodies, and parts that build to more drawn out emotion. It's a long album with many long songs; 5:29 at the shortest and 10:29 at the longest. I think on contemplation, this would be a good album for people who haven't really heard or may think they do not like Jazz but this is a sit down and give it some time kind of album. Which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Perfect foreground and background music. Genuine discovery for me. RYM: N Saved a song: N

4.7

Welcomed me from the jump, and at The Big Apple, the chord progressions made me sit up. Blues for Huey was stuck in my head almost instantly. Love this project because sometimes I discover artists I absolutely love.

I am a sucker for nice instrumental jazz.

Love it

The style is enjoying a revival but this still sounds do fresh, so juicy, so energetic. Both inspires and calms my inner human

This iis an instant classic for me. I don't understand jazz enough to be able to analyze it fully, but that second track, 'Minawa' really clocks it for me.

this album fucking fucks

great for a calm and slow night and a productive morning following an amazing afternoon

the music of South African flugelhornist Hugh Masekela, arguably his country's biggest name in the world of jazz, exists within a deeply political context. at the time he recorded Home Is Where the Music Is, his most enduring body of work, he was in exile. he and many of his fellow South African musicians, a couple of whom are featured on this album, had fled the country in the early 60s to escape the apartheid regime's increasing segregation and violence against its Black population. Masekela spent some time in the US making albums after fleeing his homeland, but Home Is Where the Music Is was made after he moved to London; a few months after it was recorded, he would flee to Guinea. some of Masekela's music functions as explicit anti-apartheid activism, but even at its most (apparently) apolitical, it still serves a political function. even the title, Home Is Where the Music Is, reads to me as an expression of deep homesickness; the track title "Inner Crisis" also jumped out at me in this regard. Masekela viewed his work as giving a voice to not just his own struggles as an oppressed artist in exile, but also the struggles of the native South Africans he represented on the global stage. jazz started in the US under similar (though obviously not identical) conditions of oppression and repression of its Black population; American jazz was (and still is) often a form of protest against the long-standing systems of racism that eventually led to its creation. by contrast, Masekela's music was a protest against what was, at the time, a much newer system. even just the act of playing and recording was a form of resistance for him and many other South Africans in exile; on this album, the result is a sprawling double-LP featuring passionate performances of some great compositions by (with one exception) South African jazz writers, primarily album producer Caiphus Semenya. the quintet here is three South Africans—Masekela, drummer Makaya Ntshoko and alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana—joined by American keyboardist Larry Willis and Puerto Rican bassist Eddie Gómez. all ten tracks here feature the band stretching out and taking a lot of bold risks. Ntshoko's drumming in particular gets extremely adventurous, especially on his rubato solo on "Blues for Huey". Pukwana goes for blood on pretty much every solo spot he gets, which I have to appreciate as a fellow sax-ist. the whole band plays as a tremendous unit, and I like that the horn overdubbing is only used in a couple spots to fill out the sound of heads in or out of tunes. there's cuts that lean funky, some that feel like a warm blanket, others that swing for the fences; but they all have a deep rhythmic propulsion! that's present on a lot of American jazz records, sure, but it gets dialed up to 11 here. Home Is Where the Music Is is a great showcase of one of the most captivating aspects of jazz as a genre: it's a mutt! pretty much any style of music you can think of works well as an addition to it, since it's already such a hodge-podge of different musical styles to begin with! the types of jazz certain people play will tell you a lot about them not just as musicians, but as people and, in Masekela's case, as champions of a brighter future. he did eventually get to come home to South Africa, but that was a long 15 years after making this album. decent 9/10.

Definetly will buy on vynil and will play ocasionaly in the background.

Fantastic!!!

What a pleasure to listen to

Never heard of this artist before getting this album today but damn what an introduction! Funky, groovy, while sounding surprisingly modern. Honestly you could have told me this album came out last year and I would have believed you. Is it a tad long? Maybe, but there is enough variety here and it never felt like it dragged. It made me potentially want to explore more of his catalog. Easy 5 for me.

Perfect music for having a drink and lounging with some friends in the park

Amazing

Never heard before, but wow that was great

This was so much fun fun, it’s everything I want out of a jazz album

Great jazz trumpet

I'm a huge sucker for good jazz, so this entire album was music to my ears. Knowing some background on Hugh Masekela and all that he did for South Africa makes this album hit even harder. Absolutely beautiful

LOVED THIS

Solid instrumental

Couldn't find it but I'm sure it's awesome cus jazz

Great, groovy and fun record!

This was a really exceptional album; it had a great mix of swing and funk jazz. The rhythms felt constantly changing and the duets between saxophone and horn were beautiful. Great jazz record from an artist I've never heard of but will definitely explore more. Standout Tracks: Minawa, Maseru, Inner Crisis, Maesha.

Wow man. An exceptional jazz album, top to bottom. Can't believe I don't hear this name spoken more often when discussing the genre. Maybe it's not the most complex playing out there, but boy is it wonderful to listen to.