Preserving South African Musical History
Studio band formed in 1977 by Dan Hill and Kevin Kruger, involving various session musicians and singers, including singers Mercedes Kornfield, René Veldsman, John Weddepohl and Jytte Fältskog, guitarist Trevor Rabin, keyboardist Duncan Mackay and drummer Cedric Samson.
Their first album, House Of The Rising Sun (from whence their name is formed) was released in 1977, followed by Forbidden Fruit (1978), In-A-Gadda-Da Vida (EP, 1979) and Heads Or Tails (1980).
Cape Town-based jazz pianist and educator. Born in 1942. As a teenager he performed with the likes of Dollar Brand and Lami Zokufa. In 1961 he went into exile, initially in the United Kingdom, and after a year there he moved to the United States. Between 1967 and 1986 he recorded and performed with many musicians, including Herb Alpert, Hugh Masekela, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Letta Mbulu, John Handy, and the Byrds.
He joined the Jackie McLean Quintet in the late 1980s and played on two of their albums releases: Dynasty (1990) and Rites of Passage (1991). He released his first solo album, Heading Home, in 1990 before returning to South Africa in 1991. He released a second album, Malay Tone Poem, in 2002.
As an educator he taught at the University of Hartford between 1985 and 1991, music outreach programmes in Cape Town in the 1990s and at the East London campus of the University of Fort Hare in the 2000s.
He died in 2010.
Formed in 1980 as a rock band and released their debut album Burnout in 1981.
Original line-up was PJ Powers (vocals), Alistair Coakley (guitar), George van Dyk (bass and vocals), Geoff Sedgwick (keyboards, vocals), Pat van Rensburg (drums). In 1982 Larry Rose replaced van Rensburg on drums and Bones Brettell replaced Sedgwick on keyboards.
They became extremely popular amongst black South Africans when the band crossed-over to a township-pop/rock sound with albums like Music for Africa (1983), Jabulani (1984) and Wozani (1985).
The band even managed to play in Europe and the United States but the Cultural boycott prevented them from releasing music there. There were a couple more line-up changes in 1987 but then the band broke up in 1987.