Rejoice, the long-awaited collaborative album between two African music legends, Tony Allen and the late Hugh Masekela, will finally be released on March 20th via World Circuit.
Photo credit: Brett Rubin & Bernard Benant
Having first met in the ’70s, Allen stirring the progeny of Afrobeat behind Fela Kuti, and Masekela an active anti apartheid trumpet phenom the two talked for decades about making an experimental overdubbed album together. When, in 2010, the two artists saw their tour dates coincide in the UK, the producer Nick Gold did what he had to do to bring the two legends together from some recording sessions.
The unfinished sessions sadly gathered dust until Masekela’s death in 2018. Thanks to the tireless inspiration and newfound drive of Tony Allen and Nick Gold, and with the willing endorsement of Masekela’s family, the duo dug up the soundtracks and finished recording the album in the summer of 2019 in the same London studio where the original sessions took place. Allen and Masekela are joined by a new generation of genre bending jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland/The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.
In anticipation of the much-awaited collection and Masekela’s first posthumous release since his passing in 2018, “We’ve Landed” is the first teaser of what will surely be a delicious opus. The single features Allen on the drums and dubbed with a mic, sliding a breathy ode to the world’s next generation of youth. Tony explains, “This track is dedicated to today’s youth. The lyrics addresses people at seventeen, eighteen, nineteen-year-olds who are gradually becoming more mature, discovering who they are and realizing that it’s their generation’s turn to wake up.”
Rejoice, out on March 20th via World Circuit. Discover the album artwork below.
