Gallo released Adam Glasser’s “SA & Beyond” which is a compilation of compositions he’s remade using his harmonica and piano melodies.

You can listen to “SA & BEYOND” on YouTube Music here: 

You’ll love his stories and his tales about each song on this album:

At 69,  veteran South African pianist and harmonica virtuoso Adam Glasser is  one of the last surviving South African  jazz artists to still  take up residence  in the UK – a trend that began  in 1961 when the iconic South African musical King Kong played in London’s West End for 6 months. (with  Adam’s father composer Spike Glasser as musical director).

Growing up in Cape Town and Johannesburg, Glasser  moved to the UK in the mid 70s, for many years gigging as jazz and commercial  keyboardist  on the  London music scene. While backing cabaret on a Miami cruise ship, he began to explore the chromatic harmonica aged 28.

Bass legend Ernest Mothle  introduced Glasser to Dudu Pukwana in the mid 80s leading  to tours with  Zila  to Belgium, Italy and Spain. Glasser’s composition August One (now a setwork on the ABRSM Jazz Syllabus)  appears on the Zila ’86 album.

Glasser’s 16 year stint as pianist and musical director  for  the Manhattan Brothers began in  1990 when they reformed for  the Webley Stadium Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert. Many gigs followed highlights of which were performances in Vienna with the Joe Zawinul Syndicate and the release of  CD Inyembezi  which Glasser produced  for EMI South Africa in 2006. 

UK based South African vocal  legends Pinise Saul and David Serame appear on Glasser’s  SAMA winning CD Free at First (Best Jazz Album 2010) &  SAMA nominated Mzansi ( Nominated Best Jazz Album 2012). Glasser has performed at all major South African jazz festivals and conducted harmonica workshops around the country. 

In the UK/Europe he has played piano  for  Hugh Masekela, Jimmy Witherspoon and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, harmonica on countless films & sessions including live gigs  with Sting, The Eurythmics and Joe Zawinul Syndicate &  BBC Concert Orchestra.

His  harmonica is featured on SA albums including Rhythmic Elements, Simphiwe Dana and the title track of  Abdullah Ibrahim’s  album ‘The Balance’.

Glasser’s repertoire is a combination of his own original compositions combined with a distinctive selection of rarely heard  outstanding  compositions from the great South African songbook  and his new album includes compositions by  Bheki Mseleku, Caiphus Semenya, Abdullah Ibrahim, Kippie Moeketsi, Dudu Pukwana, Victor Ndlazilwana, Jimmy Dludlu, Themba Mkhize, Winston Mankunku Ngozi

The Adam Glasser  Quartet is currently touring the UK after receiving a rapturous reception to their set at the 2023 Scarborough Jazz Festival 

and his latest CD ‘Adam Glasser – SA & Beyond’ is released this month by Gallo Records SA.

 He is currently engaged on a 14 date UK TOUR ( August/September/October 2024)

INDIVIDUAL TRACK NOTES FOR ‘Adam Glasser – SA & Beyond’ 

Track 1 – Jelly Roll (comp. R.C.Williams) – the only composition on the album completely beyond South Africa is by  R.C. Williams,  an American Soul/Hip Hop artist known for his long time role as musical director for Erikah Badu. I heard his  band R.C. & The Gritz at Ronnie Scotts around the time I started planning the recording of this album. Such a catchy brilliant composition that I had it include it, feeling  it was the kind of track that would go down well on  South African radio stations. 

Track 2 – Motherland  (comp. Jimmy Dludlu) I sat in on harmonica with Jimmy Dludlu’s band at the 2014 Grahamstown Festival and have always loved this composition. 

Track 3 – Caution (comp. Caiphus Semenya) The original on  the  iconic album ‘Union of South Africa’ features Hugh Masekela, Caiphus Semenya and Jonas Gwangwa – I chose to include a version of this very  challenging rarely performed composition, especially after Caiphus Semenya discussed its origins in an as yet unpublished  interview with me at his home in 2016. 

Tracks 4, 6, 8 – Joy, Monwabisi, Yanini (comp. Bheki Mseleku)  It felt  essential  to represent  contrasting compositions by one of South Africa’s greatest  jazz artists whom I met  and heard perform on several occasions in London. His influence on South African jazz musicians and beyond is constant,  evolving and very powerful.

Track 5 – Cherry (comp. Abdullah Ibrahim)  In the Summer of 2018 I  was  a tutor on a week long South Africa Jazz workshop led by Eugene Skeef  at the Aldeborough Young Musicians Centre. Abdullah  visited us in person just prior to his solo piano concert that evening.  The students did a cracking performance  my arrangement of Cherry  as a result of which  Abdullah invited me to stay at his home in Munich and a few months later contribute harmonica to  the title track of his album ‘The Balance’ recorded in London. 

Tracks 7, 14 – Mra Khali & Ndize Bonono Na feat. Fitzroy Ncgukana  I first met the legendary vocalist and producer more than some 12  years ago at Nikki’s in Johannesburg where he was DJing.  Fitzoy and his family are part of South African musical history about which he is hugely knowledgeable and articulate.  I interviewed him at length in 2019 in Johannesburg and we jammed on these two compositions on an old piano in his studio. Mra  by Dudu Pukwana and Ndize by Victor Ndlazilwana.  I think of these as tracks as precious music documentary and am delighted to represent Fitzroy on this album. 

Track 8 – Mzansi ( comp. Adam Glasser)   Royalty statements indicate that  the title track of my previous album is played constantly on the South Africa’s Number 1 Zulu  radio station Ukhozi FM. I chose to record  it again on this occasion with my  UK Quintet when I had the opportunity to play  a great Fender Rhodes at Eastcote studios. 

Track 10 – Scullery Department (comp. Kippie Moeketsi) outstanding original composition from the iconic album Jazz Epistles Verse 1 deserves much wider recognition and is the one swing track on the album. 

Track 11 – The Sandcastle Headhunter (comp. Donald Harrison)  I took part in the  2013 Joy of Jazz Festival and met  US saxophone legend Donald Harrison who was extremely generous and inclusive inviting SA musicians to sit in with his brilliant band at the Market Theatre. This composition stood out to me especially after trumpeter Lwanda Gogwana played it faultlessly with the band having  learnt it by ear from a cassette recording!  I resolved to learn it on harmonica. 

Track 12  – Yakhal’ Inkomo (comp. Winston Ngozi) This track was recorded in Johannesburg in 2023 deliberately in the key of G ( ie not in the original Eb) so that it can be played on a simple diatonic harmonica as part of my longstanding campaign to introduce the harmonica as a South African jazz instrument. 

Track 13 – Ngaliwe (comp. Themba Mkhize) Keyboardist, composer, vocalist  producer Themba Mkhize is of my generation and one of my most loved  South African jazz artists. I first heard this track  on the sound system  of a Durban Restaurant back in 2010  and have been bewitched by it ever since.