Our Boys Are Doing It

First issued locally in 1977, Our Boys Are Doing It was trumpeter Dennis Mpale’s first solo album, although by then he was already a veteran of South Africa’s vibrant jazz scene. In the 1960s he led the trumpet section of Chris McGregor’s Castle Lager Big Band and played alongside saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi – whose surname was often spelt Moketsi – on the ensemble’s landmark 1963 album Jazz / The African Sound. Shortly after, McGregor went into exile in London but Mpale stayed, playing with bands including The Soul Giants, recording with Abdullah Ibrahim and founding jazz-rock ensemble Roots. The influence of fellow trumpeter Hugh Masekela permeates every note of Our Boys Are Doing It – indeed the album’s title references Bra Hugh’s 1975 LP The Boy’s Doin’ It – and the result is a joyous celebration of timeless township jazz at its most authentic. There are just three long tracks, including the near 20-minute jam that lends the album its title. Over Pat Matshikiza’s rolling piano vamps and the swaying rhythms of bassist Alec Khaoli and drummer Sipho Mabuse, the conversation between Mpale’s trumpet and Moeketsi’s sax is as eloquent and poetic as it gets. Mpale was eventually forced into political exile and spent much of the 1980s in Botswana before returning to South Africa in the 1990s.