Assagai was an

Afro-rock Afro rock is a Rock music, rock music genre that fuses Western rock instrumentation with traditional African musical elements, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Influences Afro rock draws heavily from traditional African music styl ...

band, active in the early 1970s in London, whose relatively short career produced two albums recorded in 1971. It has been described as "the second best-known African group of the late 60s/early 70s in Britain" after

Osibisa Osibisa is a Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London-based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa was the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

History

The original band consisted of five members, three from South Africa and two from Nigeria: drummer Louis Moholo, trumpeter/flautist Mongezi Feza, alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, tenor saxophonist Bizo Mngqikana, and guitarist/bassist Fred Coker – the latter, according to Rob Fitzpatrick in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', "helped guide Assagai into position as the only real West African competition to the super-star firepower of Ghana's Osibisa" before Coker left Assagai to replace Spartacus R in Osibisa. Canterbury scene keyboardist Alan Gowen and

King Crimson King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...

percussionist Jamie Muir were also briefly members (1971–72)."Alan Gowen"
NNDB. The band recorded for the British label

Vertigo Records Vertigo Records is a British record company. It was a subsidiary of the Philips/Phonogram record label, launched in 1969 to specialise in progressive rock and other non-mainstream musical styles. Today, it is operated by Universal Music Group#B ...

, and are thought to be "the only African or 'Black' band ever signed" by the label."Assagai"
radagast.org. Assagai's self-titled debut album was released in 1971; among the African musicians who played with the group on the recording was

Terri Quaye Terri Quaye, also Theresa (born 8 November 1940, Bodmin, England), Val Wilmer"Quaye, Terri (born 1940), singer, pianist, percussionist" Grove Music Online - ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd edition. Published in print January 2002. Pu ...

.Lloyd Bradley
''Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital''
Serpent's Tail, 2012, p. 155. ''Assagai'' was reissued on CD by

Repertoire Records Repertoire Records is a record label from Hamburg, Germany (with UK subsidiaries in Leatherhead, Surrey and London), specialising in reissues of classic pop and rock albums originally issued in the 1960s and 1970s. It was founded in 1982 by Ki ...

in 1994. The band's second and final album, ''

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

'' (with cover artwork by Roger Dean), was released later in 1971. It was re-released as LP by Music for Pleasure label, but under a different title, ''AfroRock''. Both Assagai albums featured songs written by members of the British group Jade Warrior and included guest appearances from them as well. Previously, in the 1960s Pukwana, Feza and Moholo had been members of the jazz band

The Blue Notes The Blue Notes were a South African jazz sextet, whose definitive line-up featured Chris McGregor on piano, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, and Louis Moholo-Mo ...

alongside

Chris McGregor Christopher McGregor (24 December 1936 – 26 May 1990) was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa. Early influences McGregor grew up in the then Transkei (now part of the Eastern Cape Prov ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Assagai'', Vertigo Records, 1971 (LP #6360 030); Repertoire Records, 1994 (CD #REP 4448-WP) * ''

'', Vertigo, 1971 (LP #6360 058); re-released as ''AfroRock'', Music for Pleasure, 1975 (SPR 90054)

References

External links

*
Assagai at DiscogsRadagast.org
{{Authority control South African rock music groups Vertigo Records artists