Credits:

Heshoo Beshoo Group

Description:

Finally, "Armitage Road", a fantastic masterpiece by The Heshew Beshoo Group released in South Africa and France in 1970, is now available for the first time on CD! Both the title and cover are clearly a parody based on the Beatles' "Abbey Road" from 1969, and the situation in South Africa at the time, as well as the image of guitarist & composer Cyril Maguban crossing in a wheelchair, contrast the two albums with great intent. The refreshingly funky, poppy hard bop jazz of these young, energetic musicians, all in their twenties, is fresh even today. The band was formed around Henry Sithole (who later formed and played in Drive, but died in a car accident in 1977). The members were his younger brother, tenor saxophonist Stanley Sithole, bassist Ernest Mosle, drummer Nelson Magwaza, and guitarist Cyril Maguban, who had contracted the incurable polio disease as a child and was paralyzed from the lower half of his body. At the time, they were all in their 20s, and the band's name means "going by force" in the African language. The only album they recorded in 1970 was "Armitage Road. The title and jacket were inspired by the Beatles' "Abbey Road," which had been released the previous year.The image of Cyril in his wheelchair crossing the streets of the township (an area racially segregated by apartheid) in Orlando, Johannesburg, where guitarist Cyril was living at the time, contrasts the two albums with great intent. The album was released in South Africa and France in 1971.

Tracklisting:

1. ARMITAGE ROAD
2. WAIT AND SEE
3. EMAKHAYA
4. AMABUTHO
5. LAZY BONES