Steel pan virtuoso Andy Narell releases his first live recording, Live in South Africa (HUCD 3060). The two-disc enhanced CD recording hails from an extensive tour of Southern Africa, his second tour within the last eighteen months.

Narell, whose multicultural style embraces a range of Afro-Caribbean, Latin jazz and pop traditions, recently discovered a hidden audience in South Africa. His first performance in Johannesburg on September 4, 1999 was to a crowd estimated at between sixty and eighty thousand.

“It was a mass of people like I’d never seen. I’d never played in front of anything like this before in my life,” said Narell. “And the people knew all the music. In the middle of songs, I’d hear this roar from the audience and I’d realize that they were singing along with the music.”

Live in South Africa comes from a two-night stand at the end of his April 2000 tour. Narell reunited the band from his initial Johannesburg performances, all veterans of the South African music scene. The musicians bring a rich ethno-musical heritage to the performances. The band features guitarist Louis Mhlanga from Zimbabwe; keyboardist Andile Yenana from the eastern Cape; bassist Denny Lalouette from the island of Mauritius; drummer Rob Watson from Bloemfontein; and percussionist Basi Mahlasela from Soweto.

“A few gigs into this tour, I realized, this is really clicking,” says Narell. “The guys were more comfortable with the music and I started pushing them to experiment more and take more chances, open the music up and allow it to become more African.”

With Live in South Africa, Narell, who is one of the few steel pan players creating new jazz music for the instrument, again adds to his multicultural style with the addition of African musical and cultural grooves. The results are exhilarating.