Record - VG+
Cover - G+
Mankunku Quartet – Yakhala' Inkomo | LP | VG+
Yakhala’ Inkomo by the Mankunku Quartet is one of the most important South African jazz recordings ever released. Led by tenor saxophonist Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi, the album became a landmark of South African spiritual and modal jazz. The title track “Yakhala’ Inkomo” (meaning “The Bull Has Bellowed”) is widely regarded as a masterpiece of African jazz, expressing deep emotional intensity through its slow, mournful saxophone lines and meditative rhythm section.
Originally recorded in the late 1960s and considered one of the defining jazz works to emerge from South Africa during the apartheid era, the music reflects both the influence of American spiritual jazz artists such as John Coltrane and the distinctive phrasing and feeling of South African township jazz. Winston Ngozi’s saxophone tone on the title track became iconic, and the composition itself has remained a cornerstone of South African jazz history.
This later pressing on Teal Sound keeps the original powerful compositions intact and continues to be sought after by collectors of spiritual jazz, African jazz, and rare global jazz recordings.
Genre
Spiritual Jazz / African Jazz
Track Listing
Side One
Yakhala’ Inkomo
Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)
Side Two
Doodlin’
Bessie’s Blues
Pressing & Value Notes
South African pressing on the Teal Sound label (catalogue GSL 266). The original 1968 pressing of this album is extremely rare and valuable; later pressings such as this one remain collectible due to the historic importance of the recording.
