New arrangements of The Jazz Epistles original compositions from their 1959 recording, Jazz Epistle, Verse 1 will be woven into a beautiful concert program with Abdullah Ibrahim’s classic catalog. The Jazz Epistles music was almost lost forever — only 500 copies were pressed in 1959, buried, and rediscovered decades later after the tyranny of apartheid.

Jazz symbolized what the white nationalist government feared most: the social mixing of racial groups. The government’s prohibition of jazz spawned secret listening parties, and the Sharpeville massacre ultimately destroyed the musicians’ hopes of a national tour when the apartheid government outlawed gatherings of more than 10 people, forcing the ensemble into exile.

Note: This concert was originally announced with Hugh Masekela, an original member of The Jazz Epistles. Trumpet player Freddie Hendrix, an alumnus of the Count Basie Orchestra, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Vanguard Orchestra, will assume the trumpet chair in his place.

This concert will be performed in memory of South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, a founding member of The Jazz Epistles, who passed away in January.