Trains to Taung
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| Trains to Taung | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1997 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 109:45 | |||
| Label | Sheer Sound | |||
| Producer | Andrew Smith | |||
| Paul Hanmer chronology | ||||
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Trains to Taung is the debut album by South African jazz pianist Paul Hanmer. The album combines jazz with African music.
A native of Cape Town, Hanmer said thoughts of identity influenced the creation of the album. He used marabi chords because "they are very simple, age-old blocks...a basic format for so much music that has come out of this country...in a way that, say, twelve-bar blues has become a format for so much music that comes out of America...the 12/8 groove—how slow it was—reminded me of a train. I thought of a train going back in time, to that place that marks how ancient is the African human heritage: Taung...the place where the Khoisan made the ancient elements of music, and the place where marabi came about is probably one and the same...it's an imagined space and time."[1] He recorded the album with Louis Mhlanga and Jethro Shasha, both from Zimbabwe.[2]
