Asher Gamedze

Hailing from South Africa, Asher Gamedze works as a drummer, composer, writer, and activist whose music draws together traditions and styles from across the African continent. North American and European audiences first encountered him through his contributions to Angel Bat Dawid’s 2019 release The Oracle. In 2020 he issued his widely praised debut Dialectic Soul, which demonstrated his mastery of vanguard and post-bop jazz, free improvisation, funk and soul, rock, and hip hop. His follow-up, the 2022 album Out Side Work, comprises two extended improvised duets with saxophonists Alan Bishop and Xristian Espinoza. May 2023 saw the arrival of Turbulence and Pulse, his third album and his first for International Anthem.

Born Asher Simiso Gamedze in Gauteng, South Africa, he took up drumming during high school in Johannesburg, relying on a borrowed kit because he could not purchase his own. Music drew him to every performance he could reach, first in his hometown and later while attending university in Cape Town, irrespective of genre; he performed whenever friends or other musicians invited him to join. His approach emerged from the singing and dancing folk practices of South Africa together with its jazz and gospel idioms, while he also absorbed modal elements from North African music and from jazz in the United States and Europe. At the University of Cape Town he studied history, completing a master’s thesis on the history and philosophies of South African free jazz.

Angel Bat Dawid met Gamedze during a 2018 visit to South Africa. Their shared outlook centered on developing a musical language born of necessity, one whose primary aim was to advance social change. Gamedze traveled to Chicago to record with Dawid on the intense, hypnotic fifteen-minute track “Cape Town” from her acclaimed debut The Oracle, the sole selection on that album to include additional accompaniment. He subsequently joined her group the Brothahood and toured Europe with them. The following year the drummer cut Dialectic Soul, his first leader date, with a South African quintet of saxophonist Buddy Wells, trumpeter Robin Kock, bassist Thembinkosi Mavimbela, and vocalist Nono Nkoane.

Anchored by the single “Siyabulela,” a reinterpretation of a South African gospel song, the recording draws on regional cultural and musical heritage while reflecting the spiritual influence of John Coltrane and the experimental compositional spirit of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Critics responded with uniform enthusiasm; Robin D.G. Kelley, biographer of Thelonious Monk, observed that the album proved unforgettable after one hearing and possessed the capacity to overwhelm listeners. Gamedze also appeared on Angel Bat Dawid & tha Brothahood’s Live, issued in 2020.

Once pandemic conditions permitted travel in 2021, the band performed repeatedly in South Africa as well as in Egypt, Lesotho, and Malawi, and extended its itinerary to Europe and the United States. Gamedze released Out Side Work in 2022, an improvised collection created with saxophonist Xristian Espinoza and saxophonist/vocalist Alan Bishop. Issued independently, the recording highlighted the drummer’s refined improvisational skills.

Beyond his own projects, Gamedze contributed to releases by Luh’ra, On Our Own Clock, Manny Walters, and Xhanti Nokwali, and performed with pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, Angel Bat Dawid & tha Brothahood, saxophonists Salim Washington and Alabaster DePlume, guitarist Sharif Sehnaoui, and trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay.

Turbulence and Pulse appeared in 2023 on International Anthem. Captured in May 2021, the ten-track album took its title from remarks made about Gamedze’s playing by poet and scholar Fred Moten, who also placed the drummer’s conception of performance and interplay at the center of Black music history. The recording featured the same instrumentalists heard on Dialectic Soul, with Julian “Deacon” Otis assuming vocal duties in place of Nkoane. Deluxe editions added three bonus tracks recorded by a different ensemble live in Cairo in 2020.