The Brotherhood of Breath was an Anglo-South African orchestra founded in London in 1969 by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor. An extension of McGregor's previous group, The Blue Notes (founded in Cape Town in 1962), the "Brotherhood of Breath" included many members of the South African expatriate community in London, including Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (double bass), Mongezi Feza (trumpet), Dudu Pukwana (alto saxophone) and (occasionally) Johnny Dyani (double bass), as well as numerous London-based free jazz musicians at the same time. At various times, the band included Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Harry Beckett, Marc Charig, Alan Skidmore, Jim Dvorak, Mike Osborne, Elton Dean, Nick Evans and John Surman, with variable personnel depending on availability. This expanded line-up recorded two cult studio albums, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath (1971) and Brotherhood (1972), and the live album Live at Willisau (1974). Several concerts from the same period were subsequently released by Cuneiform Records in the 2000s. The original line-up came to an end in the late 1970s, with the deaths of Mongezi Feza and Harry Miller, some of whose albums had been released by Ogun Records. McGregor formed a second version of the group in France in the early 1980s, integrating European musicians including several French jazzmen such as François Jeanneau, Louis Sclavis, Jean-Claude Montredon and Didier Levallet. The group recorded the album Yes Please in Angoulême, released in 1981. In 1987, a third group was formed, featuring African and British musicians such as Annie Whitehead, who recorded Country Cooking (1988). Its founder, Chris McGregor, exiled in France, died of lung cancer in Agen on May 26, 1990, aged 53.
