This album sees the release of McCoy Mrubata’s first collection album, with a beautiful selection of his earlier material. Entitled “Best of the Early Years,” the album features an impressive array of guest musicians including: Ringo Madlingozi, Sipho Gumede, Paul Hanmer, Andile Yenana, Bheki Khoza, Johnny Fourie, Errol Dyers, Prince Lengoasa. The album also features 4 tracks off the album “Firebird,” recorded in 1989, which has previously been unavailable in South Africa. These four tracks are: Firebird, A Blow to the Head, Akulalwa (There’s No Sleeping) and Vukani! (Wake Up!)

McCoy Mrubata is one of South Africa’s finest saxophonists, versatile on the tenor, soprano and alto saxophones as well as the flute, and has gained recognition internationally as well. The Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo invited him to perform in three musicals, two of which were based on the life of Bob Marley. The third, “Beyond the Blues” (The John Coltrane Story), ran for two months and saw McCoy playing the lead role.

When he’s not recording, producing, and writing music for TV documentaries or programs, he heads his own very popular band ‘McCoy and Friends’.

McCoy also features on horns as part of the super group, The Sheer All Stars, together with Paul Hanmer, Sipho Gumede, Errol Dyers and Frank Paco, a collaboration that resulted in two albums, “Indibano” and “Live @ the Blues Room”. Look out for the recently released Sheer All Stars album, “Dance with Me”, featuring McCoy, Louis Mhlanga, Sipho Gumede, Frank Paco and Wessel van Rensburg.

McCoy’s Face the Music won the 2003 SAMA Award in the category of Best South African Traditional Album.