Spotlight on... Rupert Bopape

Today, we revisit our Spotlight on… series that began last year with a focus on the legendary Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde. In this, the second post in the series, Electric Jive looks at the life of one of the most successful South African music producers, Rupert Bopape, who died on Friday 15 June 2012 aged 86.

RUPERT BOPAPE, circa 1969

Bopape was a pivotal figure of the music industry for thirty years. To this day, he divides opinion. For many he was a visionary, a pioneer, a guiding light and a creator of great sounds. For others, he was an individual who ruled with an iron fist and wasted no time in furthering his own career at the expense of others.

He was uniquely sharp at spotting a talented musician or singer, and possessed a long-honed talent for mining the gold. Bopape was astoundingly active at forming bands of instrumentalists and teams of vocalists that would go onto have enormous national success. Indeed, it is Bopape’s groups that are remembered far more than those of his rival producers. These groups also outlived the competition. Two of his creations – the Mahotella Queens and the Dark City Sisters – were still active in the 21st century. As talented as he was at forming groups and watching them shoot to stardom, he was also very active in the songwriting department. Thousands of songs credit Bopape as the composer, the majority of them in conjunction with another writer, but many registered only under his name. Since Bopape was not a musician in his producing years, it is highly unlikely he “wrote” the instrumental songs that credit him as sole composer. A case in point is “Tom Hark”, a pennywhistle song recorded under his production around 1956. Its main performer, Elias Lerole, has notably claimed the ownership of the song over the years, but to date has never benefitted from the extensive royalties the song reaped.

It is more than likely right to assume that “Tom Hark” is not an isolated case. However, it is important to underline that Bopape was not an out-and-out criminal. During the salad days of his Mavuthela stable, he was fully immersed in constructing songs for the company’s artists. He would write song lyrics based upon a particular subject (often topical but not always), and then work with one of the  Mavuthela musicians to complete the song – hence the hundreds of compositions that give credit to “R. Bopape and S. Piliso”. Other times, he would come up with a particular melody from imagination and ask one of the musicians to turn it into a full-length instrumental. It is true that Bopape claimed much more than he was entitled to, but he was not alien to the concept of writing songs. Towards the end of his career in the music industry, he expanded his contribution further to focus solely on composing material for the artists of Mavuthela’s various producers, a roster he had built himself.

Sebatana Rupert Bopape was born on 15 December 1925. His early life was somewhat erratic. A move to Pietersburg was then followed by a sudden relocation to Magoebaskloof, and then back and forth between the two until the young Rupert was sent to live with his aunt at Vaalkop. He grew up in Pietersburg, where – like so many young music lovers of the time – he learnt to play on a homemade guitar played at parties throughout the night. Aged 19, Bopape came to Pretoria to seek work. He found employment at a plumbing company, working for them until he decided Johannesburg held better prospects. In 1950 he became a pressman for Record Industries. One particular day Bopape was called in by the management, who wanted the opinion of somebody from the target audience of their black music product. They noted Bopape’s unique attitude and he became an assistant talent scout. After showing his aptitude at gathering together good musicians that would go on to make a profit for the company, Bopape was promoted to main talent scout. These were the first few steps on the road to success.

RUPERT BOPAPE, circa late '50s

In 1955, Bopape moved to EMI, launching his career as a producer while continuing to undertake searches for new talent. During his tenure at EMI, Bopape became one of the most significant and influential figures in South African music through the development of several unique styles of music, among them a unique African jazz sound, and a more “rural” alternative that appealed to the masses. EMI, under the nine-year rule of Bopape, was able to construct what is now referred to as a massively successful African jazz catalogue, rivalled only partly by the efforts of Troubadour (under Cuthbert Matumba), Trutone (under Strike Vilakazi) and – to a lesser extent – Gallo (under Walter Nhlapo). Key to the success was the appointment of musician Zacks Nkosi as a co-producer, who assisted the development of the EMI African jazz sound while Bopape concentrated his energies on developing a style of music he felt he was able to personally control and guide – he was not a jazz fan, and had little time for the intricacies of the sound or indeed the rigid attitudes of the musicians. That newer sound was pioneered by the recruitment of a band of street pennywhistlers – recording under a variety of names including Black Mambazo, Alexandra Shamba Boys and The Zig-Zag Jive Flutes – who were able to bring to popular attention the style that is now referred to as “kwela”. Using these newer musicians, Bopape was able to nurture the rise of a more malleable, less polished sound that could be described as a traditionally based African rock music – or more simply, “jive”. It was a sound that filled the jazzmen with disdain for its simplicity, but one that the black public found quite irresistible as the music found its feet into the 1960s.

The rise of the all-male close-harmony vocal group prompted producers such as Matumba to buck the trend and reverse the situation. In 1958, Bopape began his own efforts at contributing to what was to become a new craze, the African girl group. Fronted initially by Francisca Mngomezulu, Nunu Maseko and Kate Olene, the Dark City Sisters were at the forefront of the new jive style. It was raw music, performed by instrumentalists who couldn’t read notation and sung by girls from the rural areas. But it was a new craze that seemed to grow and grow and become more cultivated with the recruitment of more musicians and vocalists to EMI. Pretty soon, EMI dominated the market with its electric jive sound, and rival companies began building up a roster of new stars modelled on Bopape's successful stable. It was under a slightly newer membership in the early 1960s that the Dark City Sisters – now controlled by the excellent Joyce Mogatusi in combination with Irene Mawela, Esther Khoza, the Mngomezulu sisters (Ethel and Francisca), Grace Msika and others – became the most popular female group in the country. This “mbaqanga” music – so-named for its tendency to sound raw, unrefined and homemade – had been developed more or less aggressively by that team of musical players orchestrated by Bopape at EMI.

So, it was something of a radical change when Bopape resigned from EMI and joined the independent rival Gallo in early 1964. Having lagged behind EMI in its black music sales for years and wanting to now dominate in each and every market it targeted, Gallo instituted a new company division, later named Mavuthela Music Company, with Bopape as the executive producer/head and a co-director of the division (the other two being Peter Gallo and David Fine). Though Bopape first had to build a roster from scratch, he was soon supported by a number of individuals who moved across from EMI to Gallo. These included: the King’s Messengers Quartet, Shadrack Piliso, Ellison Themba, Elijah Nkwanyane, Wilson Silgee and some vocalists including Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde, Nunu Maseko and the Mngomezulu sisters. At Mavuthela, Bopape began building up a brand new catalogue of newer-style mbaqanga music, later to be refered to as “mgqashiyo” or “mqashiyo”, the term being penned for the music (in 1965) by Radio Bantu’s K. E. Masinga. The team of women vocalists representing Mavuthela was initially formed of the singers who were already at Gallo before Bopape's arrival, such as Windy Sibeko, Thoko Mdlalose, and Sarah Mabokela, but a few months later the team was showcased to national success by a new grouping of Hilda Tloubatla, Nunu Maseko and Ethel Mngomezulu. This team of ladies utilised various names that had been thought up on the spot by Bopape, such as the Dima Sisters, the Mahotella Queens, the Marula Boom Stars, the Sweet Home Dames, and the Soweto Stars.

Gallo’s turnaround was insanely momentous, and with Bopape’s hand, Mavuthela grew to be the biggest player in the indigenous African market – within a year or two, dominating the market entirely. The main reason for this was the combination of groaner Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde with the Mahotella Queens – that name proving to be the most popular of the dozen or so pseudonyms – together with the instrumental accompaniment of the Mavuthela house band, who Bopape later christened the Makgona Tsohle Band. There were three real innovators in the band who, after Bopape had combined them together, managed to develop mbaqanga music as it is generally known worldwide today. These were: Joseph Makwela, who had displaced the tea-chest bass by becoming the first black electric bassist in the country and playing his meticulous notes based on the lower registers of vocal groups; Marks Mankwane, who began transferring the ‘ukupika’ of maskanda music players onto the electric guitar and pushing the instrument to the spotlight; and Vivian Ngubane, an often-underrated musician who was the very first to play rhythm guitar on an electric guitar (until now, the rhythm had been provided by an acoustic guitar or a banjo) and played it in a very distinctively “bouncy” style. The Makgona Tsohle Band were naturally popular within their own right, and provided back-up for Mavuthela’s sax jivers including West Nkosi (with whom the nucleus of the band had originated back in the mid-50s), Lemmy ‘Special’ Mabaso, Shadrack Piliso, Mario da Conceicao and (briefly) Spokes Mashiyane. The team of horn-blowers was expanded in the late 1960s and well into the 1970s to include the likes of Roger Xezu, Sipho Bhengu, Thomas Motshoane, David Khanyile (aka “Fastos The Great”) and Sello Mmutung (better known as “Bra Sello”).

SHADRACK PILISO, 1972

Bopape continued to compose at Mavuthela with various members of the music team, but in particular with saxophonist, trumpet player and organist Shadrack Piliso. The Bopape-Piliso songwriting team was a close-knit one – perhaps the South African equivalent of Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland, in the sense that nearly every Bopape-Piliso song shot to commercial success, especially during the 1960s. Bopape would come up with the lyrics while Piliso would arrange the vocalists and instrumentalists. Eventually, with the development of guitarist Marks Mankwane as a vital Mavuthela arranger, Piliso slowly focused his attention on the instrumental recordings, paving the way for a Bopape-Mankwane songwriting team which mainly concerned itself with creating the 1970s hits of the Mahotella Queens. Bopape would usually provide the words, and Mankwane devised a melody and put the song together. Piliso expanded Mavuthela’s soul catalogue, forming the group S. Piliso and His Super Seven, which concentrated on covering popular US soul numbers. Piliso himself played the pedal organ for a variety of Mavuthela bands, and developed a very brief “marabi” revival in the early 1970s. Bopape often came up with a song title or melody, and Piliso would flesh it out with a team of musicians. Together, the team also pushed the new “bump jive” sound of the mid-1970s, in many ways a revival of the ‘50s-era African jazz sound. There were also other Mavuthela staff songwriters. Bopape’s wife Francisca, originally a founding member of the Dark City Sisters and an early vocalist for the Queens, worked with Mankwane and Shadrack’s younger brother Edmund to create some of the big-selling jive and "soul vocal" hits of the early 1970s.

Left to right: LUCKY MONAMA,
WEST NKOSI and MARKS MANKWANE

Under Bopape’s leadership, an expanded Mavuthela continued to prosper in the 1970s. He also helped to nurture a younger generation of producers and executives. West Nkosi, perhaps Bopape’s protégé, became a Mavuthela producer in 1972 and helped to break Mavuthela into the “vocal” market with the appointment of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In 1975, Makgona Tsohle Band drummer Lucky Monama – by now a Mavuthela Public Relations Officer and sales rep – was placed in charge of the overall traditional output of the company, producing scores and scores of traditional artists including Basotho Dihoba, Latsema Matsela and Banda Six. In 1976, guitarist and arranger Marks Mankwane was also promoted to producer, where he took complete control of the Mahotella Queens and also the recently formed all-male counterpart to that act, Abafana Baseqhudeni (“Boys of the rooster”). The group, named by Bopape in reference to the Gallo corporate logo, was perhaps the biggest mbaqanga act of the decade.

RUPERT BOPAPE, circa 1974

In 1977, Bopape suffered a mild heart attack. He decided to retire as Mavuthela’s head, with West Nkosi winning the post as head of the company. The Makgona Tsohle Band “split” so that its members could fulfil the by-now extensive producing responsibilities. However, Bopape remained fully ensconced in the music industry and continued to compose for numerous Mavuthela artists and groups. He worked with second wife Irene Mawela (polygamy was and still is widely practiced among black South Africans, often controversially so), who was a very popular solo artist at the company. Together they composed a number of hit songs, with Bopape sometimes providing some chanting or brief vocals. In 1978, he worked with Marks Mankwane to develop a branch of the newer-style “Disco Soul” sound that signalled the start of the end of the mbaqanga sound that so defined Mavuthela in its heyday. In 1979, he wrote some Sotho lyrics for the eighth Abafana Baseqhudeni album, in conjunction with its members. Later in the same year, he worked with Irene Mawela on a number of new recordings produced with the Mahotella Queens. In 1980 he worked with Abafana members once more to help write their last album of new material, and between 1981 and 1982 he worked with Marks Mankwane, Emily Zwane, Virginia Teffo and Sheila Ledwaba to develop a new catalogue of Pedi-language material for the Mahotella Queens. This material was released on singles and later compiled for the successful Queens albums Pitsa Tse Kgolo (1982) and Tsa Lebowa (1983).

Bopape had withdrawn from his industry responsibilities, although his interest in songwriting certainly persisted. He also parted ways with second wife Irene Mawela around much the same time. Mawela, for many years a faceless voice of the studio, decided to return to her roots and record Venda-language music, in spite of market pressures that material in this language would not sell as highly as Zulu and Sotho-language songs. Traditional producer Lucky Monama put her under his wing and Mawela recorded some brilliant material for two or so years until motherhood forced her into an abrupt but graceful abdication. Her much-remembered recordings of this era include her Venda-language LP Khanani Yanga (1982), as well as three EPs of Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa and Venda material. Mawela made a surprise return to the industry in late 2007 with the gospel album Tlhokomela Sera, recorded once again for Gallo.

After his retirement from the music industry, Bopape settled permanently in his home village of Mogapeng outside Tzaneen, with an extended family of children and grandchildren. He became something of a prominent businessman in the area, establishing a number of successful businesses. During the 1990s, Bopape’s health failed further as he entered his old age. He had a long-standing diabetic condition (which contributed to the loss of his eyesight later in the decade) and also developed cardiac problems and hypertension. In spite of these health troubles, Bopape's fondness for music and songwriting never left him. In early 2012, he wrote five new Sotho songs for his ex-wife Irene Mawela, all of which she set melodies to, recorded and included in a brand new studio album titled Africa 5 (2012). In a lovely throwback to the heyday of Mavuthela, the elderly Bopape provided poetically spoken words on two of the album's tracks. Aside from little forays into his old life like this, Bopape lived in solitude until his death in June 2012.

Regardless of his personality or nature, Rupert Bopape’s stature within South Africa’s music industry cannot be underlined enough. Even so, the songwriting section of his career is at times confusing. He simply could not have written those instrumental songs that give him a sole composing credit. This points to an individual who seems to have wanted to build up a library of songs that portrayed him as a multi-talented star. This wasn’t the case. But it is important to note that those songs listing him as a co-composer indicate some effort being put in by the producer - he certainly wrote lyrics for songs, which were then arranged into a melody by a team of his musicians. Bopape also had an often-forgotten talent for storytelling, and his beautifully poetic style of chanting was a distinctive feature on hundreds of successful songs. He was a smart individual who, ostensibly, seemed to be very talented at getting the right singers and instrumentalists together. The fact that Mavuthela spent much longer on its mbaqanga productions – producing slightly less material than those of its rivals – but still managed to dominate the black market is a testament to that strongly creative team of people assembled by Bopape. He had a true talent for forming the best possible teams of music makers in the studio, and this perhaps killed two birds with one stone – these teams were able to work together to make remarkably creative music that shifted copies in numerous quantities.

A 1960s compilation LP released
on the iconic MOTELLA label

In many respects, he was a genius. He managed to cultivate a distinctive image for mbaqanga music. Put simply, Bopape rose to a level within the local music industry that made it possible for him to build up what can be considered the South African answer to Motown: the first of the new Gallo-Mavuthela imprints, Motella, sounds uncannily similar to Berry Gordy’s black US soul powerhouse; the Mahotella Queens were often styled on album covers and in live concert appearances in the manner of Motown’s girl groups like The Supremes; and the Makgona Tsohle Band were indeed The Funk Brothers in an apartheid-era recording studio context. Without Bopape’s firm and distinctive guidance, much of the music of the past and the present would have not developed in the way it did – it might not have even existed. It was Bopape who carefully co-ordinated the new mbaqanga of the 1960s with surprising simplicity. The combination of players in the Makgona Tsohle Band – that innovative trio of Makwela, Mankwane and Ngubane – set a very underrated and unappreciated milestone in the history of black popular music. The basic template set down by these guitarists survives in various forms to this day, and is often evoked in other styles, particularly hip-hop, with modern stars sampling material by the older generation. It would, of course, be somewhat outlandish (and untrue) to suggest that Bopape “invented” mbaqanga. But for many, he was the one producer who was influential in refining the sound and creating a bespoke persona for it.

In conjunction with this Spotlight post, Electric Jive presents a compilation of 30 songs from Rupert Bopape’s career at Gallo. These include songs he produced, composed or contributed to in some form or another. By and large, this equates to something of a “Best Of” collection for the Mavuthela stable. A variety of styles are included here, from the somewhat unorthodox soul and pop right down to the staple jive sound that the company excelled at.

SPOTLIGHT ON… RUPERT BOPAPE

1. WOZA JIVE SOSOLO – MTHUNZINI GIRLS (1967)

2. VULA BOP’S – WEST NKOSI AND HIS ALTO SAX (1967)

3. UNYAWO LWABASHA – MAHLOKOHLOKO STARS (1966)

4. IZULU LIYADUDUMA – IZINTOMBI ZO MGQASHIYO (1967)

5. UKUTSHELWA – MTHUNZINI GIRLS (1967)

6. THEOGEDI – MAHLOKOHLOKO STARS (1967)

7. SESHEGO – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1970)

8. JIVE MGQASHIYO – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1965)

9. GIJIMA – IZINTOMBI ZO MOYA (1968)

10. LEUKANA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1971)

11. PHOROKGOTLHO – DIMA SISTERS (1967)

12. KGAREBE TSA GA MOTHUSI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1971)

13. MARABI BLUES – MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND (1972)

14. STOP SHOUTING – ZWINO ZWINO BOYS (1971)

15. THONTHODI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1971)

16. PHEPHETHA – S. PILISO AND HIS SUPER SEVEN (1971)

17. UNGANGIBIZI BUTI – MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND (1971)

18. LAKHALA IQHUDE – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1971)

19. LILIZELA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1969)

20. CHOPSTICKS – S. PILISO AND HIS SUPER SEVEN (1972)

21. DITHOTA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1972)

22. UMCULO KAWUPHELI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1973)

23. QAQA MLALELI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1973)

24. SHILUVANI – THE BIG BAG BOYS (1973)

25. 1815 SPECIAL – WEST NKOSI NABASHOKOBEZI (1973)

26. HAFAMBA – DIKWAIKWAI (1975)

27. MOLODI WALLA – AMAKHOSAZANA (1978)

28. MPULELE – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1980)

29. LEBOWA LE LEGOLO – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1981)

30. MMA GA A GONA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1982)

Enjoy!

RS / MF