ElectricJive

Spokes Mashiyane - Spokes Hit Parade No. 1 (1962)

2012-01-30T07:36:00.000Z

Next week marks 40 years since the untimely death of Spokes Mashiyane at the age of 39. The South African legend died of cirrhosis of the liver on February 9th, 1972 at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. Significantly last week marked the 79th anniversary of his birth. On this occasion it seems fitting to present two very rare issues by the renowned penny whistler and saxophonist — one (pictured above) released 50 years ago and the other perhaps his last recording.

An extensive discography for Spokes Mashiyane has been compiled in conjunction with this post and can be viewed at flatint. Many thanks to the team here at Electric Jive for help with that and also to Laurent Dalmasso who suggested the idea for this post.

Willard Cele introduced pennywhistle jive or what would later become known as kwela to South African audiences in the classic 1951 film The Magic Garden. Remarkably the commercial potential of this music was not evident and thus was not exploited by the record companies at the time. Subsequently no other recordings of this music were made until three years later with a track by the Orlando Tin Whistlers. (Rob Allingham in Lara Allen, Circuits of Recognition…)

But it was Johannes 'Spokes' Mashiyane — more than any other — who would popularise this style of music and transform it into a household name starting with four tracks recorded for Trutone on October 8, 1954. One of those, Ace Blues, became a hit, and by 1955 was receiving favorable reviews in the black press. Soon every record company in South Africa was looking to capitalize on an instrument that had been regarded as a mere toy relegated to the rural life of young herd boys.

Of course the instrument’s history is more complex and elements of its 20th century use can be traced back to Scottish marching bands of the 1920s. Lara Allen’s excellent article Circuits of Recognition… elaborates on this subject in great detail and is well worth the read.

Spokes Mashiyane was born in Vlakfontein near Pretoria on January 20th 1933. According to the liner notes of his first Trutone EP, Mashiyane taught himself to play on a reed flute while tending his father’s cattle. Albert Ralulimi in an interview with Lara Allen reveals that Spokes first played on a plastic toy penny whistle before moving on to a metal one. When he was eighteen, Mashiyane moved to Johannesburg where he met Frans Pilane with whom he formed a duo. Together the two busked with flute and guitar on street corners and in parks. Ralulimi goes on to say that Mashiyane's style at the time improvised on grassroots tunes played by "anybody" - the community in general, kids on street corners, and those at shebeens and stokvel gatherings.

It was on one such occasion at Zoo Lake Park (Yvonne Huskisson has it at Phomolong Train Station) that the duo was spotted by Trutone producer and talent scout Strike Vilakazi. According to Rob Allingham, Vilakazi cut at least four tracks with them in 1954: Ace Blues (4080) Kwela Spokes (4081), Skokiaan (4082) and Meva (4083). Huskisson, on the other hand, does suggest that Mashiyane’s first recordings were made in 1949. He would have been sixteen at the time and given that Allen’s account has him moving to Johannesburg when he was eighteen, the earlier recordings may be unlikely.

While penny whistle recordings were popular amongst black consumers in South Africa between 1954 and 1958, two events in 1958 helped propel this style of music onto the international stage and subsequently elevated its stature with white consumers, as Lara Allen points out. One was the UK television show, The Killing Stones, which featured as its theme Elias Lerole’s Tom Hark (Columbia YE 164); and the other was the recording of Spokes Mashiyane and touring American bop pianist Claude Williamson.

In April 1958, Trutone arranged for a collaborative recording with Mashiyane and the Claude Williamson Trio who were touring the country with Bud Shank as the “Jazz West Coast No. 3” at the time. The concert took place at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre (BMSC) and the live recording produced at least two tracks with Mashiyane, Kwela Claude and Sheshisa!

While EMI did well marketing Tom Hark, Trutone did a better job of further branding Mashiyane by exploiting the American connection with the Claude Williamson Trio and transforming him into an “instant celebrity”.

Allen goes on to say: “Trutone's aggressive marketing included billing Mashiyane as 'King Kwela', and printing his picture on record labels; it was the first time a South African record company had lavished such extensive publicity on a black musician. Although it was unprecedented to print comments on record labels of 78s aimed at black consumers, the "Kwela Claude" label declares: "The famous American pianist CLAUDE WILLIAMSON, says: "The Kwela Rhythm, born in the craddle of jazz, is unlike any other I have played. It could well take its place alongside Calypso and the Samba.""" (Allen)

Such successful marketing certainly helped raise the prestige of kwela and Mashiyane at the time. Trutone issued copies of Kwela Claude not only on its Quality label but also on its Rave label. This is significant in South Africa in that Quality records were typically marketed to black consumers while Rave records were marketed to white consumers. The EP Kwela Claude (Rave, REP 4) is the first to feature a black artist in such a significant profile on a Rave release.

Likewise Mashiyane’s first full-length album, King Kwela (Rave, RMG 1107), issued around 1958 or 1959, became the first long-playing record to feature exclusively a single black artist. Most recordings by black musicians until that point were issued on 78 rpm. If black music appeared on compilation LPs, it was usually marketed to white consumers or intended for international export. Issued on the Trutone’s Rave label, it is likely that King Kwela was also being marketed in this way. Though a full length LP, King Kwela is still a compilation of previously issued 78 rpm tracks.

1958 also marked another watershed moment in Mashiyane’s brilliant career. Trutone producer Strike Vilakazi persuaded Mashiyane to take up the saxophone and apply his penny whistle techniques to the instrument. Big Joe Special (Quality, TJ 500) recorded that year, was one of the early results of the saxophone experiment. As with his earlier Ace Blues, Big Joe Special was a sales phenomenon. The record became the trendsetting hit of that year and would inspire a whole new style of music. Sax jive — latter called mbaqanga — would dominate South African urban music for the next twenty years. In many ways this track marks the beginning of the eventual decline of not only the majuba big band jazz era (see Majuba Jazz on Electric Jive) but also penny whistle kwela itself. Younger consumers were looking for faster, heavier sounds and mbaqanga would soon satisfy those desires.

Trutone’s success with Mashiyane was extremely lucrative for the company, yet they continued to pay Mashiyane a flat fee for his recordings ranging from seven to fifty dollars per record. David Coplan mentions that after Mashiyane pressed the company on royalties he was assaulted by thugs. It is no surprise then that the musician was subsequently lured away by Gallo Records in 1958. Under a deal brokered by Union Artists with Gallo, Mashiyane became the first black musician in South Africa to receive royalties from his recordings.

Gallo picked up where Trutone left off and continued the extensive marketing of Mashiyane. Gallo’s New Sound label, with whom Mashiyane was recording, donned their all-to-familiar record sleeves with his image and a listing advertising his other recordings. View Chris Albertyn's two posts on some of the New Sound 78 rpm recordings here and here at Electric Jive.

In 1959 another full-length album Spokes of Africa was issued. Mashiyane's second, this LP to my knowledge was also the second for any black artist. Gallo’s New Sound label then launched an excellent series of LP records around late 1959 or early 1960. The first being New Sounds of Africa (NSL 1001) a compilation LP with Mashiyane, Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks but almost exclusively featured tracks by Mashiyane. This series would go on to included the classic 1962 Castle lager Jazz Festival (NSL 1010) and the highly acclaimed and collectable Chris McGregor and his Castle Lager Big Band (NSL 1011). Of the eight LPs that I am familiar with from this series, Mashiyane appears on four and it is his Spokes Hit Parade No.1 (NSL 1009) that we feature on Electric Jive today. (Thanks to Sean Conlon for trading this into the flatinternational archive.)

The Gallo NEW SOUND Series:

NSL 1001 - New Sounds of Africa Vol. 1 (c1960)
Spokes Mashiyane with Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks
NSL 1002 - New Sounds of Africa Vol. 2 (c1960)
Spokes Mashiyane with Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks
NSL 1006 - Top Hits of the Big Three - New Sound Vol. 4 (c1961)
Spokes Mashiyane, Reggie Msomi and Lemmy Mabaso
NSL 1007 – Twisting with Reggie Msomi (1962)
Reggie Msomi
NSL 1008 – Lemmy Hit Parade No. 1 (1962)
Lemmy Mabaso
NSL 1009 - Spokes Hit Parade No. 1 (1962)
Spokes Mashiyane
NSL 1010 – 1962 Cold Castle National Jazz Festival (1962)
Various Artists
NSL 1011 – Jazz: The African Sound (1963)
Chris McGregor and the Castle Lager Big Band

Mashiyane continued recording with Gallo throughout the early to mid 1960s. In July of 1965 he was invited to appear at the Newport Folk Festival in the United States where he “stole the show” according to the sleeve notes of his US issued LP, (King Kwela) (London, TW 91408). An August 7, 1965 article in Billboard Magazine remarks that "Spokes Mashiyane, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was an unscheduled treat. His swingy beat and flute captured the audience. He was the unexpected highlight of the Saturday night concert."

Murray Lerner’s film Festival documents the concert and includes footage of Mashiyane's performance. Watch a clip here. Note that Mashiyane is not the first performer but comes in towards the end of this clip at around 7 mins and 40 secs.

A number of Mashiyane recordings post-Newport reference his US visit, for example the tracks 5th Avenue and New York City (New Sound, GB 3617) not to mention New Port and America on his final LP.

Though Mashiyane is present at the birth of Gallo’s Mavuthela, his recordings for Gallo appear to taper off towards the later half of the 1960s. It is not clear to me why, but I suspect that the success of the hard-mbaqanga sound produced by Mavuthela during this period might have contributed to what appears to be a waning interest in Mashiyane.

Interestingly a 1969 compilation LP, the Golden City Album does include a mbaqanga styled sax jive by Mashyiane. The track is noticeable for two reasons: one, the title “The Return of Spokes” suggests an absence, and two the record is issued by Trutone not Gallo. Perhaps the “Return of Spokes” has a double meaning here, and could be interpreted in one of two ways: he is returning to recording or he is returning to Trutone. A recording with Trutone does suggest a break with Gallo. Moreover his next LP King of the Penny Whistle was produced by David Thekwane and issued by Teal Records.

Released on Teal’s Star Black label (SKL 3000) (their first I believe) in 1969, Mashiyane here returns to the penny whistle, which for that time seems particularly unusual. The popularity of kwela had been waning since the late 1950s and with the rise of mbaqanga in the 1960s, it seemed that the style of music had all but been abandoned. Mashiyane here revisits in name at least some of his big hits like Ace Blues and TJ 500, the catalogue number for his first sax hit Big Joe Special. Surprisingly, he is backed by a band boasting a full elastic mbaqanga sound. My guess is that this is Mashiyane’s last album. It is also the second we are sharing today.

To view an extensive discography for Spokes Mashiyane visit flatint.

Enjoy!

SPOKES HIT PARADE NO. 1
1962
New Sound
NSL 1009
RS

KING OF THE PENNY WHISTLE
1969
Star Black
SKL 3000
RS

Mahotella Queens - Pitsa Tse Kgolo (1981)

2012-01-23T00:01:00.005Z

A simple offering today, but one I hope you will enjoy. Pitsa Tse Kgolo, recorded in late 1981 and released in new year 1982, is a Sotho/Pedi language album by the Mahotella Queens, produced by Marks Mankwane and released on Gallo's Hit Special label.

Pitsa Tse Kgolo ("the big pot" [idiom: melting pot of music]) was one of a steady stream of LPs released by the then-familiar line-up of the Queens, led by the throaty Emily Zwane. The album contains that classic Mahotella vocal sound combined with the typical early eighties mbaqanga beat - crystal clear guitar, thumping bass, soulful drums and shimmering keyboards. Some readers may recognise the title of the LP as a lyric from Mahlathini and the Queens' 1987 song "Melodi Yalla", a tune that pays tribute to Gallo-Mavuthela by calling it a big melting pot of music - but no version of this song actually appears on this album! The phrase "pitsa tse kgolo", however, had often been utilised in songs over the years to refer to Mavuthela and its music, so its usage as the title of this 1981 LP is perhaps incidental.

"Ditaba Tse Monate" is a nice tune to open the LP. It features some brief lead vocals from vocalist Virginia Teffo (a studio regular since around 1967), lovely Marks guitar, and tight Queens harmonies. Tenor singer Sinah Thibedi takes over in "Tate Nswarele", composed with male soul vocalist Willie Rasebotsa (though his voice does not appear on this album). The pace keeps up through to the Rupert Bopape-Marks Mankwane penned number "Lebowa Le Legolo", a tribute to the North of the country to which this album is dedicated. (Pitsa Tse Kgolo was so popular with Pedi listeners that a follow-up album, Tsa Lebowa, was recorded and released later in 1982.) "O Somela Byalwa" is another straightforward tune that contains pleasant and tightly-binding harmonies. "Dikgupa Marama" is something of an oddity in as much as it throws soul into the mix - but that's no bad thing. Marks is clearly adept at playing in different styles and the long honed "strong" vocal styling of the ladies is put to great use here. It isn't a tune to miss, and the same goes for "Koko". That song, closing the LP, is a lovely soul ballad written by Virginia Teffo in tribute to her grandmother.

The ladies in 1982, being handed carnations by their producer and mentor Marks Mankwane.

L to r: Emily Zwane, Hazel Zwane, Caroline Kapentar, Marks, Beatrice Ngcobo

Though by 1981 the Makgona Tsohle Band had dissolved (not reuniting until 1983 after a 6-year break), producer Marks Mankwane had put together a unique combo of musicians which he named The Beggers to back his mbaqanga/soul artists, including the Queens. (If you haven't already, check out Teaspoon Ndelu's wonderful 1981 LP Ke Kopa Madulo, released shortly before Pitsa Tse Kgolo and featuring excellent on-time accompaniment from The Beggers.) Marks the guitar wizard cuts through the rhythmic atmosphere with his talents, backed by virtuoso Mzwandile David on bass and the other Beggers.

The 1964-1971 period was perhaps the heyday of the Queens - the triumvirate of Mahlathini, the Queens and the Makgona Tsohle Band was a strong steamroller that was hard to beat. 1971 saw the line-up of the Queens begin to change significantly (Mahlathini himself left the team in 1972 for 11 years) and, although the Queens continued to sell-out township halls and garner huge album sales for the next few years, their popularity - and the listenership of mbaqanga - faltered somewhere around 1978-onwards after the infamous political tension and no mbaqanga act was ever to regain its glory (at least within South Africa. Mahlathini and the Queens went onto become more celebrated overseas than at home). Despite this shift, some of the more famous mbaqanga artists continued to record and perform and did so with some degree of success (perhaps they could draw an audience because of the fame of their name). The Queens somehow managed to hang onto a sizeable core of listeners and record-buyers and as such the line-up was able to remain fairly active during these disco/soul-heavy years! (In fact, even when bubblegum music took hold and mbaqanga lost the battle with black listeners, Marks continued to preside over a number of various Queens productions. He left Gallo in 1984 and briefly ran his own independent label, "Mankwane", before joining CCP/EMI as a producer. He eventually returned to Gallo with old friend West Nkosi's persuasion in 1986. Unsurprisingly, Marks took the Queens with him wherever he went!)

Pitsa Tse Kgolo features a line-up consisting of Beatrice Ngcobo, Emily Zwane, Virginia Teffo, Sinah Thibedi, Maggie Khumalo and Caroline Kapentar. This was more or less the group that sustained the Queens during the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, until the original (1964-1971) line-up reunited for the international breakthrough.

Enjoy!

PITSA TSE KGOLO (Mahotella Queens)
Hit Special HIL 2004
1981

1. DITABA TSE MONATE
2. TATE NSWARELE
3. BA MPHURALETSE
4. O SOMELA BYALWA
5. LEBOWA LE LEGOLO
6. MAKAKO A MONNA
7. DITSHABA MATONA
8. EKWANG HLE
9. DIKGUPA MARAMA
10. KOKO

RS / MF

Monk Montgomery live in Soweto (1974)

2012-01-19T09:14:00.000Z

9^th November 1974 – Orlando Stadium, Soweto

After more than ten months backing Lovelace Watkins on his southern Africa tour, this pedigree collection of musicians laid down a top-notch live jazz gig in Orlando, Soweto. The only difference to the line-up from the February 1974 Kirk Lightsey Habiba recording (see here) is that Monk Montgomery replaces Johnny Boshoff on bass, and Marshall Royal comes in as band leader and first saxophonist.

No need to dwell on Montgomery’s impressive credentials, but suffice to note that his musical bloodline goes way back to anchoring Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra from 1951 to 1953. Prior to his southern African touring, Montgomery had been playing with Cal Tjader for five or six years. While associated with Chisa Records, Montgomery recorded a fair bit with Hugh Masekela, including on the first recording of “Grazing in the Grass”. Born in 1921, Montgomery died of cancer at the age of 61 in May 1982 – before he could fulfil his dream of pulling together a “World Jazz Festival”.

This live album has its own special sense of place with the Soweto compere introducing Count Basie’s “Jumping at the Woodside” as “Jumping at the Woodstock”, but Basie’s band-leader of twenty years (Marshall Royal) does not miss a beat and plunges the band head-first into a tight and exciting set.

Side two becomes really interesting with an Al Hall jnr composition in tribute to Soweto impresario Ray Nkwe. African echoes abound in an eleven-minute cracker of a track. Rudolph Johnson’s “Testing One, Two” rounds off the gig, showcasing both Johnson and Lightsey.

In February we will pick up this golden thread again, with two more recordings this twelve-piece band made a month later in Johannesburg.

Rapidshare here

Mediafire here

Habiba: Kirk Lightsey in South Africa (1974)

2012-01-16T00:01:00.101Z

This post is the first in a thread of four worthy bop-oriented albums recorded by a common core of eight jazz musicians (all featured on this recording) while they spent much of 1974 touring South and southern Africa. In kicking off chronologically with Kirk Lightsey’s February 1974 recording, a preface on the special role of one Lovelace Watkins is appropriate. Watkins signed Lightsey to accompany him for five years of playing all around the world from 1974 to 1979. Detroit-born Watkins was a charismatic and gifted singer whose travelling and musical networking seemed to open up opportunities for good things to happen around him.

In addition to being highly popular in Europe and Australia, “the Black Sinatra” gigged southern Africa multiple times over a period of ten years from 1971 to 1981. Having developed a massive fan base from earlier tours, it was in 1974 that Watkins was able to invest substantially in bringing out a big band of excellent U.S. jazz musicians to spend the year touring southern Africa. During this time the band members found the space and opportunity to headline their own gigs and also to record on various labels - working around prior contractual obligations.

The last three albums in this thread also feature Marshall Royal, Count Basie's saxophonist and band leader for more than twenty years.

An example of Watkins’ generous resourcefulness is evidenced by the December 1977 jazz concert he made happen for a crowd of 9,000 in Maseru, Lesotho – headlining with Dizzy Gillespie, and including the likes of Monk Montgomery and Kirk Lightsey. Watkins, who graduated from Rutgers University, gave all the proceeds from that concert towards bursaries for African students to study at Rutgers. Billboard mentions it here

Watkins recorded two albums in South Africa , both of which went gold. Watkins went to number 6 on the south African charts in 1974 with Neil Sedaka’s “The Way I Am”. Download that song here (15^th Nov 1974). Watkins died aged 58 in 1995 of leukemia.

Kirk Lightsey’s enduring keyboard genius stretches back to the 1960s where he appears on five recordings with Chet Baker on the Prestige label. After his five-year stint with Watkins, Lightsey went on to tour with Dexter Gordon from 1979 to 1983. Since then, the last thirty years have cemented Lightsey’s reputation as a gifted modern Jazz pianist with a career that has included sessions with some of the world’s finest jazz instrumentalists, along with a series of classy recordings and solo performances of his own.

Kirkland Lightsey

Habiba was “a concept thought up by trombonist Al Hall jnr. The sleeve notes record that Hall suggested the group try “to put our thoughts down musically on some of the aspects we have seen” (in southern Africa). “It is obvious that the rhythm and voicings of Africa have been deeply etched into these compostions by Kirk Lightsey and Rudolph Johnson.”

“On this album a combination of African rhythms and harmonies give licence to the inventive genius of the musicians who explore the moods of black Africa”.

Notable among the listing of U.S.-based jazz musicians is one South African, bass player, producer, writer and engineer, Johnny Boshoff. Boshoff's bass graces numerous genre's of South African recordings from Johnny Kongos, through prog-jazz rock band "Square Set", to Juluka. Boshoff ably filled in on three of these recordings because of contractual record label issues with Watkins' own bass player, Monk Montgomery. Montgomery headlines the next record to be shared in this thread, with a 1974 live concert at Orlando Stadium in Soweto. For now, enjoy what has become a sought after and highly rated album!

Recorded in South Africa 17/02/1974:

Kirk Lightsey (Keyboard);
Rudolph Johnson (Tenor Sax / Flute);
Johnny Boshoff (Bass);
Curtis Kirk (Drums);
Charles Mallory (Guitar);
All Hall jnr. (trombone);
Delbert Hill (Clarinet);
Danny Cortez (Trumpet).

Produced by Peter Thwaites and Peter Lotis
Recorded by Peter Thwaites in the Gallo Studios - February 1974. Album released in February 1975.
Gallo GL1774

Habiba (Kirk Lightsey) 21:40
Here It Is (Rudolph Johnson) 11:57
Fresh Air (Kirk Lighstey) 5:32

Rapidshare here
Mediafire here

I'd Like to Spend Some Time in Mozambique

2012-01-09T00:01:00.024Z

"Some songs get stuck in the head, while others are stuck in the blood. Mozambique Music Awards. It's our music. It's our culture." (From the 2011 Mozambique Music Awards ad campaign)

Music with a Mozambican connection has featured twice at electricjive - Chris posted the historic 1955 Gallotone LP with a range of Mozambican fado recordings and Siemon posted a Banda Six album by Mozambican Mofene David Sitoe. So we're spending some time in Mozambique to re-address the balance. But first a little context before the three albums we're sharing today.

Radio Clube de Mocambique in 1967

The first radio broadcast in Mozambique was made on 18 March 1933 by a private club of Portugese settlers based in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). Called Radio Clube de Mocambique the broadcasts went out to an estimated 1400 receivers and in the following years two further private radio stations started in Beira, the country's second largest city after Maputo. In the late 1950s the station underwent a major format change to cater for the younger generation who were not being catered for in South Africa by the state owned SABC. LM Radio as it was popularly known, was world renowned for its Top Twenty chart show and played a major role in promoting South African Artists and their music. LM Radio was taken over by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in 1972 and following Mozambican independence in 1974 (the station was occupied by Frelimo) the station was replaced by Radio 5 (now 5FM).

As teenagers during the late sixties and early seventies my sisters would tune in to LM Radio on Sunday nights between 8.30 and 9.30 pm to listen to the LM Top Twenty. In the sixties the South African economy - part supported by Mozambican labour on the mines - had grown strongly and affluent, mostly white, South Africans were drawn to the gambling mecca of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). The hotel circuit in LM supported a range of musicians and bands catering for the tastes of this wealthy clientele. A similar "scene" existed in Johannesburg in the early sixties (see some of Eddy de Clerq's posts at Soul Safari) but was under pressure from teenagers seeking alternatives to what their parents were listening to. For a small taste of some alternative sounds check out the Cazumbi or Zulu Stomp bootlegs which give a small insight into some mostly white rock and roll sounds issued on 45 during this period.

But the challenges of maintaining a colonial war against the freedom movements were stacking up. In 1974 a group of low-ranking army officers rose to overthrow the Portugese government. The military-led coup (the so-called Carnation Revolution) returned democracy to Portugal and ended the unpopular Colonial War where thousands of Portugese soldiers had been conscripted into military service in the colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinnea Bissau.

The name "Carnation Revolution" comes from the fact no shots were fired and when the population started descending the streets to celebrate the end of the war in the colonies carnation flowers were put on the guns' ends and on the uniforms.

This led to Mozambique gaining its independence from Portugal on 25 June 1975, after more than ten years of a liberation war conducted by the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo). After independence LM Radio and the other two private stations were nationalised to form the state-controlled Radio Mozambique. This did not change until after the South African-backed civil-war ended in 1992 when broadcasting was de-regulated.

The bar at the famous Hotel Polana

Beyond the hotels with their exclusive clientele what was happening downtown, or across the tracks on the other side of town? The answer is Marrabenta, a form of Mozambican dance music that emerged in the 1950s in the urban areas of Maputo. The name was derived from the Portuguese rebentar (arrabentar in the local vernacular), meaning to break (the guitar strings). Influenced by Mozambican and Portugese folk music and also Western pop, the earliest marrabenta artists include Fany Pfumo, Dilon Djindji and Wazimbo.

Fany Pfumo in full effect

Dilon discovered his love of music at a very early age, and in 1939 built himself a three-string guitar made from an oil can. Three years later this home made effort was replaced with a six-stringed version and he began performing at parties and ceremonies with his uncle, Antonio Chikonela Jinge, and friend, Xavier Santos Pfumo. When he completed his studies in 1947, he became a pastor, and went to work on the island of Mariana, where he continued to play music as well. Besides playing such popular styles as zukuta and magica with musicians like Constancio Machiano and Ernesto and Armando Magaia, Dilon began experimenting with marrabenta music.

Dilon Djindji in perfromance at age 79

In 1960 Dilon founded his first band, Estrela De Marracuene (Star Of Marracuene). Other firsts were to come: four years later he made his radio debut, and in 1973 his first single ('Xiguindlana') was released by Producoes 1001, where he was working as a production coordinator. Thanks to his energy and enthusiasm for the music, as well as the hundreds of performances he notched up around the country, Dilon made the music famous. Fany Pfumo and Wazimbo were similarly active in various Maputo bands in the 1960s.

After Independence Wazimbo worked with the big band of Radio Mozambique which went on to become Orchestra Marrabenta Star De Mocambique. They were also one of the first bands to release an LP with a European "World Music" label (Germany's Piranha) and were noted for their funky style of marrabenta with electric guitars, powerful horn lines and soulful vocals. On the "World Music" wave came other Mozambican bands like Eyuphuro, Ghorwane and compilations on Globestyle (the two volume "Mozambique 1" and "Mozambique 2" are still in print on CD and well worth checking out.

And so today electricjive is proud to present some forgotten recordings of Mozambique. The first is a compilation from 1980 - simply entitled Varios 1, on the local Ngoma label featuring a range of artists. The second is mid eighties album from key Marrabenta star Fany Pfumo. Book-ending the eighties is a compilation of singles from Maputo that first featured at my matsuli site. This includes a fantastic lead track from Fumo again.

Enjoy your visit and time with us in Mozambique today.

Various Vol 1 Rapidshare / Mediafire

Fany Pfumo - O Rei Rapidshare / Mediafire

Various - Mozambique 45s Rapidshare / Mediafire

And finally to close Sam Mangwana's classic Mozambique Oye praising the Mozambican struggle for independence from Portugal. A Luta Continua!

Information sources: Calabash, World Music Network and National Geographic.

Dorothy Masuka - Ingalo (c1981)

2012-01-03T04:14:00.002Z

Welcome back to Electric Jive!

Today we open 2012 with quite an uncommon offering — the very first LP by South African legend Dorothy Masuka.

Although recording many hits on 78 rpm for the South African Troubadour label in the 1950s, Ingalo was Masuka's first full-length album. Backed by Lovemore Majaivana and Job’s Combination, this Zimbabwe-only pressing was recorded and issued around 1981 on the Starplate label.

According to Rob Allingham, Masuka was born to parents of Lozi and Zulu origin in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1935. When she was twelve, for reasons of health, she was transferred to St. Thomas Covent, a Catholic boarding school in Johannesburg. It is here, through a connection of one of her teachers, that Troubadour talent scouts Ben Ledwaba and Cuthbert Matumba heard her performing in a school concert. By sixteen, Troubadour had arranged a contract with Masuka’s mother that gave the company a form of legal guardianship over her and, as they say… the rest is history!

Masuka’s first big hit with Troubadour was Hamba Notsokolo (Troubadour, AFC 170) recorded when she was just eighteen in 1953. This tune, a South African classic, was revisited by her at least three times during her broad career and a less well-known version is featured here as Notsokolo on the Ingalo LP.

According to Z.B. Molefe, in the book A Common Hunger To Sing, one of Masuka’s first recordings (if not the first) was Into Yam also made in 1953. This song was most famously covered by Miriam Makeba in Lionel Rogosin’s clandestine, 1959 film Come Back Africa. This is also the same tune that introduced Makeba to the United States in her first television performance on the Steve Allen show in November 1959.

Indeed some of Makeba’s biggest hits were originally Masuka compositions, most notably Phata Phata, Ha Po Zamani, Khawuleza, Kulala, Khanyange and Teya Teya to name but a few. Some of these tracks can be viewed on the post Makeba — Track Less Travelled here at Electric Jive. Masuka’s 1980s version of Teya Teya is also featured on Ingalo as Teyateya.

Troubadour at times controlled nearly 75% of the African market and Masuka was their first and biggest star — making her one of the leading South African recording artist of the 1950s. As producer for Troubadour, Cuthbert Matumba was open to recording songs that sometimes contained critical commentary, and the company occasionally drew visits from the Special Branch of the police, who often confiscated masters and copies of records. In 1961, Masuka wrote and recorded the song Lumumba, in response to the outrage over the execution of the newly elected Congolese leader. The South African Special Branch took note and confiscated the master and began searching for Masuka. In the meantime, she returned to Bulawayo and remained there on the advice of Troubadour. After the incident, Masuka was declared persona non grata by the South African authorities and was forbidden from re-entering the country. She remained in exile from South Africa for the next 31 years.

Masuka would spend the following years travelling and performing in Africa and Europe. In 1965 she returned to Rhodesia for a performance. After hearing that the Ian Smith Government was planning to arrest her, she moved to Zambia where she remained in exile for the next sixteen years as a flight attendant for Zambian airways. After Zimbabwe independence in 1981 she returned to the country and resumed her recording career with the album featured here, Ingalo.

According to the liner notes, Ingalo was Masuka’s first full-length album. (View the liner notes at flatinternational). The recording was made and produced in Zimbabwe by Crispin Matema sometime in the early 1980s. Lobegula Nkosi, a contributor to inkundla.net (#385), reveals that Jobs' Combination, was a short-lived band formed by Lovemore Majaivana and Fanyana Dube, and recorded with Masuka after their first album Istimela was released in 1980. According to Nkosi, the group soon split-up. The post also discusses Majaivana’s subsequent abandonment of his music career. View more information on Lovemore Majaivana here at Nehanda Radio.

An excellent compilation of Masuka’s early work on 78 rpm from her Troubadour period can be found on the CD reissue Hamba Notsokolo (Gallo, CDZAC60) featuring detailed notes by Rob Allingham (and from which much of the above information is drawn).

Finally, the title track of the LP, Ingalo, is one of my favorites and was also featured on one of my early all-South African mixes posted at Matsuli in December, 2008. For this occasion I have re-posted those two mixes — volume 1 and 2 — here at the flatint blog.

Dorothy Masuka and Job’s Combination
Ingalo
(Starplate 001, c1981)

01) Ingalo
02) Sala Ulandela
03) Nhingirikiri
04) Uyo Ndiani
05) Chimanga
06) Gelo
07) Teyateya
08) Gona Ramachingura
09) Notsokolo
10) Izono

Enjoy!
RS

Thats all for 2011 folks!

2011-12-30T00:30:00.001Z

Firstly a BIG thank you to my fellow electric jivers - Siemon, Chris, Francis and Nick - some incredible shares and input that has taken this blog to the top spot for an archive of out of print South African sounds from the vinyl (and shellac) age. Secondly a big thank you to the readers, researchers and fellow bloggers - we appreciate your encouragement and comments. I don't think that when Chris and I hatched the plan for electricjive we had any idea it would turn into something as good as this.

From my side I've had a little difficulty in keeping pace with the detailed contextual notes written by the others. But then I've been busy with the Matsuli reissue programme. And on that side thank you again for the support which has made the Batsumi reissue sell-out in just one month!

To round off the year I thought I'd share with you a random selection of 45s I’ve picked up by chance, choice and trade. So without further ado here's to 2012. From my side you can look forward to some of the following: Roots, Pacific Express, Nzimande All Stars, Lerato, Saitana, the Elite Swingters, as well as LP compilations from Zambia, Angola and Mozambique.

Some Jive Talkin' (Unmixed)
1. Shimmy Shimmy Ya (East Side) - Prince Fatty
2. Little Things (Caltone) - Hemsley Norris and Phil Pratt
3. Karibu Ramadhani (Halal) -The Yahoos Band
4. Been Such a Long Time Gone (Blue Thumb) - Hugh Masekela
5. Koqozisa (Motella) - Izingane Zo Mgqashiyo
6. Brigitte (Columbia) - Kabaselle et le Orchestre Rock a Mambo
7. Bakoule (Columbia) - Nico et le Orchestre Rock a Mambo
8. Immortalite De L'African Jazz (African) - Orchestra African Jazz
9. Beautiful Daddy (London) - Ofo The Black Company
10. Dans Le Coeur Du Feu (Electric Cowbell) - Karthala 73
11. Handsome Boy - E Wara (Editions Makossa) - The Rwenzoris
12. Watou (Soul Fire) - Malcouns
13. Hamba Nami (Capitol) - Cannonball Adderley Quintet
14. Paradise (RCA) - The Movers
15. No No Noo (Soul Brother) - The Heroes
16. Makhanani (Happy) - Soul Mpandeli
RS/MF downloads (UNMIXED)

And here it is in a mixed version that has additional tracks:

RS/MF downloads (MIX)

Christmas Jive: 78s and 45s from the archives

2011-12-25T00:30:00.032Z

CHRISTMAS JIVE: 78s AND 45s FROM THE ARCHIVES
COMPILED BY NICK LOTAY
VOLUME 4

There has been a wealth of wonderful melodies shared on Electric Jive this year, and we hope you have enjoyed each and every one of them. Over the past month, we have been celebrating the holiday season with a variety of compilations and mixes for your enjoyment, and I’m pleased to say that today – for it is Christmas Day – is no different!

It is our privilege to now offer you during this very special season a very special collection of music. Christmas Jive is the fourth of my compilations focusing on the sound of Mavuthela, bringing together 35 sax and vocal jive classics from the 1960s and the 1970s, all digitized from scarce 78s and 45s acquired over the last few years. The selections in this assemblage of wonderful music have all been chosen carefully in recognition of the festive period – there are no dud tunes to be found here. This is mbaqanga music at its most raw and its best.

A momentous day calls for momentous music, does it not…? And whilst you listen to each delightful number, allow me to give you a bit more insight into the style of music and the people behind it.

Mbaqanga music was often disparaged as being the music of the transistor radio. It was dubbed “msakazo” (“broadcast”, i.e., “radio music”) by those who saw it as a safe and sound music form, the creations of producers who were in collusion with the apartheid enforcers. They felt it was a style performed by country bumpkins who were working to order. There is no doubt that mbaqanga received heavy airplay on the SABC services because of the lack of anything remotely politically suspect, but to sully the entire style by focusing on the negative acts of the producers and disregarding the performances of the musicians is rather inane. Just listen to any of the best-selling jive records of the ‘60s and the ’70s: heavy radio promotion helped to shift a great deal of copies, that’s for sure, but it is not the only reason that these records were big sellers. It is largely because of the sheer genius talents of the musicians in the studio. The exploitation and lack of a correct payment system was a shocking situation and is best left in the past where it belongs. However, the music made during that time should not be shoved into the same category as apartheid. These musicians were not playing their guitars, beating their snare drums and singing their guts out to fulfill a government request – they were doing it because they loved it. Many of the producers were without doubt the big, bad creatures they were, lining their own pockets with money that deserved to go to their hard-working musicians, and ensuring all the resulting studio material was “safe” for broadcast – but the performers were performing simply because they identified with the spirit of this jovial, happy music. You only need to ask the likes of those who are still with us – Joseph Makwela, Elias Lerole, Joyce Mogatusi, and Hilda Tloubatla, among many others – to find that out. And surely that is as far away from the apartheid government and its oppressive laws as one could get?

A shining example of this opens Christmas Jive with a bang. The triumvirate of Mahlathini, the Mahotella Queens and the Makgona Tsohle Band – among the most famous mbaqanga performers of the '60s – drive at full speed with the Sotho vocal number “Haeso Lekoa”. The song, written by composer and sometime vocalist Hendrik Ramuhadi, was released in 1967 on the Motella label and was just one of a long, long chain of big hits that the group would produce in that halcyon 1964 – 1971 period of their career. Mahlathini and the Queens – here constituted by Juliet Mazamisa, Windy Sibeko, Hilda Tloubatla, and Ethel and Francisca Mngomezulu – provide a wonderful vocal contrast to the bouncy rhythm of the Makgona Tsohle Band.

The first instrumental in this collection features Mavuthela guitarist Harry Mathaba leading a team of three electric guitars and a bass in a great instrumental, “Igumbagumba”. This is a typical, fast-tempo 1960s mbaqanga arrangement. The word “igumbagumba” is a slang term along the lines of “party time”, and is seemingly derived from Botswana. A better-known usage of the phrase is as the name of one of the Mavuthela labels launched in 1964/5, Gumba Gumba. The Guitar Rhythm Session band (the Makgona Tsohle Band without the saxophonists and, here, without the drummer) was predominant mainly around the early 1960s, during the formative years of Mavuthela. Incidentally, Harry Mathaba was a member of the Gallo session team before Rupert Bopape’s 1964 arrival at the organisation, which resulted in Mavuthela’s birth. Mathaba was one of a few musicians at Gallo that were kept on, with many others made redundant and replaced with members of Bopape’s former team at EMI, as well as some new recruits – two of whom were Marks Mankwane and Vivian Ngubane, two of three key musicians who, with their excellent creative minds, radically redirected the sound of black South African popular music in the 1960s.

“Isimanje Manje” (i.e. ‘isiManje-Manje’ – literally ‘now-now’, essentially ‘modern times’) is an early jive number by Abafana Bezi Modern, a group line-up featuring Mahlathini and a few other male vocalists (also featured in this song are the Mahotella Queens). The song, released on the Gumba Gumba label in 1965, serves as a promotional tool for the jive crazes that the company put out. There were several similar songs produced by the company during this period that referenced ‘isimanje manje’, ‘isimodern jive’ (or ‘s’modern jive’), ‘mgqashiyo’ (or ‘mqashiyo’), ‘mojikisa’ (or ‘mtshikisa’) and ‘sosolo’, all of these words being fabricated to describe the latest hit being in the melting pot of Mavuthela. Despite the advert-like nature, “Isimanje Manje” – with its interweaved vocals and raw instrumentation – is a delight to listen to. The group name, Abafana Bezi Modern, was mainly used for recordings between Mahlathini and the male vocalists heard here. The song is credited to ‘R. Bopape’, though he almost certainly did not compose this tune. Bopape, pictured below circa 1974, was the director of Mavuthela and also served as its main producer (during the 1960s, along with Shadrack Piliso as a secondary producer, until more producers were recruited in the ‘70s), but he was not a musician or a composer. He would ask the vocalists or instrumentalists to come up with tunes about certain things, i.e., topical subjects. He might contribute the odd sentence or simple phrase (or introductory raps) to those songs on ‘recording day’, but the musicians in the studio would do the much of the creative work. Even so, Bopape’s name would still appear in the composer credits (either alongside the actual songwriter, or instead of) – he had thought of the topic of the song composed, after all…! Bopape began pulling out of the day-to-day administration at Mavuthela in the latter part of the 1970s, and only then did he attempt to compose songs by himself – but they were mostly very simple tunes. One example of this is a tune recorded in 1982 by the Mahotella Queens. The entire song, lasting 3’36, consists of the ladies singing just two lines, over and over again, under Bopape chanting in Sotho! Bopape has thousands of songs copyrighted under his name from between the 1950s and the 1970s, the majority of which do not deserve to be credited to him. One very famous case is the controversy surrounding “Tom Hark”… but that’s for another time! Bopape’s presence finally left the music industry around 1983, when he retired to Soshanguve. Though Coplan refers to Bopape in his dense book In Township Tonight! as “the late Rupert”, the producer is still alive today, although he is more or less living in seclusion, various health problems (and old age) over the last thirty years having put paid to any form of activeness.

Trumpeter Elijah Nkwanyane (or Nkwanyana, depending on what the label on the disc says!) was one of those musicians whose talent shone through every pore. In a few short years he had made his mark on the industry, with many classic jazz records under his belt. But by 1964, when Gallo poached Rupert Bopape to set-up a new black music unit, the majuba jazz sound of the 1950s had been fading fast, having been usurped by a new concoction of sounds later to be referred to as mbaqanga – partly due to changing tastes and partly because the mbaqanga musicians (who, as we have mentioned many a time, were mostly migrant and unaccustomed to this technological business known as the black music industry) were easier for the likes of Bopape to control. Nkwanyane and his contemporaries, such as Ntemi Piliso and Ellison Themba, were among those who shifted with Bopape from EMI to the new Mavuthela operation at Gallo where the foundation stones for mbaqanga’s heyday were set. These jazzmen had to adapt in order to survive. “Rocsy Pie Conti”, released on the Motella label in 1964, is a great tune heralding the shift from the old swing style to the new electric jive of the 1960s. Nkwanyane is credited as the composer, although he was a trumpet-player and the only brass instrument on this record is an alto sax. Perhaps Nkwanyane was more talented than we think? Although it is true to say that the information printed on the disc label does not always correspond with the truth. Just look at the hundreds of singles pressed with the name Marks Mankwane and His Alto Sax, all of which featured Marks playing only on his electric lead guitar! Another tune featuring Elijah Nkwanyane as part of the studio band is “Lama”, an African jazz song (so the label says) released in 1965 on the Motella label. The guitar patterns here do indicate clear mbaqanga, but the rhythm still has that wonderfully swinging touch to it, a touch derived from those days of majuba or marabi or whatever you wish to call it. There is a collection of horns here mostly comprising saxophones, but Nkwanyane leads on trumpet – and throws the studio microphone a fantastic screaming solo in the middle of the tune. “Lama” was probably quite a successful tune – it was certainly memorable for West Nkosi, who re-recorded the tune over 25 years later for his instrumental album Rhythm of Healing. In typical West fashion, he renamed the tune “Shebeleza Mntwana” and credited himself as the composer. He may have been aggravated by Rupert Bopape’s stubborn studio management and attitude, but certainly followed in his boss’ footsteps in the songwriting department…! For more information on Elijah Nkwanyane and other likewise musicians, see Siemon’s informative posts on the topic of the indigenous 1950s majuba jazz sound.

Joseph Makwela and Rupert Bopape’s composition “Jabulani Mabungu” (“Be happy, boys”) is a superbly performed little tune. It is a simple song with few lyrics, written to reflect the heavy airplay that mbaqanga received on the SABC stations. “Iyo-iyo, siyanisakazela thina,” sing Izintombi Zomgqashiyo (aka the Mahotella Queens). “Siyanisakazela thina, jabulani!” (we are broadcasting to you, be happy!). “Jabulani ‘mabungu namatshitshi” (be happy, boys and girls), shouts Mahlathini. Many other songs recorded in the Gallo studio offered praise to Radio Bantu – the umbrella term given to the SABC’s African-language stations – and sometimes, even referred to radio personalities like K.E. Masinga. (Masinga, referred to in songs mostly as “uK.E.” or “noma uK.E. ogibela igagasi” [K.E. who rides the airwaves], had most notably coined the term ‘mgqashiyo’ in 1965 in reference to the music being produced by Mavuthela). The Radio Bantu stations ranged far and wide: from Radio Lebowa and Radio Sesotho to Radio Venda and Radio Zulu. An interesting situation arose from this in the recording studio. When artists like the Queens composed songs ready to record, the songs would be translated into different African languages and then recorded one after the other. This not only increased radio airplay, it also gave the chance for the message to be broadcast to the biggest audience possible.

Mavuthela produced some of the best and well-remembered mbaqanga music of the 1960s. However, from time to time, they did stray from the norm – as “Masibulele Ku Jesu” displays. The song, released in 1965 on the Motella label, is a traditional “Zulu sacred” number arranged by Simon Nkabinde. Notably, this is not the tried-and-tested electric rhythm band combined with male groaner and female quintet. Though the record is pressed with the name Emthunzini Girls, the personnel contains a sizeable delegation of Mavuthela vocalists led by soprano Hilda Tloubatla, backed by a single (barely audible!) electric guitar and some thin percussion. The results make for pleasant listening and almost gives the listener the feeling the singers here are the dedicated congregation of a township church. A similarly rebellious tune (rebellious in as much as it doesn’t follow the usual Mavuthela factory-line sound – much!) is “Motho O Kgonwa Ke Sagagwe”, released on the Gallo New Sound label in 1965 with the name Honey Ray & The Star Beams. The record attempts to combine that classic Mavuthela sound with some kind of a neo-traditional twist. The Star Beams are actually the Mahotella Queens – as can be detected from Windy Sibeko’s very clear alto vocal – and they are fronted by so-so singer Ray Nkwe, who later became an A&R man for Teal before rejoining Gallo-Mavuthela as a producer. The illustrious Makgona Tsohle Band, of course, backs Ray and the women vocalists.

Marks Mankwane was, without a doubt, the most well known and innovative mbaqanga guitarist in South Africa’s history. “Umkhumbi Kanowa” (“Noah’s ark”) is a decent example of Marks’ style of playing and of a typical late ‘60s sax jive song, but bear in mind that he plays lead guitar on the vast majority of tracks in this compilation! This song, featuring West Nkosi on alto saxophone, was recorded in 1967 and released on the C.T.C. Star Record label. Mankwane was born in Warmbaths (now Bela-Bela) in 1939. His older brother possessed a homemade guitar, which Mankwane began fooling around with when he was around twelve years old. Their father did not approve of such nonsense, and often the young Marks would receive a beating for his supposed tomfoolery. This did not deter him from wanting to play the instrument though. Before long, his older brother recognised that there was a talent being developed within Marks, and they managed to pool some money together to buy a “proper” guitar. The two boys pleaded with their father to refrain from destroying the expensive instrument. The Mankwane father allowed them to have their musical pleasure – just so long as they looked after the cattle when they were supposed to. Marks then began developing his own guitar skills into his teens (while also learning to play the pennywhistle). One of his early influences was the maskanda artist Josaya Hadebe, whose records Mankwane used to listen to ardently. Hadebe’s meticulous guitar work was a classic example of maskanda’s ‘ukupika’ style of playing, demonstrating the artist’s versatily and aptitude for the instrument. Mankwane loved Hadebe’s style of playing, and adopted his maskanda playing into his own music. By the mid-1950s, Mankwane had travelled to Pretoria to find work, and became a domestic servant. In his spare time he encouraged his own musical development, and soon was the leader of a small band of pennywhistlers. They often encountered another group of garden boys who called themselves the Pretoria Tower Boys, with whom Mankwane would become close associates in the next few years to come. Marks joined the music industry circa 1960, first under Cuthbert Matumba at Troubadour. At the company, Mankwane played pennywhistle and (later on) saxophone in the line-up The Downbeat Boys. He knew that he was more talented with a guitar in his hands, but disliked the fact that on guitar, he’d be playing second fiddle to a saxophonist, who would be stood in front of the band receiving nearly all of the audience appreciation – so he played up-front with a horn whenever he could. The introduction of the electric guitar around 1959 or 1960 into South Africa proved a vital turning point for the black popular music scene (for more information, see Siemon’s written history of the music of this period). However, guitar players merely played the same acoustic lines on the electric instrument. There were no pioneers or innovators until Marks Mankwane played the instrument in the studio at Gallo in 1964. He had been practicing after long sessions at Troubadour, transferring the ‘ukupika’ of Josaya Hadebe onto the electric guitar. When he heard that EMI’s Rupert Bopape had moved to Gallo and was on the lookout for new musicians, Mankwane auditioned for him. He played his electric guitar in the Hadebe style and, combined with the other musicians Bopape had singlehandedly assembled in the studio, managed to create an entirely new take on the music played by session bands heretofore. (Incidentally, those musicians Bopape had put together with Marks as the new Mavuthela house band – Joseph Makwela, Lucky Monama and Wilfred Mosebi – had originally comprised the nucleus of the Pretoria Tower Boys with whom Marks had associated back in the ‘50s.) The end of the 1960s had set the mbaqanga that unites an electric lead, an electric bass, electric rhythm and drums in solid stone. Every single band in existence had its own guitarist playing in a style based on that meticulous Hadebe ‘ukupika’ method. Mbaqanga music owes a lot to Marks Mankwane. And, perhaps, to Josaya Hadebe!

Benoni-born Mildred Mangxola was a teenager when she joined the line-up of the Daveyton Sisters, a local close-harmony group that modelled its vocal stylings on the jive sounds coming from the record companies. Before long, the talented Mangxola was the lead singer of the group. They decided to travel to Johannesburg in 1965 (Mangxola was now 21 years old), where an encounter with Mavuthela drummer Lucky Monama set them on the road to the studio: Monama convinced his boss Rupert Bopape that the Sisters were worth recording. Among their first hits was the fast-tempo “Ulele Emini U Makoti” (“You rest at noon, bride”), released on the Gallo–USA label in 1965. The Sisters’ career within Mavuthela was sadly all too brief – but Mangxola, whose vocal ability was the driving force behind the Sisters, soon found herself being recruited into the regular recording and touring line-ups of the top-tier Mavuthela vocal group, the Mahotella Queens.

The mouth organ penetrated mbaqanga in the mid-to-late 1960s. Some of those who occasionally put down their alto saxes and picked up harmonicas included Selby “Bra Sello” Mmutung (check out two of his mouth organ jive numbers over at the flatint blog) and legendary sax jive star West Nkosi (pictured left, in 1967), the latter of whom achieved big hits with “Hip! Hip! Hooray”, released on the Inkonkoni label in 1972 (at the time, the bestselling and most popular of the Mavuthela labels) and “Amanzi Amancane No. 5” (released under the pseudonym Lucky Monama & His Partners, though Lucky was actually the drummer with the Makgona Tsohle Band which performed that very popular tune). The presence of the harmonica in mbaqanga was another in-thing – like the melodica and violin – that did not last very long (in comparison to, for example, the accordion), but nonetheless, the mouth organ provided a pleasant-sounding complement to the guitar rhythm. Nkosi’s headstrong attitude to life thrust him further and further into the spotlight as time went on: from recording for small, independent labels like Hit and Meritone, Nkosi managed to make an in at Gallo, where Reggie Msomi saw his potential. Rupert Bopape also recognised Nkosi’s talented sax skills, and he was a vital part of the new Mavuthela operation after 1964. When the order came from Gallo’s management to increase production, Nkosi was one of the first to be honoured by Bopape with a producing role in 1972.

As hinted earlier in this post, Nkosi was the ultimate champ and all-round good guy in front of Bopape, the big boss of the studio (pictured left circa 1974). But privately, one might say West thought Bopape was ill-suited to the music business: in an interview many years after Bopape’s retirement, Nkosi spoke about sitting down with his boss in the rehearsal rooms at Gallo and watching artist after artist audition for a contract. Though Nkosi could feel the potential in these musicians and singers, Bopape was the boss and had to have the final say – and often turned down the ones who Nkosi privately felt had the talent to prosper. His promotion to producer gave him the chance to have his decisions adhered to – and, in many cases, spotlight a talented act that, under Bopape, would never have shone. When West Nkosi came to Durban to search for a local male group whose cothoza mfana vocal styling had captivated everyone listening to Radio Zulu, he struck gold. He brought Ladysmith Black Mambazo in a Gallo minibus to the Johannesburg studios, where welcome faces and pats on the back greeted them. All except for Rupert Bopape, of course! Joseph Shabalala, the enigmatic founder and leader of the group, recalled in a late 1990s interview that Bopape was hesitant of signing the then-seven members to Gallo-Mavuthela. “He was hesitating about it,” remembered Shabalala. “He said, ‘there are groups like the King Star Brothers… we record them and black people don’t buy their music! It’ll be the same thing for these guys!’” West Nkosi insisted that these guys were so much more talented than any of the others. The hesitation continued for a while – but luckily, Bopape’s wife Irene Mawela happened to be in the studios that day and asked who these singers were. When told of the group’s name, she immediately recognised them from the constant Radio Zulu airplay – and insisted that they be signed up. West noted her approval and Bopape duly agreed. Ladysmith Black Mambazo began recording in August 1972 and, by the end of the decade, had become the biggest selling group in the country’s history. Alongside producing several more immensely popular acts, West Nkosi continued recording instrumental hits too: in the line-up West Nkosi Nabashokobezi (which included guitarist Marubini Jagome, bassist Jabu Zulu and drummer Eddie Ndzeru), he focused mainly on peppy sax jive tunes and recording many, many numbers in the ‘mabone’ series. With his longtime musical acquaintances in the Makgona Tsohle Band (also credited as the Makhona Zonke Band on several 1970s records), Nkosi also did sax jive but that bit more extravagantly, as well as later branching out into bump jive and soul.

“Sindiza Emoyeni” (“We fly in the air” [over the airwaves]) is an energetic number from the 1972 line-up of the Mahotella Queens. By this point in the group’s career, Hilda Tloubatla was the last original member, surrounded by newer recruits who had joined in the late 1960s – but Hilda was also soon to leave, joining the frontline of Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje in later 1972. Many of the Mahotella Queens, including Windy Sibeko, Nunu Maseko and Nobesuthu Shawe, had left to join Izintombi between 1967 and 1972, and despite pleas from Mr. Bopape and arranger Marks Mankwane, Hilda followed them. She did return to the Queens in 1973 before moving back to Izintombi in 1976, where she remained until a reunion of the original Mahotella members in 1983. The reunion did not pick up much steam in South Africa, and it was only after yet another barren spell – during which time The Indestructible Beat of Soweto and Graceland made their respective marks in the music world – that the call came from the international community, bringing the group up to that full speed again. At the time that “Sindiza Emoyeni” was recorded, the Queens were literally royalty in the eyes of their fans: they had hundreds of successful numbers under their belts and had mostly protected their ruling place in the industry with immense ease. This song, written by regular member Hilda – with groaner Lazarus ‘Boy Nze’ Magatole providing the lead vocals – celebrates the prowess of the Queens and their regular appearances on Radio Zulu: “Kumnand’ ukuba yithi, sindiza phezulu emoyeni” (it’s nice to be as we are, we’re flying high up over the airwaves), sing the ladies. “Hamba minyaka! Hhayi kumnandi’ ukuba yithi” (go away, old age! It’s nice to be as we are), they plead. “Hamba minyaka!” sing the Queens and Boy Nze fervently and repeatedly. It would seem that the Queens’ passionate request – go away, old age! – has been fulfilled. The current Queens line-up, of which Hilda is the heart and soul, still defies audiences with their powerful vocals and energetic dance routines… they are well into their 70s now!

Accordion jive was one of the most successful forms of mbaqanga from the very end of the 1960s up to the early-to-mid 1980s. Among those first stars of accordion jive in the 1970s was Mzwandile David (pictured left, in 1979). David, born in Transkei, came to Johannesburg in 1973 at the age of 20. He played his accordion for Rupert Bopape in his Gallo office and was immediately ensconced in the music industry. So began a long career of association with an extensive list of studio musicians, and an able and active music life: not only could he play the accordion, he could play the bass guitar, as well as the keyboard (or as the musicians referred to it, the ‘organ’). His main role in the 1970s was as an accordion jive star, recording under the name Mr. V. Mzwandile. One of his early numbers, “1968 Special” – composed by rhythm guitarist and bassist Sipho Mthethwa – was released in late 1973 on the Up Mavuthela label. Another accordionist whose mbaqanga numbers cultivated him a following was Delford Ngcemu (who recorded under the name Delford Ngcem’…!). Ngcemu arrived in the industry around 1970 and managed to gain some noteworthy hits: “Sea Water 800”, “Zaphela”, “Zola 500” and “Kumnandi Egoli”. One track in which he plays the accordion greatly is “Iphepha Lamarabi”, released in 1972 on the Inkonkoni label. Though backed by the Makgona Tsohle Band, the track was pressed with the name Joseph Makwela & His Comrades (Makwela is of course the wonderful bass player). Another accordion jive hit-maker was Mtabhane Ndima. He entered the music industry circa 1969, soon making his name with hits like “Sea Water” and “Nyamazane”. In “Impunga Yehlathi”, he puts aside his accordion and takes up singing – none too successfully! – with a trio credited as the Mash Sisters and a band of session musicians. Though Ndima’s talent really lies with the accordion than the voice, this track – released in 1973 on the Motella label – is still an interesting listen.

Izintombi Zomoya was born out of the late 1960s roster of session singers at Mavuthela, put together by producer Bopape as a third regular unit beneath the first place Mahotella Queens and the second place Mthunzini Girls. At its formation, Izintombi Zomoya comprised a very loose line-up that included Caroline Kapentar, Thandi Nkosi, Constance Ngema, Beatrice Ngcobo, Olive Masinga, Thandi Kheswa and others. From the early 1970s onwards, the divide between the lower two groups – the Mthunzini Girls and Zomoya – began to be blurred after the departures of several female singers. Eventually, with the departures of Mthunzini male vocalists/groaners John Moriri in 1972 and Robert ‘Mbazo’ Mkhize in 1973 (who departed to fill the slot left by Simon Nkabinde when he left the Queens), the Mthunzini Girls name fizzled out. Those who had performed in the Girls during their late ‘60s heyday joined other Mavuthela groups, and the most talented of Izintombi Zomoya joined the Queens: Mthunzini leader Julia Yende became an Izintombi Zomoya member, with Mthunzini singer Virginia Teffo and Zomoya regulars Thandi Nkosi, Constance Ngema, Beatrice Ngcobo and Caroline Kapentar joining the Mahotella Queens. The membership patterns are often very confusing and puzzling, but the bottom line is that they were all talented singers and, consequently, fantastic music was produced. Backing up our point, we present a vivacious number from Zomoya entitled “Bekumnandi Emshadweni” (It was nice in the wedding), recorded in 1977 for the Motella label and featuring groaner Robert ‘Mbazo’ Mkhize. The song, co-composed by alto vocalist Joana Thango and bass guitarist Meshack Mkhwanazi, hails the joyous atmosphere of a Zulu wedding. “Bekumnandi emshadweni kaNomakhosi” (It was nice in Nomakhosi’s wedding), sing the girls. “Sadl’ amakhekhe saphuz’ amahewu, kwabamnandi ugcwele…!” (We ate cake and drank amahewu [a maize drink], it is nice to be full up…!”

The penultimate vocal song in this mix is provided by the always-wonderful Dark City Sisters. “Koloi Ya Malume” was composed by leader Joyce Mogatusi, recorded in 1977 and produced by West Nkosi. The Sisters, formed in 1958, had put their musical career on a hiatus in 1971 and didn’t regroup until around 1974, by which time Mogatusi was married and blessed with two children. The Sisters reunited at their new recording home of Gallo-Mavuthela, having spent the first part of their career at EMI under Rupert Bopape (until 1964) and then Hamilton Nzimande (until 1967). Mavuthela was directed by their former boss Bopape, but the ladies were under the production of West Nkosi, who – as a musician – was more hands-on, creative and had a great deal of input in the day-to-day goings on. The Sisters were at the company, releasing their material predominantly on the Gumba Gumba label, until 1981, when they joined Roxy Buthelezi’s Black Cat Productions (under the distribution of EMI). The Sisters once again split not long afterwards. Joyce Mogatusi returned to Mavuthela in 1984, recording a solo album under the title Joyce And The Shoe Laces, under old producer Nkosi (with Joyce singing all the group harmonies herself via multi-track, backed by West’s small unit of session players). The Sisters reunited once more towards the end of the 1980s, and although Joyce and the other longest-serving member Grace Moeketsi still keep the fires burning, it is only on a very small local scale. The Sisters’ earlier material is often elusive – the infamous Star Time LPs are hard to get hold of for a reasonable price, let alone the masses of 78s and 45s they produced in the 1960s and 1970s. “Koloi Ya Malume” is a great example of the ladies in fantastic voice, with excellent studio backing and also a guest groaner (who sounds like Joseph Mthimkhulu, one of the bass voices of Abafana Baseqhudeni).

The “mabone” (car headlights) craze, which began in 1973 and lasted well into the next year, was so big it took the meaning of “craze” to new heights. The first recording, “Two Mabone”, released on the FGB label in 1973 and recorded by West Nkosi Nabashokobezi, surpassed sales expectations in South Africa by a long margin. It was so popular that London Records obtained the U.S. distribution rights to the single. It was such a craze in South Africa that it became a series of recordings, with each black production company putting out their offerings: “3 Mabone”, “Four Mabone”, “6 Mabone”, “Twelve Mabone”… and so on! One view for the creation of jive mabone was in support of the battle to increase profits for the parent organisation by formulating a new craze for the black public to grab onto. The spoken introduction (or “rap”) tells the listener that this record is a biggie; it is something that every hip-to-the-jive African fella should own a copy of. The catchy beat and rhythm swiftly takes over from the shouting producer, and the music wins the listener over in a flash. Producer promotion via shouting + talented musicians = big hit! In the previous Mavuthela compilation, Jive Smodern Jive, we shared four of the big ‘mabone’ hits up to “6 Mabone”. “17 Mabone”, recorded by the Zwino Zwino Boys, was released on the FGB label in 1974. The mandatory (and perhaps unintelligible!) promotional rap – by whom else but the big boss Bopape – opens the tune. Car horn sound effects pierce the air before James Mukwebo’s bass launches the song. Before you know it, the guitar rhythm and infectious percussion kicks in and Noise Khanyile joins the band on violin, together with Elias Lerole on alto sax. The Boys are surely driving the Impala in top gear in this number.

Irene Mawela was one of those vocalists whose beautiful voice appears uncredited on a galaxy of records pressed with a variety of wonderful group names. Her musical life has seen her rubbing shoulders (and singing with) the likes of the Killingstone Stars, Dark City Sisters, Radio Stars, Sweet Sixteens, Young Stars, Rain Drops, Zoo Lake Rockers, Black Sea Giants, Trotting Sisters, Mgababa Queens… the list goes on. When she joined Gallo-Mavuthela in 1969, she entered into a romantic relationship with director-producer Rupert Bopape. The two were later married. Bopape was a forceful operator, and had complete control over the goings on in the company. So, when he said to Irene that he didn’t want her to go on tour with any of the Mavuthela artists, she obliged. Instead, he kept her busy in the studio penning hundreds and hundreds of classic mbaqanga songs. When Irene joined back in 1969, she became a part of a small line-up called the Mgababa Queens. When her relationship with Bopape became more intense, he began working more closely with her to develop her own music and talent: Irene & The Sweet Melodians was originally another small group with four to five singers, but by 1975 had reduced in numbers – the only vocalist now was Irene, who multi-tracked her voice to create a smooth female group harmony. One notable number, featuring Potatoes Zuma as the groaner, was “Moratoa Ke Batho”, released in 1975 on the Motella label. From around early 1976, Bopape and Irene began working more closely: ill health was forcing him to reduce his role in the administration of the company, and so the two formed a less strenuous composing partnership to create many mbaqanga classics, usually featuring Irene’s voice (or voices!) paired with a male groaner (or indeed quite a few male groaners) and, sometimes, Bopape chanting (or sometimes singing) in the background. A great example of one of these tunes ends our celebratory holiday compilation. “Zodwa Ntombi Yami” (“This girl is only for me”) was released on the Motella label in 1976 with the group name Mahabula Joza. It is a love song with a girl and a boy proclaiming undying love for each other. It features a startling accordion introduction, before the guitar rhythm of the Makgona Tsohle Band kicks in. Irene sings her way through the song beautifully, accompanied by members of Abafana Baseqhudeni including Robert ‘Mbazo’ Mkhize, Potatoes Zuma, and Elphas ‘Ray’ Mkize, bringing Christmas Jive to a smashing finish.

That just about rounds up the last post of my first year here at Electric Jive. It has been a real pleasure to be a part of a team bringing such amazing music to the fore once again, and it is truly an honour to receive praise for what we do here.

Christmas Jive has been handpicked from several 78s and 45s originally released between 1964 and 1977 on the various Gallo-Mavuthela record labels: Motella, Gallo New Sound, Gumba Gumba, C.T.C. Star Record, Gallotone, Gallo-USA, Inkonkoni, FGB Producers, and Up Mavuthela. Out of the 35 tracks contained in this collection, 6 numbers were kindly provided by Siemon Allen, and 2 numbers were kindly provided by Laurent Dalmasso – a tremendous thanks to both of you for taking the time and effort to assist me. The baton is now thrown from me to Matt, who will ring in the New Year with another assortment of goodies in a week or so. Hopefully normal service will resume from 2012!

So many of the tunes within Christmas Jive have been hidden for so long, so naturally, I am pleased to share such a fantastic selection of rarities with you. These musicians are truly playing from their hearts… I just know that you will all enjoy these songs as much as I have.

CHRISTMAS JIVE: 78s AND 45s FROM THE ARCHIVES
COMPILED BY NICK LOTAY
VOLUME 4

1. HAESO LEKOA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
MOTELLA MO 124 (1967)

2. IGUMBAGUMBA – GUITAR RHYTHM SESSION
GALLO NEW SOUND GB 3648 (1965)

3. ISIMANJE MANJE – ABAFANA BEZI MODERN*
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 14 (1966)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

4. LAMA – ELIJAH NKWANYANE AND HIS BAND*
MOTELLA MO 89 (1965)
*COURTESY OF LAURENT DALMASSO

5. MOKGADI – MAHLOKOHLOKO STARS
MOTELLA MO 116 (1966)

6. ROCSY PIE CONTI – BOB-CATS
MOTELLA MO 12 (1964)

7. JABULANI MABUNGU – IZINTOMBI ZOMGQASHIYO
MOTELLA MO 136 (1967)

8. BATHATHE WEST – WEST NKOSI & HIS ALTO SAX
C.T.C. STAR RECORD TA 734 (1969)

9. IYA UNDASTENDA – IZINTOMBI ZO MQASHIYO
MOTELLA MO 121 (1966)

10. AMABHODO – SPOKES MASHIYANE AND HIS GOLDEN SAX
GALLOTONE GB 3666 (1967)

11. UPHOSHOZWAYO – MAHLOKOHLOKO STARS
MOTELLA MO 129 (1967)

12. ORANGE FREE STATE – ABAFANA BEZI MPALAMPALA
C.T.C. STAR RECORD TA 733 (1969)

13. MASIBULELE KU JESU – EMTHUNZINI GIRLS
MOTELLA MO 79 (1965)

14. UMKHUMBI KANOWA – MARKS MANKWANE AND HIS BAND*
C.T.C. STAR RECORD TA 702 (1967)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

15. ULELE EMINI U MAKOTI – DAVEYTON SISTERS
GALLO-USA USA 330 (1965)

16. POPO – ANANIA WA MOFOLO
MOTELLA MO 111 (1966)

17. MOTHO O KGONWA KE SAGAGWE – HONEY RAY & THE STAR BEAMS
GALLO NEW SOUND GB 3657 (1966)

18. NGITHELELE – MARIO AND HIS ALTO SAX*
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 516 (1967)
*COURTESY OF LAURENT DALMASSO

19. MADULO – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 538 (1969)

20. HIP! HIP! HOORAY – WEST NKOSI & HIS MOUTH ORGAN
INKONKONI NKO 68 (1972)

21. OKWAMADODA KUYA BHIKWA – MAHLATHINI & IZINTOMBI ZOMGQASHIYO
MOTELLA MO 235 (1970)

22. TIKOLOSHE JIVE – MAKGOLOKGOLO*
FGB PRODUCERS FGB 622 (1973)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

23. SINDIZA EMOYENI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 587 (1972)

24. 1968 SPECIAL – MR. V. MZWANDILE & HIS ACCORDION
UP MAVUTHELA UPM 812 (1973)

25. IMPUNGA YEHLATHI – MTABHANE NDIMA AND THE MASH SISTERS
MOTELLA MO 408 (1973)

26. IPHEPHA LAMARABI – JOSEPH MAKWELA AND HIS COMRADES
INKONKONI NKO 96 (1972)

27. MARENA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 561 (1971)

28. AMANZI AMANCANE NO. 5 – LUCKY MONAMA & HIS PARTNERS
GUMBA GUMBA (1972)

29. MORATOA KE BATHO – IRENE & THE SWEET MELODIANS
MOTELLA MO 527 (1975)

30. BATHATHE GEORGE – ABAKHWENYANA
FGB PRODUCERS FGB 627 (1973)

31. BEKUMNANDI EMSHADWENI – IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA
MOTELLA MO 693 (1977)

32. WYNBURG JIVE – TOWNSHIP BOYS
UP MAVUTHELA UPM 829 (1976)

33. KOLOI YA MALUME – DARK CITY SISTERS*
GUMBA GUMBA MGG 757 (1977)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

34. 17 MABONE – ZWINO ZWINO BOYS*
FGB PRODUCERS FGB 616 (1974)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

35. ZODWA NTOMBI YAMI – MAHABULA JOZA*
MOTELLA MO 677 (1976)
*COURTESY OF SIEMON ALLEN

Download link
SendSpace

Seventies Singles Selection – Office Party Pt 2

2011-12-19T14:23:00.001Z

A fair bit to get your feet moving in this selection from seven singles found during this year. Also a few tracks delving into the more traditional realms of solo accordion and voice (Dlamini), Shangaan (Banda Six; Matengu Sisters) and Tsonga (Star Flying Gazankulu) vocal, through to some swinging bigger band numbers by curiosities such as the “Zomba Jazz Band”, and “Elias Banda with Jazz Afrique 73”.

Inbetween some kicking mbaqanga and accordion jive you will bump into Sankie Chounyane and his JoBurg Music Men, along with some irresistible bump-soul from Bucks and the Mighty Thorns. We close the set with a 1977 rendition by The Movers of “Morena Boloka” – a massively risky subversive intervention by David Thekwane and the band at the time. While it could be classified as an hymn, the tune was known as the national anthem in waiting. And so it has become, with Morena Boloko comprising the Sotho part of South Africa’s post-liberation national anthem.

If you have not already indulged - part one can be found here.

In wishing you a liberating 2012, I share a poem written by Durban-based Mphutlane Wa Bofelo.

HEMPZA MAWAWA VIBES
---------------------------------
It is not the count of nodding heads
That should count to you
It is not the snapping of fingers
That your camera should snap
It is not the swinging hips
That should make you happy
It is the number of strangers
Ending up as friends on the dance-floor
It is forlorn faces that your beat lit-up
It is the eternal photographs
That you insert in people’s lives
It is hearts that reconcile
On account of your music
It is the number of couples
Renewing marital vows
In the name of your verses
It is ever-lasting memories
Of people who declared
Their love on the dance-floor
It is the number of couples
That return to the dance-floor
It is not how many
Dollars there are in your Rand
Or how lavish a house
You can afford to build
With the sales of copies
But how many houses
Has your poetry turned
Into loving homes
How many children
Has your music
Transformed into human beings…….
(c)MPHUTLANE WA BOFELO

TRACKLIST:

1. Hamba Uzobuya:: Philemon Zulu (Zulu) More Music Hits MMh2574

2.       Sentebale:: Boy Mokaeane – 1974 (Mokaeane)        Marabi Jive JM5067
3.       Ukuhlupheka:: Sannah Mnguni Nesimanjemanje (Sannah Mnguni) CBS AB284
4.       Mopotong:: Amazulu Amnyama - 1976 (S. Jibiliza) Smanje Smanje SJM186
5.       Keneng Omputsa:: Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje - 1980          (H. Nzimande)   HVN NZ397
6.       Mkudu Special Part 1:: Zomba Jazz Band – 1983 (J. Mashanyela/ L. Letosa/ J. Sibumbe / I. Mtshali / R. Phiri) soul.soul AB401
7.       Mkudu Special Part 2:: Zomba Jazz Band – 1983 (J. Mashanyela/ L. Letosa/ J. Sibumbe / I. Mtshali / R. Phiri) soul.soul AB401
8.       Rhodesian Bump No1:: Bucks and the Mighty Thorns – 1975 (Richard Buck Radebe) Bump7303
9.       If You're Ready No 2:: Bucks and the Mighty Thorns – 1975 (Richard Buck Radebe) Bump7303
10.   Joburg Music Men Part 1:: Sankie Chounyane and His Men – (Sankie Chounyane) 1977 A1Disco Records ANB404
11.   Joburg Music Men Part 2:: Sankie Chounyane and His Men – (Sankie Chounyane) 1977 A1Disco Records ANB404
12.   Sangoma Jive:: Amazulu Amnyama – 1976 (S. Jibiliza) smanje Smanje SJM186
13.   Vhohwala Khuni:: Rainbow Fairies and Jive Boys – 1977 (Khuni)        MaBob City MMB108
14.   Sandanezwe:: Mabuya Queens – 1975 (Maria Masina) Themba TBB437
15.   Uyo Gcinaphi:: Mahotella Queens – 1972 (R. Bopape & M. Mankwane) Gumba Gumba MGG586
16.   Central Special:: Amakwaitos (S. Tyalentyale) Ntu NTB709
17.   Sankatana:: Amazulu Queens – 1977 (C. Mhlongo) OW2004
18.   Gijimani:: Intombi Zephepha with Senzeni Bafana – 1971 (P. Zulu) SKB399
19.   Salani Yagiyani:: Matengu Sisters – 1978 (Leah Baloyi) WEA (TPM1081) ROOTS (ROS 400)
20.   Woyala Madelena:: Banda Six – 1981 (David Sitoe) Motella MO730
21.   Machembera:: Elias Banda with Jazz Afrique 73 – 1973 (Banda) Motella MO.505
22.   Weekend Special No 2:: Elias Banda with Jazz Afrique 73 – 1973 (Banda) Motella MO.505
23.   Ndiya Hamba:: Dlamini – 1972 (Dlamini) Star Black SKB453
24.   Elizana:: Star Flying Gazankulu – 1979 (F. Mkhonto) HB642
25.   Morena Boloka:: The Movers -1977 (Trad) RCB170

Office Party Part Two: MIXED

Mediafire here

Office Party Part Two: SEPARATE TRACKS

Mediafire here

Rapidshare here (coming)

Soul on Special Offer – the Office Party Part 1

2011-12-17T10:24:00.007Z

Its Electric Jive Durban office party time again! The first set focusses mostly on soul from some of the 45s found this year. While we start with a few early 1970s questions about a mad-mad world whose seasons have all changed, the party loosens up with some interesting 78rpm recordings from the fifties, asking and answering perpetual questions. There is some inebriation being promoted by a great fifties South African Gilbey's Gin commercial (no they did not sponsor the office party), and then we slide into beautifully b(l)oozy Zulu Rock and the Zulu Roll.

Miriam Sibisi and the Can-Can Stars carry the tone by lamenting MaGumede spending all the family money at a shebeen. We then lurch towards a trio of 70s mbaqanga songs from Victor Zulu (Mahlabatini) that lament on how Christmas empties the pocket; how money is the root of all evil; and how there is just not enough money ‘for the girls anymore’. Expect a focus post on Victor in the new year.

In the soul focus we kick off with a disco-soul groover showcasing Jacob Nabayaluzi’s great voice declaring undying love for Sylvia Mtakwethu. Patience Africa gives her womanising man the boot in “Ngiyathandi Nsizwa”. “Friends” pick up the theme in isiXhosa, singing of lessons their grandfather taught them in Butterworth (Iguwa) over waiting to first grow up and respect themselves before expressing love for a woman.

In the first of two great “Soul Sisters” tracks, the woman has been dumped by her man because of her over-emphasis on material gains, and she is pleading with him to take her back. In “Shay'istulo Bhiza”, the Soul Sisters are telling their man, Bhiza, to ‘take a hike’. Even though she loves Bhiza, he is a terrible womaniser, promising all the woman in the district that he will marry them. So, she concludes that he must try his luck elsewhere.

Travelling via Lemmy Special playing sax to a 1971 Almon Memela ‘wha-wha’ guitar composition, we get to some deep late sixties and early seventies South African soul from “The Xperts”; “The Macoys” and “The Anchors”.

Guy Buttery's album - check it out

Winding down for this set we take in some soul blues from the Elite Swingsters, a funky jazz number from Barney Rachabane and the Soundproofs, landing up with a wonderful surprise find – “The Creations” in 1976 doing a lovely rendition of Manu Dibango’s “Wild Man in the City”.

The after-party chill can't be complete without Guy Buttery. Once again, Guy has generously consented for ElectricJive to share a recent track of his – released this year on a great vinyl selection of tracks. Guy has named this song, Umtamvuna , after a river and an area that demarcates the start of the spectacular Wild Coast. I encourage you to check Guy Buttery out here.

The second non-stop boogie, bump and jive offering arrives early next week.

Two options – a continuous mix, or download the individual tracks.

Best wishes to all visitors to Electric Jive – thank you for your company this year.

1.World Today:: Peanut Butter Conspiracy - 1972 (Brian Moulder) 45rpm CBS SSC1207.
2. It's a Mad Mad World:: Cambridge and Portia acc. by The Souls – 1968 (Cambridge B. Matiwane) 45rpm Ster Records SZ 8008
3. Cry My Baby:: The Anchors – 1969 (Patrick Nkosi) 45rpm City Special CYB36
4. Everything will be alright:: Spike Hornett and His Music – 19 fifty something 78rpm - Decca FM6374;
5. Gilbey's Gin (english):: Gilbey's Gin Promotional 78rpm - 19 fifty something (b side in Afrikaans)
6. Zulu Rock:: African Symphonics – 19 fifty something (Ngubane) 78rpm Troubador AFC941
7. Zulu Roll:: African Symphonics – 19 fifty something (Ngubane) 78rpm Troubador AFC941
8. Hay Magumede:: Miriam Sibisi and the Can-Can Stars – 1957 (M. Sibisi) 78rpm GB3275
9. Stop Coughing:: Bra Sambo – 19 fifty something (Bhengu) 78rpm Troubador AFC828 65149
10. Ukhisimusi Uqeda Amadola:: Mahlabatini - 1977 (V. Zulu) 45rpm KGB50B
11. Imali:: Intombi Zephepha and Mahlabatini – 1971 (V. Zulu) 45rpm Star Back LP SKL 3002
12. Anginamali:: Mahlabathini and Izintombi Zephepha - 1976 (V. Zulu) 45rpmSWB 236B
13. Sylvia Mntakwethu:: Jacob Nabayaluzi - 1978 (J. Khoza) 45rpm Disco Soul DCO 16
14. Ngiyathandi Nsizwa:: Patience Africa – 1976 (J. Zikhali) 45rpm SOJ101
15. Zimandi Qgitha:: Friends – 1976 (C.B. Matiwane) 45rpm PB36
16. Mtakwethu:: Soul Sisters – 1978 (G. Zulu) 45rpm Soul Brother PB 68
17. Shay'istulo Bhiza:: Soul Sisters- 1978 (C. Nombewu, C. Velem) 45rpm Soul Brother PB68
18. Ezola Emdeni:: Lemmy Special Mabaso – 1971 (A. Memela ) 45rpm HMV JP1241
19. Go-Go Underground:: The Macoys – 1970 45rpm Up Up UP UPB500
20. The Xperts:: Happy People Part 1 – 1976 (O.B. Sakoor). 45rpm RPM7800
21. The Xperts:: Happy People Part 2 – 1976 (O.B. Sakoor). 45rpm RPM7800
22. Uyeye (Papa Bull):: The Anchors & the Creche Kids – 1969 (Patrick Nkosi) City Special 45rpm CYB 53
23. Isikhova (Pat's Blues):: The Anchors & the Creche Kids (Patrick Nkosi) City Special 45rpm CYB 53
24. Soul Girl:: Sophie Thepedi with the Soul Throbs – 1975 (S. Thepedi) 45rpm soul.soul SSB023
25. Soul Blues:: Elite Swingsters 45rpm UPB521
26. Lovely Betty:: Barney Rachabane and the Soundproofs- 1976 (Sankie Chounyane) 45rpm soul.soulSSB075
27. Wild Man in the City:: The Creations – 1976 (M. Dibango) 45rpm PD 1270
28. Umtamvuna (To Disappear in Place Version):: Guy Buttery - 2011 - check it here

TRACKS MIXED

Mediafire here

Rapidshare here

SEPARATE TRACKS

Mediafire here

Rapidshare here

78 Revolutions Per Minute — Majuba Jazz from Mra to Bra — Volume 2/3 (1957-1967)

2011-12-14T07:04:00.001Z

I posted Volume One of this survey here at Electric Jive earlier this week. I was planning to post the remaining two volumes next month, but in the spirit of the holiday season thought it might be good to complete the picture. If you are arriving here first, the introductory text in Volume One will give you more information on the whole compilation.

Majuba, msakazo, or what is more commonly referred to as African Jazz is a quintessentially South African sound. Originally it was a big band sound that took American swing and indigenised it with elements of marabi. From its hey-day in the 1950s it was created by and produced some of the key figures of South African Jazz. By 1958 majuba jazz had split: one avenue taking a 'highbrow' approach with the influences of bop to become the sound of the Jazz Epistles and The Blue Notes; while another, some would say, 'lowbrow' approach took the music in the direction of sax jive. By 1964 sax jive had become mbaqanga.

Volume 1: Swing to Majuba (1953 – 1956)
Volume 2: Majuba to Sax Jive (1957-1961)
Volume 3: Sax Jive to Mbaqanga (1962 – 1967)

78 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE – MAJUBA JAZZ FROM MRA TO BRA
VOLUME 2: MAJUBA TO SAX JIVE (1957 – 1961)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 5)

1) TOPHITTERS - Kereke - 1957
(Reggie Msomi, Gallotone Jive Jive, GB 2712, ABC 16300)

An excellent kwela/vocal jive composed by Reggie Msomi opens this compilation. In many ways, the popularity of kwela led to an assimilation of aspects of that style with majuba jazz. Towards the late 1950s, the big band sound became faster and incorporated elements such as rhythmic or vamping guitars. Some like Drum music critic Bloke Modisane in his review of a 1958 recording by the Sharpetown Swingsters, commented that they “are probably the best there is. Wish they could remember that occasionally people sit down to listen… or pretend to.” In many ways the popularity of this faster style of playing also marked the beginning of the end of majuba jazz which quite rapidly began to transform first into sax jive and then mbaqanga.

2) THE SHARPETOWN SWINGSTERS – Jikela Bessie – 1957
(H. Bessie, Columbia, YE 192)
3) THE SHARPETOWN SWINGSTERS – Maeba – 1957
(trad. arr. H. Bessie, Columbia, YE 192)

Ian Jeffrey’s great account in his dissertation on this band gave me substantial insight into the general context of the history of majuba jazz. It is Jeffrey’s continued use of the term “majuba” in describing this music that lead me to research its root.

The Sharpetown Swingsters

Led by Joseph Molifi, the Sharpetown Swingsters formed in Sharpeville in January of 1953. The group at that time included Molifi on trombone, Joseph Moshoeshoe on trumpet, Hans Bessie on alto, Steven ‘Booitsie’ Lepere (brother to Jacob Lepere) on bass, Ishamel Molifi on tenor, Isaac Makgale on alto and David Masuko on drums. In 1954 Simon ‘Paps’ Mokhome joined the band on second trumpet, while Iphrahaim Zwane replaced Ishmael Molifi on tenor. In 1955 they were "spotted" by Rupert Bopape who signed them to a five-year contract with EMI to record under the Columbia label. Their first recording V Blues and Sharpetown Special (YE 127) “made them famous” though Jeffrey’s goes on to say that the group received £11 per side with an additional £5 to Steven Lepere for composition. The practice according to Jeffrey’s was the standard for all bands at the time.

Jeffrey’s goes on to say that by 1955 the band was well-known playing gigs all over the country and were also being featured on Gideon Nxumalo’s radio show This is Bantu Jazz. By November 1956, they had caught the eye of music critic Gideon Jay who reviewed their recent releases in Zonk magazine. Polliacks advertised the group in 1957 alongside Zacks and His Sextet as one of the best bands of the year. Maebe and Jikele Bessie, the two tracks featured here, were issued in December of that year and by January 1958 had reached the number two position of Polliacks Ladder of Hits. Ellison Themba’s African Swingsters were at number one. These two tracks were also featured on the EMI EP Africa Music and Life of Today Vol. 1 (SEYJ 102)

Their October 1958 release Archie's Jump received a favorable review from Drum’s Bloke Modisane, but Jeffrey’s also points out that Modisane’s tone also implied that "jive" (the term he used) was loosing its popularity. In January 1959 the Swingsters “peaked” with their release Iza Levay and Amajeri which went to the top of the Polliacks charts and also became their best-selling disc. They made two more discs with EMI and then in 1960, their contract was not renewed. According to Jeffreys, record companies began rejecting African jazz in favor of more “rural” sounding mbaqanga. Moreover the “African” programme on SABC was replaced by language specific Bantu Radio that looked to use “traditional” music as a way to culturally separate different language groups. It is also not insignificant that events like Sharpeville occurred in March 1960. Though never recording commercially again, the band continued to acquire new members and play together at various occasions well into the 1980s. (Jeffrey)

4) YANKEE SWINGSTERS – 3rd Avenue Jump – c1957
(Piliso, RCA, RCA 87, 8HBB 110)
5) YANKEE SWINGSTERS – Tshayani – c1957
(Piliso, RCA, RCA 87, 8HBB 111)

It is not clear whether Ntemi Piliso or his brother Shadrack or both perform on these tracks but in the liner notes of the CD reissue Bra Ntemi, Rob Allingham mentions that the Ntemi’s Alexandra All Stars did record briefly for Teal Records using names like the Country Jazz Band. The RCA label was an imprint of Teal Records in South Africa and I am assuming this record could be from those sessions. (Allingham)

6) SKIP PHALANE AND HIS BIG NINE – Kwela Bangazi – 1957
(J. Bangazi, Gallotone Jive, GB 2725, ABC 16356)
7) SKIP PHALANE AND HIS BIG NINE – Vuk’uzenzele – 1957
(Skip Phalane, Gallotone Jive, GB 2725, ABC 16355)

'Skip' Phalane from Coplan

Sylvester ‘Skip’ Phalane performed in the variety show Zonk! that entertained Allied soldiers during the second world war. In the late 1940s, Phalane also starred in the film of the same name that was made by Lietenant Ike Brooks, who claimed to have trained the “African ‘raw talent' from scratch.” David Coplan’s account of the Zonk experience during the war is quite extensive and a recommended read. According to Rasmussen, Phalane also performed later with the Jazz Maniacs and the Harlem Swingsters, playing tenor-sax. It is likely that his Big Nine also featured, future Elite Swingsters, Johnny or Jordan Bangazi as he is credited with the tune “Kwela Bangazi.” By 1962, Rasmussen revealed in an interview with Cups Nkanuka, that Phalane (Nkanuka’s idol while growing up) had stopped performing. (Rasmussen, Coplan)

8) ELIJAH'S RHYTHM KINGS – Bops Special - c1957
(Rupert Bopape, HMV, JP 2075, OAS 981)
9) ELIJAH'S RHYTHM KINGS – Elijah Special - c1957
(Elijah Nkwanyana, HMV, JP 2075, OAS 982)

EMI’s stable under Rupert Bopape was hard to beat in the 1950s and included some of the best musicians and band-leaders. Major names like Ellison Temba of the African Swingsters, Zacks Nkosi of the City Jazz Nine, Gray Mbau of the Brown Cool Six and Elijah Nkwanyana of Elijah’s Rhythm Kings would record together and often rotate band names depending on who was leading. These guys were also the core of Bopape’s Magic Circle Band, a kind of “super-group." that featured the best musicians from various bands.

Trumpeter and band-leader, Elijah Nkwanyana was born in 1931. Gwen Ansell retells a humorous story of how Nkwanyana, at age fifteen, and his older cousin (by one year), Banzi Bangani (who used to practise together in the early 1940s) got an early gig when their teacher failed to appear for a performance. They took over and out-played the teacher much to his chagrin. Ngwanyana also performed with Bangani in the group the Johannesburg All Stars which included Sydney Nthalo on piano, Willie Malan on drums, and General Duze on guitar. (Ansell, Rasmussen)

Nkwanyana from Rasmussen

Bangani in an interview with Rasmussen also retold how he and Ngwanayana recruited a vocal group led by Siba Mokgosi and became the African Ink Spots. Their association with the group led them to perform on the 1949 film Jim Comes to Joburg the first feature film with an “all-African” cast. Bangani and Ngwanyana also taught a young Hugh Masekela aspects of the trumpet. Bangani remembers “we cooked him, because, many times I listen to Hugh, he has got part of Elijah, he has got part of me in his playing.” (Rasmussen)

In the 1950s he fronted the Elijah Rhythm Kings and in 1957 Zonk magazine designated him composer of the year with a number of tunes including those featured here: Bops Special and Elijah Special. At the 1962 Castle Lager Jazz Festival he performed with Tete Mbambisa’s Jazz Giants with Dudu Pukwana, Martin Mgijima, Early Mabuza, and Nick Moyake. (Rasmussen)

Sadly, Elijah Nkwanyana died all too early at the age of 38 on December 31st, 1969. But his legacy lives on. David Coplan suggests that it was a late 1950s tune by Nkwanayana that Abdullah Ibrahim combined with other elements to create the iconic Mannenburg. Others have claimed that it was Zacks Nkosi’s tune Jackpot that was sampled, but if you listen closely to details within Bops Special you can almost hear elements of the future Mannenburg. (Ansell, Rasmussen, Coplan)

10) ZACKS AND HIS SEXTET – B.M.S.C. - c1957
(Zacks Nkosi, HMV, JP 2091, OAS 1035)
11) ZACKS AND HIS SEXTET – Rock, Rock Jazz - c1957
(Zacks Nkosi, HMV, JP 2091, OAS 1036)

Zacks Nkosi from Huskisson

'Bra' Zacks Nkosi, a legend of early African jazz and mbaqanga, was born in Alexandra township, Johannesburg in 1925. He received his first saxophone at the age of 15 and soon was performing with the Havana Group. After working with the Blue Diamond Jazz Band, Nkosi was invited to audition at the Bantu Men's Social Centre (BMSC) for Solomon 'Zuluboy' Cele's Jazz Maniacs, the premium jazz band of the 1930s and 40s. He joined the Maniacs in 1940 and soon became their leading saxophonist. According to Huskisson, after Cele's death in 1944, Nkosi became the Maniacs leader, though this account is contradicted by Bergmeier who maintained that Wilson Silgee assumed leadership of the group. Silgee would go on to form his own group, King Force Silgee's Jazz Forces, and Nkosi also performed with this group. In the early 1950s Nkosi along with Ellison Temba and Elijah Nkwanyana performed with the African Swingsters. It is with them that Nkosi recorded his first composition Swazi Stomp in 1953. (Listen at SAMAP) In 1956 Nkosi formed two groups, Zacks and His Sextet and the City Jazz Nine, to concentrate primarily on commercial recordings. Some of their most notable tracks between 1956 and 1964 are featured on his first LP: Our Kind of Jazz which was issued by EMI in 1964. (Huskisson, Bergmeier)

Both tracks featured in this compilation are from the original 78 rpms but they can also be found on the LP. The track BMSC refers to the Bantu Men’s Social Centre an important meeting place and performance venue on Eloff Street in Johannesburg that was built in 1924 with funds from the liberal white community. View some of Nkosi’s albums at flatinternational. (Coplan, Huskisson)

12) THE GLOBE TROTTERS – Drums of Africa – 1957
(Victor Ndazilwana, Columbia, YE 180, CEA 5099)
13) THE GLOBE TROTTERS – Vuyisile – 1957
(Douglas Xaba, Columbia, YE 184, CEA 5139)

As mentioned earlier in the Volume One post, Victor Ndlazilwana began his career singing with the male quartette, the Woody Woodpeckers, in 1951. The recordings on that compilation were issued on the Philips label, though I am under the impression that the Woodpeckers normally recorded for EMI and it’s various labels: Columbia and HMV. At that time record companies would sign artists but record them under a range of different names. The “stable” system as it was known, gave competitors and the audience the impression that the company had far more recording artists than it did. It also allowed the company to control the relative success of any one group. It is not clear to me whether the Globe Trotters are the Woody Woodpeckers under another name but certainly the composing credits here go to regulars in the EMI stable: Ndazilwana, Rupert Bopape and Douglas Xaba. Drums of Africa as well as two other tracks by the Globe Trotters were featured on the 1950s compilation LP Africa - Music and Life Today (33JSX 9), also issued in the US as Music of the African Zulus.

Sponono from Playbill

Multi-instrumentalist and actor, Douglas Xaba, composer of the track Vuyisile, was born in Natal in 1934. Son of a retired missionary, his first acting role was in The Respectful Prostitute in Durban. He joined the Lex Mona’s Tympany Slickers after moving to Queenstown in the Eastern Cape. By that time he was already quite politically active. In 1964 Xaba came to the US as part of Alan Paton’s play Sponono which opened at the Cort Theatre in New York on April 2nd. Directed by Krishna Shah, the play included musical arrangements by Gideon Nxumalo and the cast featured amongst others Philemon Hou as Ha’ Penny, Xaba as an imbongi or praise singer, Caiphus Semenya as one of the reformatory Boys and Margaret Mcingana (Singana) as a member of the choir. According to Miriam Makeba, in her biography, the performance on Broadway was picketed. In her words “people thought Sponono was just some white play with Uncle Tom black people in it. They boycotted it. They did a mock funeral parade and carried a coffin symbolizing that Sponono had died.” But Makeba goes on to say that the performers that came were genuine actors and musicians. The show was a “flop” and the cast returned to South Africa, but some of the artists remained including Semenya and Xaba. Makeba assisted them in finding scholarships to study music and an apartment in New York. In many ways their arrival in New York gave Makeba and Hugh Masekela a vital community away from home. Interestingly, Makeba got married to Masekela during the opening month of Sponono in April 1964. (Playbill, Ansell, Makeba)

Michael Xaba is possibly most well known for his tune Emavungwini popularized by Miriam Makeba on her 1968 album Makeba!, but first featured on Hugh Masekela’s 1965 album Grrr which interestingly also included his version of Dudu Pukwana’s dedication to Christopher Columbus — Mra. (Listen to Makeba’s version here at Electric Jive) Another version of Emavungwini can be found on an album by Cedric Brooks and the Devine Light. Here the track is credited to none other than Ndikho Douglas Xaba… as in Ndikho Xaba and the Natives, authors of the super rare and highly collectable, spiritual jazz LP issued on the Trilyte label in 1969.

I wonder if Xaba’s song Vuyisile featured here may in some oblique way refer to Vuyisile Mini, the anti-apartheid activist that was hung in 1964. Without a translation of the lyric it is hard to say and so I can only speculate. Mini who was born in Port Elizabeth became active as a trade-unionist in the Eastern Cape in the 1950s. Both Xaba and Mini were politically active in the region but they were also musically active and so it is not hard to believe that their paths might have crossed at some point. Mini sang in the P.E. Male Voice Choir and had a distinctive, commanding bass voice and composed many famous freedom songs including Ndodemnyama or "Beware Verwoerd". In 1956, a year before the Vuyisile recording by Xaba was issued, Mini became one of the 156 accused in the famous “treason trial” which included Nelson Mandela. Xaba’s bass delivery here in Vuyisile seems very reminiscent of Mini’s to me. Anyways, just speculation…. (Makeba, Ansell)

14) SPOKES MASHIYANE – Big Joe Special – 1958
(Mashiyane, Rave, R 42, matrix 7608)
15) SPOKES MASHIYANE – Kwela Sax – 1958
(Mashiyane, Rave, R 42, matrix 7479)

Spokes Mashiyane, is credited as having popularized kwela or pennywhistle jive with his recordings Ace Blues and Kwela Spokes in 1954. In the four years that followed he would remain one of the most famous and prolific proponents of this musical style. Big Joe Special recorded in 1958, marks the first time that Mashiyane played on saxophone. According to Allingham, Mashiyane was persuaded to take up the instrument by Strike Vilakazi, the producer for Trutone’s black division from 1952 - 1970. As with his earlier Ace Blues, Big Joe Special was a sales phenomenon. The record became the trendsetting hit of that year and would inspire a whole new style of music. Sax jive—latter called mbaqanga—would dominate South African urban music for the next twenty years. In many ways this track marks the beginning of the eventual decline of the majuba jazz era. Younger consumers were looking for faster, heavier sounds and mbaqanga would soon satisfy those desires. Mashiyane, after his successes with Trutone Records and their Quality and Rave labels, was lured away by Gallo Records in 1958. At Gallo he became the first black musician to receive royalties from his recordings. View Mashiyane’s albums at flatinternational. (Allingham)

16) AFRICAN SWINGSTERS – Shay’ utshane – 1959
(Ellison Themba, HMV, JP 2134)

Ellison Themba

For someone as significant as tenor-man Ellison ‘Bra T’ Themba, it was amazing to find almost no mention of him in most of the major texts about this subject. As said earlier, Themba, was a key part of EMI’s stable, recording some of the most classic tunes of the 1950s with Zack Nkosi, Elijah Nkwanyana and others. There he was also a key component of Bopape’s Magic Circle Band. Themba, led the African Swingsters an early big band that unfortunately is not represented in Volume One of this compilation. According to Rob Allingham both Nkosi on alto sax, and Elijah Nkwanyanya on trumpet were part of the African Swingsters. (Allingham)

Their track Swazi Stomp, composed by Zacks Nkosi is included on the compilation LP Jazz and Hot Dance in South Africa. Huskisson has that tune being Nkosi’s first, composed in 1953, though the track by the African Swingsters, issued on HMV (JP 133), probably dates from around 1955. (SAMAP has it as JP 418, which could be a reissue.) Shay’utshane, a major hit in 1959, comes quite late in the history of majuba.

After Bopape left for Gallo in 1964, he took many of his EMI musicians with him including Themba. The African Swingsters would continue to record for Gallo well into the 1960s, in fact they are the last group represented on Volume Three with, by then, a distinctly mbaqanga sound. In 1975 Gallo re-assembled a band of jazz musicians from the golden age of majuba. Called The Members, this group included Ellison Themba, Ntemi Piliso, Shadrack Piliso and Spokes Mashiyane amongst others. They recorded in the style of what was then called bump-jive — a slowed down, extended version of the very music they helped create in the 1950s. The group released a number of albums including Wayback Riverside (BL 40), and Kadudu Special (BL 44).

17) BROWN COOL SIX – Emigodini – 1959
(Gray Mbau, Columbia, YE 252, CEA 5330)
18) BROWN COOL SIX – Meadowlands Blues – 1959
(Gray Mbau, Columbia, YE 252, CEA 5350)

As mentioned in the opening text of Volume One, Gray Mbau performed with the Harlem Swinsters and Todd Matshikiza puts him significantly at the very birth of the majuba musical style in his 1957 Drum article Jazz comes to Joburg: “Gray put the corn bread aside and started blowing something on the five note scale. We dropped our corn bread and got stuck into Gray’s mood. And that is how some of the greatest and unsurpassed African Jazz classics were born.” Recording for EMI as the Brown Cool Six, Mbau was also part of Bopape’s Magic Circle Band. (Jeffrey)

19) ELITE SWINGTERS – Panga - c1959
(Sylvia Maloi, RCA, RCA 179, 8KBB 60)
20) ELITE SWINGTERS – Thu Thuka - c1959
(L. Matlotlo, RCA, RCA 179, 8KBB 59)

The Elite Swingsters were formed in April 1956 by Johannes 'Chooks' Tshukudu as a session band for RCA, an imprint of Teal Records in South Africa. After a string of hits including Phalafala, the group decided to continue recording under the name: Elite Swingsters. Lebenya Matlotlo worked as a producer for RCA and penned four of their early tracks including the hit Phalafala and subsequently also played a significant role in the group's formation. A collection of their 78 rpm hits were issued as The Beat of Africa around 1958. It is not clear to me who was part of the original lineup of the Swingsters at that time, but it could be extrapolated from the track listing of their first LP that the group included Tshukudu and Paul Ramesti. Mojapelo in his book puts Philip Thami Madi in the original group as well and according to music.org.za the classic lineup included leader and string bass player, Tshukudu, Louis Molubi on drums, Rex Ntuli on guitar, Johnny Bangazi on trumpet and Rametsi on tenor sax. The Solven Whistlers' Peter Mokonotela joined the group as an alto saxophonist in 1962 as did the notable film star and vocalist, Dolly Rathebe, in 1964.

In 1963 the Elite Swingters won the "Band Section" of the Cold Castle Jazz Festival. Though this information may be incorrect given the inclusion of Chris McGregor's Big Band in that same year. While in Durban, performing at the 1965 BATFAIR trade show, Tshukudu drowned while swimming. The group continued to perform and record but interest in their style of jazz dwindled with the rise of mbaqanga, which appealed to a younger audience. In 1989 the group reunited with Rathebe to record a number of albums. Over the years, members performing with the group have included: Jury Mpehlo, Chris Songxaka, Albert Ralulimi, Mike Selelo, Elijah Nkwanyane, Johnny Selelo, Blythe Mbityana, Chris Columbus, Daniel Ngema, George Manxola, Jackie Mogali, Paul Ntleru, Dimpy Shabalala, Philip Mbele. Bennette Rahlao, Conrad Zulu, Jack Mogale amongst others. (Huskisson, Mojapelo)

21) TRANSVAAL ROCKING JAZZ STARS – Here is a Message – c1960
(Michael Xaba, Bopape, Columbia, YE 320, CEA 5622)
22) TRANSVAAL ROCKING JAZZ STARS – Langa More – c1960
(Ellison Themba, Bopape, Columbia, YE 320, CEA 5621)

Rupert Bopape

Rupert Bopape became a producer at EMI in 1952 and while there soon established one of the strongest jazz catalogues in the country. The Tranvaal Rockin Jazz Stars were one of Bopape’s “Magic Circle Bands.” The liner notes of EMI’s Hits of 59 LP (JCLP 18) sheds light on this concept: “To explain the meaning of the “Magic Circle” — we have taken the number 7 — considered a lucky number by all Africans, and have formed the “Magic Circle” from the seven outstanding African bands. This famous group The Tranvaal Rocking Jazz Stars is comprised of the seven leaders of the seven bands of the “Magic Circle” to form a unique combination.” (Allingham, HMV liner notes)

Generally this group would include legends from the EMI roster including Ellison Temba, leader of the African Swingsters; Zacks Nkosi of the Jazz Maniacs and then City Jazz Nine; Elijah Nkwanyane of Elijah’s Rhythm Kings, Gray Mbau of the Harlem Swingsters; and Michael Xaba from the Jazz Maniacs and Harlem Swingsters to name but a few. In 1964 Bopape moved to Gallo, taking many of their musicians with him. There he established Mavuthela and built a significant foundation for mbaqanga music. While at Mavuthela, Bopape did attempt to reconstitute the “Magic Circle Band” as can be heard on Volume Three of this compilation. Bop’s Magic Circle Band was issued on Motella in 1964, an early issue from that famous label. Notably the tracks there are a lot more mbaqanga sounding than those of the Transvaal Rockin Jazz Stars. Read more about the history of the Motella label, Mavuthela and Rupert Bopape in Nick Lotay’s classic post Jive Motella! at Matsuli.

23) N.D. HOTSHOTS – N.D. City – 1960
(Reggie Msomi, New Sound, GB 3139, ABC 18373)
24) N.D. HOTSHOTS – Sonce Special – 1960
(Reggie Msomi, New Sound, GB 3139, ABC 18374)

According to the liner notes of Swing Africa featured here at Electric Jive, Reggie Msomi was born near Port Shepstone, along the South Coast of Kwa Zulu Natal. In 1953 he moved to Johannesburg seeking work, interestingly, as a male nurse in a mining hospital. Roughly around 1955 he joined RCA, an imprint of Teal Records, where he met ‘Chooks’ Tshukudu the future leader of the Elite Swingsters. By 1957 (I am assuming given his credit on the kwela tune above) he had moved to Gallo Records. Though first a guitarist, Msomi also played saxophone and at Gallo produced a significant body of hits including Twisting with Reggie. The N.D. Hotshots were a session band featuring Msomi on alto sax and also included trumpeter Banzi Bangani. N.D. refers to “Natal, Durban” an abbreviation found on car-number plates. Ironically as Rob Allingham points out, Msomi was the only member to hail from the region. (Ansell, Allingham)

Reggie Msomi

The tracks featured in this compilation are some of my favorite and show Msomi, along with Mashiyane, to be at the forefront of transforming the mbaqanga sound from its majuba roots. Msomi’s approach to mbaqanga was quite experimental, often introducing elements like ska or twist to the music. Significantly he was often credited as composer on many classic Gallo New Sound tracks, most notably those with Mashiyane as well as the Skylarks featuring Miriam Makeba. In 1962 he formed the Hollywood Jazz Band and also became a producer / talent scout for Gallo. Alas, in 1964 he was replaced by Rupert Bopape in an unfortunate turn of events recounted in Nick Lotay’s classic post Jive Motella! on the history of Mavuthela at Matsuli. View more of Msomi’s albums at flatinternational.

25) ETHEL RULULU – Nda Zenza - 1961
(Ethel Rululu, Envee, NV 3303, E 11351)
26) ETHEL RULULU & MAHAMBA – Unyako ‘Mtsha - 1961
(Ethel Rululu, Envee, NV 3303, E 11352)

Finding information on this jazz singer has been quite difficult. In the early 1950s, Ethel Rululu performed with the Hi-Tide Harmonics and recorded with them on Trutone’s Bantu Bathu label (BB 627) possibly in 1952. The tracks featured here are from 1961 also recorded with Trutone. Given the rise of mbaqanga, her style of singing at this point almost seems out of place, coming from the seemingly forgotten era of the 1950s.

27) HI-LIFE SEPTETTE – Ekhaya Kwa Chaka – 1961
(Christopher Songxaka, Hi-Life, HL 522, J 73)
28) HI-LIFE SEPTETTE – House Full – 1961
(Christopher Songxaka, Hi-Life, HL 522, J 75)

Again it is difficult to find information on Christopher Songxaka. The SAMAP archive reveals a number of compositions by him, including Zulu Jazz recorded by the Eastern City Seven led by Boyce Gwele. The track was issued on the Tropik label around 1957. Spokes Mashiyane and his Big Five’s New Sound Jump also composed by Songxaka was an early hit and issued in 1959 or 1960. Christopher Songxaka and His Sax recorded 1959 Se Cherries on Trutone’s Quality label in, I am assuming, 1959. And then Songxaka fronted at least two bands at Gallo during the Mavuthela era: the Home Swingsters and the Home Town Units, both from about 1964/5. The tracks featured here by the Hi-Life Septet come quite late in the majuba chronology but do sound classic!

29) DUMA OF DURBAN – Diphoofolo Tsotlhe – 1961
(Allen Kwela, Envee, NV 3494, matrix 11300)
30) DUMA OF DURBAN – Thatha Umthwalo – 1961
(Allen Kwela, Envee, NV 3494, matrix 11299)

Pioneering jazz guitarist, Allen Duma Kwela was born in Chesterville, Durban in 1939 and acquired his first guitar in 1954. In 1958 he moved to Johannesburg and began playing and composing with Spokes Mashiyane and others. Electric Jive has featured two of his classic, hard-to-find albums the 1972 Allen’s Soul Bag and the late 1970s Black Beauty. In an interesting side note Roger Koza in an interview with Lars Rasmussen revealed that Allen Kwela, Barney Rachabane along with Winston Mankunku and others were part of the group The Cliffs that recorded the 1975 album Alex Express also available here at Electric Jive. Oddly, the track Diphoofolo Tsotlhe featured here includes a number of farm animal sounds. Not sure why this experimental approach was taken, but perhaps it was meant to give the track a more rural feeling.

78 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE – MAJUBA JAZZ FROM MRA TO BRA
VOLUME 3: SAX JIVE TO MBAQANGA (1962 – 1967)

The tracks on Volume Three trace the music as it augments from sax jive to mbaqanga. Many of the artists here of course are featured in the previous two volumes and were the pioneers of majuba or African Jazz in its hey-day in the 1950s. These tracks reveal the innovators — having set the foundation for the music that was to dominate South African styles for the next twenty years: mbaganga — now having to adapt to its commercial requirements. The tracks here show a style in transition, where artists were exploring new avenues but also trying to keep up with the changing times. They had to either swim with it or sink.

In his book In Township Tonight, David Coplan’s account of this period is particularly revealing: “the veteran big band and mbaqanga jazz players could at first still get work in the studios backing simanje-manje groups like the Dark City Sisters. Producers like Bopape and Mathumba, however, preferred to hire musicians individually for standard msakazo recordings. Professional urban musicians expressed their dissatisfaction with the new system, while the producers disdained the jazzmen’s sense of artistic and professional independence and found their demands for better pay and working conditions annoying: Who did these hired hands think they were?

In response Bopape replaced the middle-class players with working-class and migrant performers and instituted a system of rigid studio control, employing only players who obeyed them […] Performance units were rehearsed incessantly and the music result became his property. The late Rupert, though not a performing musician himself, has more than a thousand compositions copyrighted in his name […] Wilson Silgee, Zakes Nkosi, Ellison Themba, Ntemi Piliso, and a few others stayed on to help organize and rehearse the new groups, but most had no studio contracts and changed to freelance recording with pickup ensembles. Among these were Early Mabuza, Eric Nomvete, Mongezi Feza, Mackay Davashe, Kippie Moeketsi, Gideon Nxumalo, Cyril Magubane, Blythe Mbityana, Allen Kwela, Elijah Nkwanyana, Dalton Khanyile, Skip Phalane, and many other great jazz talents.”

While this account of the business side of the music creates a bleak picture of the 1960s, it must be said that the music on this volume is still some of the best. Reggie Msomi’s Black Cat is one of my favorites of the whole compilation. Volume Three also features classic tracks by David Thekwane and Strike Vilakazi, both producers for Teal and Trutone respectively. If you are interested in where this music goes from here I highly recommend Nick Lotay’s, excellent posts on the history of Mavuthela at Matsuli and here at Electric Jive.

One final note about the last track here by Ellison Themba’s, African Swingsters. This track features Muvuthela’s Marks Mankwane on guitar backed by the Magkona Tsohle Band and while it is an instrumental, you almost keep expecting Simon 'Mahlathini' Nkabinde to start groaning.

78 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE – MAJUBA JAZZ FROM MRA TO BRA
VOLUME 3: SAX JIVE TO MBAQANGA (1962 – 1967)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 6)

1) ALBERT RALULIMI – Easter Monday Taps Taps - 1962
(Jill Desmond, TJ Quality, TJ 657, matrix 12469)

2) ALBERT RALULIMI – Good Friday Kwela - 1962
(Jill Desmond, TJ Quality, TJ 657, matrix 12468)

3) DAVID THEKWANE AND CO. – 1962 Shalashala – 1962
(Thekwane, Envee, NV 3324, matrix 11997)

4) DAVID THEKWANE AND CO. – String Bass Taps– 1962
(Thekwane, Envee, NV 3324, matrix 11995)

5) ELITE SWINGSTERS – Jika Jika Twist - c1962
(G. Ntutu, Drum, DR 125, B62D 0337)

6) ELITE SWINGSTERS – Mabelebele - c1962
(Jordan Bangazi, Drum, DR 125, B62D 0338)

7) REGGIE MSOMI AND THE HOLLYWOD JAZZ BAND – Black Cat – 1963
(Reggie Msomi, Gallo USA, USA 246, ABC 23916)

8) REGGIE MSOMI AND THE HOLLYWOD JAZZ BAND – South West Africa– 1963
(Reggie Msomi, Gallo USA, USA 246, ABC 23915)

9) ALEXANDER ALL STARS – Isikebe Siwile – 1964
(Shadrack Piliso, Motella, MO 8, ABC 30047)

10) ALEXANDER ALL STARS – Umkhovu – 1964
(Shadrack Piliso, Motella, MO 8, ABC 30048)

11) BOPS MAGIC CIRCLE BAND – Lehlabile Ska – 1964
(Rupert Bopape, Motella, MO 14, ABC 30060)

12) BOPS MAGIC CIRCLE BAND – On the Beat – 1964
(Rupert Bopape, Motella, MO 14, ABC 30059)

13) ALBERT RALULIMI – Monkey Jive – 1965
(Ralulimi, Top Beat, RCA 365, RQBB 3962)

14) ALBERT RALULIMI – Mr. Rocktion’s Best – 1965
(Ralulimi, Top Beat, RCA 365, RQBB 3963)

15) ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND – Inkomo Emnyama – 1965
(Shadrack Piliso, Motella, MO 47, ABC 30308)

16) ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND – Makomkom No. 3 – 1965
(Shadrack Piliso, Motella, MO 47, ABC 30309)

17) SPOKES MASHIYANE AND HIS GOLDEN SAX – Fifth Avenue – 1965
(Mashiyane, New Sound, GB 3617, ABC 30355)

18) SPOKES MASHIYANE AND HIS GOLDEN SAX – New York City – 1965
(Mashiyane, New Sound, GB 3617, ABC 30354)

19) SDV SWING BAND – Taxi Jive 700 - 1967
(Strike Vilakazi, Tempo, KT 015, matrix 16148)

20) SDV SWING BAND – Taxi Jive 6 No. 2 - 1967
(Strike Vilakazi, Tempo, KT 015, matrix 16147)

21) AFRICAN SWINGSTERS – Indhumbula - 1967
(Ellison Temba, Gumba Gumba, MGG 512, ABC 30751)

22) AFRICAN SWINGSTERS – Simanjemanje No. 2 - 1967
(Ellison Temba, Gumba Gumba, MGG 512, ABC 30752)

Enjoy!

VOLUME 1: SWING TO MAJUBA (1953 – 1956)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 4)
Available here

VOLUME 2: MAJUBA TO SAX JIVE (1957 – 1961)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 5)
RS

VOLUME 3: SAX JIVE TO MBAQANGA (1962 – 1967)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 6)
RS

78 Revolutions Per Minute — Majuba Jazz from Mra to Bra — Volume 1 (1953-1956)

2011-12-09T09:56:00.003Z

I started this compilation initially as an end of year holiday mix, but one thing lead to another and it turned into something much larger. I suspect though that it will still meet the original requirements. This post builds on a number of previous excellent posts here at Electric Jive in particular Chris Albertyn’s Do you Remember Nick Moyake? After listening to the Moyake I thought about building a mix that would include significant South African artists in perhaps less well known contexts such as early bands of even later unknown bands. At that point I had in mind a 1956 recording of Willie Max en sy Orkes featuring a really young Dollar Brand as well as a very battered disc by the Nu Rhythm Down Beats led by Christopher Columbus Ncgukana or 'Mra'. ('Mra' or 'Bra' are slang terms that can mean "brother" but they are also an accolade and sign of respect if used as a prefix before a name.) As the mix grew, I realized that it was becoming something closer to a survey of a golden age of South African Jazz and it revealed how that music was transformed, over a decade, into something else that was distinctly more African. I suppose the subtitle of the post could have been how American swing became mbaqanga.

Majuba, msakazo, or what is more commonly referred to as African Jazz is a quintessentially South African sound. Originally it was a big band sound that took American swing and indigenised it with elements of marabi. From its hey-day in the 1950s it was created by and produced some of the key figures of South African Jazz.

By 1958 majuba jazz had split: one avenue taking a 'highbrow' approach with the influences of bop to become the sound of the Jazz Epistles and The Blue Notes; while another, some would say, 'lowbrow' approach took the music in the direction of sax jive. By 1964 sax jive had become mbaqanga.

The early roots of the majuba sound, can be traced back to some of the dance bands of the 1930s and 40s including Sonny Groenewald’s Jazz Revellers, Peter Rezant’s Merry Blackbirds, but most notably Solomon 'Zuluboy' Cele’s Jazz Maniacs. The sound at that time was American swing and Cele wanted to bring a more African flavour to the music. Cele, before forming the Maniacs in 1935, was a marabi pianist and he integrated elements of that style with the music. According to David Coplan, the Maniacs popular song Majuba gave the style its name.

But accounts about this history vary. For example, in his 1957 Drum article Jazz comes to JHB Todd Matshikiza wrote about how the Harlem Swingsters gave birth to this new style of music:

"We [the Harlem Swingsters] took him [Gray Mbau] with us to Potchefstroom on another trip, where African Jazz was reborn. The original product – Marabi – had died when American swing took over. Gray [Mbau], Taai [Shomang], Gwigwi [Mrwebi], and I recaptured the wonderful mood over an elevating early breakfast of corn bread and tea in the open air after heavy a drinking bout the previous evening. Gray put the corn bread aside and started blowing something on the five note scale. We dropped our corn bread and got stuck into Gray’s mood. And that is how some of the greatest and unsurpassed African Jazz classics were born. “E-Qonce”, “E-Mtata”, “Majuba”, “Fish and Chips” were born out of that combination of the Harlem Swingsters whose passing remains today’s greatest regret. We invented “Majuba” jazz and gave jive strong competition. We syncopated and displaced accents and gave endless variety to our ‘native’ rhythms. We were longing for the days or Marabi piano, vital and live. Blues piano, ragtime piano, jazz band piano, swing and modern piano had taken it away from us. And here now we are seedling it again with new blood in its veins. It was Tebejana’s [a famous marabi pianist] original material, but treated freshly with a dash of lime.” (Chris Ballantine, Ian Jeffery)

A further discrepancy can be noted in that the recordings of Majuba and E-Qonce on this compilation were performed by the African Quavers and attributed to David Mzimkulu and Willie Mbali respectively. Interestingly Mzimkulu was a member of the Jazz Maniacs.

Coplan goes on to say “by 1954 even penny whistlers were described as performing in ‘Majuba tempo’.” But he also points out that it was Gideon Nxumalo with his popular SABC radio show This is Bantu Jazz that was “principally responsible for the wide distribution of a new term for the majuba African jazz—mbaqanga.”

The terms ijuba and amajuba in isiZulu mean dove or doves. Majuba, I have read, means “hill of doves.” Geographically, Majuba is the name of a hill near Volksrust in Mpumalanga. Historically, it is also the name of a battle that took place on that same hill in the First Boer War where the Boers defeated the British in 1881. But I digress…

By the late fifties and early sixties the popularity of majuba began to wane. 1958 marked a watershed moment in its unraveling when Spokes Mashiyane, famous for popularising kwela on the pennywhistle, took up the saxophone at the suggestion of Strike Vilikazi. The result Big Joe Special was a punchier, faster jive that satisfied younger consumers. Michael Xaba, trumpeter for the legendary Jazz Maniacs is said to have coined the phrase mbaqanga, or cornbread, to describe this new style of music. Some have interpreted his comment as a pejorative, but I wonder if it could be viewed in a more ambiguous light… given that we all have to eat!

The realities of majuba’s decline however saw really successful bands like the Sharpetown Swingsters, go by the wayside. The group, discovered by Rupert Bopape, was signed to a five-year contract in 1955. In that period they recorded 22 tracks for the Columbia label, many of which were major hits in the late 1950s. By 1960, their contract with EMI went un-renewed.

In many ways Ian Jefferey’s dissertation on the Sharpetowne Swingsters has been an invaluable window onto this period and his use of the term 'majuba' in describing this music urged me to examine where that came from.

But the majuba sound never did really die. It continues to be re-birthed. This is the sound that is revisited in the classic 1967 LP Kwela by Gwigwi’s Band featuring Gwigwi Mrewbi, Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor and Ronnie Beer. This is also the sound that is quoted on Dollar Brand’s archetypal Mannenburg from 1973. Rob Allingham has even pointed to a critique by Lulu Masilela that Mannenburg was simply a slowed down version of 'Bra' Zacks Nkosi’s Jackpot, a 1960 classic majuba track. After listening to both I think I disagree. Cultures build on their roots and this appropriation, if you want to call it that, does transform the original into a significant new animal that rightfully pays homage to its past.

Recently a number of excellent CD compilations that include this music have been issued most notably Albert Ralulimi and Rob Allingham’s Township Swing Jazz! Vol. 1 + 2. Generally though, most compilations include majuba jazz in the context of so many other great styles, mainly vocal jive and kwela. One compilation LP that does focus almost exclusively on this material is Jazz and Hot Dance in South Africa (1946-1959). This record, issued by Harlequin in 1985 is excellent but out-of-print. Copies do appear on eBay but not very often. In the interests of building a comprehensive narrative in this compilation I have included two tracks from that compilation here: these are by The Harlem Swingsters and The Shanty City Seven. Also check out Chris Albertyn’s South African Jazz 78rpm Mix and Matt Temple’s Pull Up! Sixties Jazz 78s here at Electric Jive

Before we commence with this holiday mix/survey, I would like to thank Laurent Dalmasso for kindly providing the namesake track Majuba by the African Quavers for this compilation. I would also like to thank the team here at Electric Jive: Chris, Matt, Nick and Francis for an amazing year of rich discussions. And I would especially like to thank Chris and Matt for inviting me, a year ago in January, to be a part of this wonderful endeavor!

This compilation is arranged chronologically and is split over three volumes. Today’s post will feature Volume 1 only. Volume 2 and 3 are now available at another post on Electric Jive. Some elements of the original mix may not necessarily fit into a strict definition of majuba jazz but have remained to give some historical context. Sources of content below have been listed at the bottom of each paragraph.

Volume 1: Swing to Majuba (1953 – 1956)
Volume 2: Majuba to Sax Jive (1957-1961)
Volume 3: Sax Jive to Mbaqanga (1962 – 1967)

78 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE – MAJUBA JAZZ FROM MRA TO BRA
VOLUME 1: SWING TO MAJUBA (1953 – 1956)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 4)

1) AFRICAN QUAVERS SWING ORCHESTRA - E-Qonce - 1953
(Mbali, Bantu Bathu, BB 156, matrix 1577)
2) AFRICAN QUAVERS SWING ORCHESTRA - U-Maskhanda – 1953
(Mbali, Bantu Bathu, BB 156, matrix 1576)
3) AFRICAN QUAVERS SWING ORCHESTRA – Ezibeleni – 1953
(Mzimkulu, Bantu Bathu, BB 159, matrix 1580)
4) AFRICAN QUAVERS SWING ORCHESTRA – Umkhonde - 1953
(Mzimkulu, Bantu Bathu, BB 159, matrix 1579)
5) AFRICAN QUAVERS SWING ORCHESTRA – Majuba – 1953
(Mzimkulu, Bantu Bathu, BB 155, matrix 1581)
* thanks to Laurent Dalmasso for the Majuba track.

Eric Nomvete died in September 1999 and his obituary in City Press reveals that he co-founded the African Quavers in East London. The Quavers were hugely popular at the time and included Willie 'Sax-o-Willis' Mbali on alto sax, Boyce Hashe on alto sax, David Mzimkulu on trumpet and Absalom Mtyeku on trumpet. The group would later become the famed fifteen-piece band the Havana Swingsters. Allingham lists the personnel of the Swingsters on the 1954 recording, Emaxambeni, as Douglas 'Sax' Manuel on 1st alto, Boyce Hashe on 2nd alto, Eric Nomvete on 1st tenor, Vuyisile Mjamba on 2nd tenor, David Mzimkulu on 1st trumpet, Mqaqbane Mlubi on 2nd trumpet, Absolom Mtyeku on 3rd trumpet, Zama Mati on 1st trombone, Graham Nobaxa on piano, William Madyaka on guitar, Daniel 'Kgomo' Morolong on bass and Pavia Gwenisa on drums. (Listen to tracks at SAMAP) (Molefe, Allingham)

Born in October 1920, Nomvete studied at Adams College in Natal where his teachers included none other than Reuben T. Caluza and William Mseleku. It is here that he also met fellow-student Todd Matshikiza, a future member of the Harlem Swingsters and composer of King Kong. After receiving a diploma in social work, he moved to Umtata and there formed the Rhythm Swingsters in 1946. It is at this point that Nomvete learned to play the alto sax with the help of Gwigwi Mrwebi. In 1949 Nomvete moved to Duncan Village outside East London and it is here that he is said to have formed the African Quavers. He composed his first tune, Xapa Song, in 1951 with aid from fellow band members David Mzimkulu and Willie Mbali. (Huskisson, Molefe)

Willie Mbali from Coplan

Willie 'Sax-o-Wills' Mbali a saxophonist and band-leader, hailed from Queenstown and must have been a notable dancer as David Coplan shows an image of him as a Queenstown Ball Room Champion in the 1920s. In the early 1930s he led, with pianist Meekly 'Fingertips' Matshikiza, the Blue Rhythm Syncopaters a group that was preceded by the Big Four. In 1937 Griffiths Motsieloa organized a country-wide tour for the Merry Blackbirds and Darktown Strutters and in February 1938, Mbali wrote about that tour in Bantu World: “Let me add as a footnote that the local orchestra will benefit through the visit of the Merry Blackbirds, and will make use of whatever tips they received from these artists.” Interestingly, trumpeter, David Mzimkulu actually recorded with the Merry Blackbirds Orchestra when they backed the Manhattan Brothers on Pesheya Kwezo Ntaba (GE 973) in 1949, though it is unclear to me whether he would have been in the Blackbirds during the time of Mbali’s article. In the 1940s David Mzimkulu also performed with the legendary Jazz Maniacs. (Coplan)

Eric Nomvete is said to have ‘discovered’ Mongezi Feza and in 1962 introduced him on trumpet in his band The Big Five at the now classic Castle Lager National Jazz Festival. The track Pondo Blues also featured Dick Khoza on drums and though at the time only received third prize, is by far one of the best tracks on the album.

It is not totally clear whether Eric Nomvete actually performs on the African Quavers recordings, but I suspect he probably does. So far I have found at least nine tracks from this same recording session including U-Toki (BB 653) which is listed in Huskisson as a Nomvete composition. On this track the band performs with a vocal group, the Chocolate Sisters.

Rob Allingham has it that Willie Mbali was the leader of the group at the time of these recordings in 1953. He also maintains that these were the only sessions recorded by the group, the result of a field-unit sent to East London, hence the varied quality of the recordings.

Most of the tracks appear to be composed by Mbali or Mzimkulu, notably Majuba (GB 155) by Mzimkulu and E-Qonce (GB 156) by Mbali. Majuba is the same composition that gave name to this style of music in the 1950s. Some discrepancies are evident over the authorship of Majuba. For example in his August 1957 article in Drum magazine, Todd Matshikiza implies that it was the Harlem Swingsters with Gray Mbau, Taai Shomang, Gwigwi Mrwebi and himself that came up with both Majuba and E-Qonce. Huskisson also has Matshikiza as the composer of E-Qonce. But Coplan points out that it was the Jazz Maniac’s popular recording of Majuba that gave the style its name and of course David Mzimkulu at some point did perform with the Maniacs. So my guess is more research needs to be done in this area.

One final note, in his interview with Lars Rasmussen, Tete Mbambisa mentions performing with the African Quavers, though I am sure he was too young to be present at the time of these recordings. Also Willie Mbali is the grandfather of saxophonist, Ndithi Mbali.

6) MERRY SWINGSTERS with VICTOR MKIZE and JOYCE FOLEY
– Hambela eBhayi – 1953
(AMR, Gallotone, GB 1842, ABC 11470)
7) MERRY SWINGSTERS with VICTOR MKIZE and JOYCE FOLEY
– iTyala Lami – 1953
(AMR, Gallotone, GB 1842, ABC 11472)

iBhayi (or eBhayi in this track) is the isiXhosa name for Port Elizabeth the largest city in the Eastern Cape. The whole region seems to have been a major centre for jazz in South Africa and Coplan points out that “the Eastern Cape contributed so many talented instrumentalists and vocalists to the Johannesburg African entertainment world that Xhosa became something of a lingua franca among its musicians.” Victor Mkhize, a famous comedian performed with the Alfred Herberts’s African Jazz and Variety. After a show in Durban he and a number of others in the cast including Miriam Makeba travelled late back to Johannesburg. The van was in a collision with another car that killed a number of white passengers. After receiving no help from police or medical staff for almost 48 hours, he died from his wounds. The tragic story is recounted in Makeba’s biography My Story. (Coplan, Makeba)

8) SHANTY CITY SEVEN – Unoya Kae – 1953
(Lottie Masilo, Gallotone, GB 1955, ABC 12310)
* from the LP Jazz and Hot Dance in SA

Mackay Davashe

Born 1920 in East London, Sherwood Mackay Davashe started playing sax with the Merry Mischiefs, a seven-piece band led by Dale Quaker, in 1943. Prior to that he had studied at the Wilfred Sentso School of Modern Piano Syncopation. The school was established by Sensto at the Mooki Memorial College in Orlando between 1937 and June 1938 and became an important education outlet for many young performers. Between 1944 and 1945 he played with the Jazz Maniacs who by that point were being led by Wilson Silgee. In the 1950s Davashe led the Shantytown Sextet a group that included Kippie Moeketsi (who joined the band in 1950) on alto, Jacob Lepere on bass, General Duze on guitar, Boyce Gwele on piano, Norman Martin on drums and at times Dollar Brand. Their 1953 recording Msakazo (GB 1955) which happens to be the B-side of this tune also gave this style of music a temporary name and is mentioned by Coplan. He goes on to say that it was a somewhat derogatory term meaning “broadcast.” The A-side, Unoya Kae, featured here is billed as the Shanty City Seven and on this track Robert Pule appears on trumpet with W. Adams on bass.

Kippie Moeketsi

In 1959 Davashe led the King Kong Orchestra that included Jonas Gwangwa, Kippie Moeketsi, Hugh Masekela, Jacob Lepere, General Duze, Sylvester Phahlane and Gwigwi Mrwebi to name but a few. A year before that in 1958 he had formed the Jazz Dazzlers who recorded at least three tracks in November and are featured on the CD Township Swing Jazz! Vol. 1. On the occasion of that recording the Dazzlers included Kippie Moeketsi on 1st alto, Gwigwi Mrwebi on 2nd alto, Davashe on tenor, Kleintjie Rubushe on trumpet, Dugmore 'Darkie' Slinger on trombone, Sol Klaaste on piano, General Duze on guitar, Jacob Lepere on bass and Willie Malan on drums. The Jazz Dazzlers went on to perform at the famous Cold Castle National Jazz Festival at Moroka-Jabavu Stadium in 1962. The personnel by that point included Pat Matshikiza on piano, Saint Moikangoa on bass, Early Mabuza on drums, Kippie Moeketsi on alto sax, Blythe Mbityana on trombone and Dennis Mpali on trumpet. Some of Davashe’s most notable compositions include Lakutshon’ Ilanga made famous by Miriam Makeba and the Manhattan Brothers as well as Izikalo Zegoduka, the original version of Kilimanjaro also made hugely popular by the Manhattan Brothers. (Huskisson, Ballantine, Coplan, Bergmeier, Beinhart)

9) BENNY G. MRWEBI & the HARLEM SWINGSTERS + TAAI SHOMANG
– U-Mgibe – 1954
(Gideon Nxumalo, Troubadour, AFC 166, MATA 1251)
* from the LP Jazz and Hot Dance in SA

Gwigwi Mrwebi from Shaderburg

Folks! Doesn’t this introduction sound very much like the opening of Pata Pata that would make Miriam Makeba so famous 13 years later? Benny 'Gwigwi' Mrwebi was the leader of the legendary Harlem Swingsters in the early 1950s. Though in Ntemi Piliso’s obituary in City Press, Taai Shomang is said to have led the group. This large fourteen-piece big band hailed from Alexandra and established itself as the leading group in the 1940s. This is also the same band mentioned above in Todd Matshikiza’s Drum article where he reveals the story of how the Swingters gave birth to the majuba style of jazz. At times that group also included Gray Mbau, Todd Matshikiza, Gideon Nxumalo, Ntemi Piliso as well as Kippie Moeketsi for a brief period in the late 1940s before he went onto the Shanty Town Sextet in 1950. In 1951 the Swingsters toured Mozambique with Dolly Rathebe. A major hit for the group included Mgibe Special composed by Gideon 'Mgibe' Nxumalo who at that time was sitting in for Todd Matshikiza on piano. The track featured here 'Mgibe' is also composed by Gideon Nxumalo. (Molefe, Coplan)

In November 1958 Mrwebi recorded at least three tracks with the Jazz Dazzlers which can be heard on the CD Township Swing Jazz Vol. 1. Mrwebi was the circulation manager at Drum magazine and he also performed in the King Kong Orchestra. When King Kong went to London in 1961 he came with the cast and decided to remain in the UK after they returned to South Africa. While in the UK he hooked up with fellow South Africans—Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor, Ronnie Beer—and recorded the highly collectable LP Kwela with Gwigwi’s Band issued in 1967 on Doug Dobell’s 77 Records. Since then this album has been reissued by Honest Jons. You will also find the track Nyusamkhaya on the compilation London is the Place For Me 2. The October 17, 1970 issue of Billboard magazine reveals that Mrwebi won a grant to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The grant was awarded by Chisa Productions headed by Hugh Masekela. Mrwebi died of a heart attack in Boston in 1973 (Shaderburg, Billboard)

10) NTEMIE’S ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND
– Nonzwakazi Alias Fat Cookies – 1954
( Edmund Piliso, Tropik DC, DC 502, ABC 12814)
11) NTEMIE’S ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND – Trotters – 1954
(Edmund Piliso, Tropik DC, DC 502, ABC 12813)
12) NTEMIE’S ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND – Fishcake – 1954
(Edmund Piliso, Tropik DC, DC 502, ABC 13073)
13) NTEMIE’S ALEXANDRA ALL STAR BAND – Tikoloshe – 1954
(Edmund Piliso, Tropik DC, DC 502, ABC 13076)

Edmund Mtutuzeli Piliso or 'Bra Ntemi' was born in Alexandra in 1925 and passed away in January 2001. His obituary in City Press reveals that he received his first instrument, a clarinet, in 1947 as a donation from a local Alexandra resident. In the early 1950s he played with Gwigwi Mrwebi’s Harlem Swingsters. Though Molefe in the obituary does say that Taai Shomang led the Swingsters. Piliso formed the Alexandra All Stars in 1953 after leaving the Swingsters and with this group put out some of the most memorable tracks in the majuba style. Remarkable these early recordings by this famous group included the band personnel on the label, which is rare. The group at this point included Edmund 'Ntemi' Piliso as the leader on tenor sax, David 'Boy Maska' Mope and David 'Bra' Sello on alto sax, Shadrack Piliso (Ntemi’s older brother) on trumpet, Fortesque 'Edgar' Mazibuko on bass, S. 'Booikie' Mokone on drums and Aaron Lebona on piano.

In 1975 Ntemi formed The Members with his brother Shadrack and African Swingster’s Ellison Temba and they released a number of albums with long form single-sided tracks in a style that was by then called bump-jive. Bump Jive in many ways has its roots in the majuba sound of the 1950s as is discussed at length in Rob Allingham’s excellent notes on the CD reissue Bra Ntemi (CDXU1). In 1981 Ntemi Piliso founded the African Jazz Pioneers, a very successful band that brought many of the sounds of the 1950s to a new generation. (Molefe, Allingham, Bergmeier)

14) BOOYSE GWELE & his CITY JAZZ GIANTS – Half Mpaqanga – c1955
(Gwiri, Philips, SB 21, AA30020.1H)
15) ORLANDO JAZZ COMBO – Umjiva – c1955
(Kika, Philips, SB 13, AA30012.2H)

The title of the Boyce Gwele tune is particularly interesting —Half Mpaqanga or “half a loaf” reads the given translation. This is almost the same term coined by Michael Xaba and popularized by Gideon Nxumalo on his radio show. In the 1950s Boyce Gwele performed on piano with Mackay Davashe’s famous Shantytown Sextet a group that included Kippie Moeketsi on alto, Jacob Lepere on bass, General Duze on guitar, Norman Martin on drums. Gwele also led the Eastern City Seven which included bassist Daniel Sibanyoni. Listen to their tune Zulu Jazz composed by Christopher Songxaka in the SAMAP archive. (Tropik, ABC 16203) Gwele also solos on Esingeni by King Jury and His Band on the CD Township Swing Jazz! Vol. 2 (Coplan, Rasmussen)
Track 15 here by pianist Sidwell Kika’s Orlando Jazz Combo featured P.N. Gumbie on trumpet, M. Dludla on alto, S. Kubeka on tenor, and B. Makhubedu on drums.

16) NU RHYTHM DOWN BEATS of PE – Emlanjeni – c1955
(Christoper Columbus, Phillips, SB 38, AA 30097.2H)
17) NU RHYTHM DOWN BEATS of PE – Intlombe – c1955
(Christoper Columbus, Phillips, SB 38, AA 30097.1H)

Born in Cape Town in 1927, Christopher Columbus Ngcukana or 'Mbra' or 'Mra' was one of the key figures in South African Jazz. As Huskisson reveals he learned to play the trumpet in 1944 and then joined the Harmony Kings. After that group dissolved, he moved on to the Hot Shots led by Gray Mbau in East London. In 1949 he formed his own big band, the Swingettes which included 'Cups' Nkanuka whom he taught saxophone. In 1953 he moved to Port Elizabeth and joined the Junior Jazzmen. Then in 1954 he formed his own band in PE, the Rhythm Down Beat with Hubert Tini, Dick Khoza, Philip Mbambaza, Derrek Xujwa and Coleman Stokwe. Others joined the band at a later point including Paul Zokufa, Nick Moyake, Dudu Pukwana, Mahkwela, Moses Molelekoa and Andrew Veldman. Significantly this band would be the first time that Nick Moyake and Dudu Pukwana would play together.

Chris Columbus from Huskisson

Though it is not clear exactly who is performing on these two tracks by the Nu Rhythm Downbeats of PE, it is likely most of the above mentioned musicians. In July of 1955 Ngcukana brought a sixteen-piece band, De Bafana, to Cape Town and in 1960 he again reconnected with 'Cups' Nkunuka to form the band the 12 Disciples of Jazz. Of course, in 1962 he performed with the Chris McGregor Septet at the Castle Lager Jazz Festival at Moroku-Jabuva Stadium and then was part of the seminal group, the Castle Lager Big Band which won the 1963 festival and recorded the classic album Jazz / The African Sound. Dudu Pukwana’s Mra is a tribute to Christopher Columbus and is featured on Kwela by Gwigwi’s Band, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, and Hugh Masekela’s Grrr. (Huskisson, Rasmussen)

18) TODD MATSHIKIZA and his RHYTHM – iMali – c1955
(“Money”, Matshikiza, Phillips, SB 15, AA 30014.1H)
19) TODD MATSHIKIZA and his RHYTHM – Umsindo – c1955
(“Noise”, Matshikiza, Phillips, SB 15, AA 30014.2H)

Todd Matshikiza

Todd Matshikiza, of course mentioned above, was born in Queenstown in 1921. While at Adams College in Natal he met Eric Nomvete. In 1947 he moved to Johannesburg as a teacher. Matshikiza started working for Drum magazine in March 1951 as their music critic and crafted a unique style of writing. His 1957 article Jazz comes to JHB puts him at the birth of the majuba style during, what I am assuming is, the early 1950s when he performed with the Gwigwi Mrwebi’s Harlem Swingsters. In 1953 he composed the tune Makhalipile or “the dauntless one” dedicated to Father Trevor Huddleston. This choral work was part of a benefit concert used to raise funds by Huddleston for an Olympic-sized swimming pool in Orlando West. The pool opened in 1955.

Matshikiza began working on the music for the historic “all African Jazz opera”, King Kong, around late 1957. The show opened to huge success in Johannesburg in 1959 and then was taken to London and opened in February 1961. Matshikiza also scored the music for Alan Paton’s Mkhumbane which opened in Durban, March 29th 1960, one week after the Sharpeville massacres. A political play that came at an unfortunate time which also proved to be its deathnail. Post Sharpeville, King Kong travelled to London and gave opportunity for many of its cast and musicians, including Matshikiza, to leave the country. Matshikiza stayed on in London and eventually moved to Zambia. He died there in 1968. (Huskisson, Ballantine, Glasser)

20) The WOODY WOODPECKERS – Ndivume – c1955
(“Accept Me”, Ndazilwana, Phillips, SB 10, AA 30009.1H)
21) The WOODY WOODPECKERS’ SWEETHEARTS
– Nandi Nabhuti – c1955
(Ndazilwana, Phillips, SB 39, AA 30038.2H)

Victor Ndlazilwana began his career singing with the male quartette, the Woody Woodpeckers, in 1951. In 1959 he played the role of "The Journalist" in the hit show King Kong and continued with the cast when the show was taken to London in 1961. The Woody Woodpeckers performed at the classic 1962 Castle Jazz Jazz Festival at Moroka-Jabavu stadium. At that point the group included Ndazilwana, Bennet Majango, Johnny Tsagane and Boy Ngwenya. In 1970, Ndlazilwana formed the group the Jazz Ministers and recorded a number of albums including Nomvula's Jazz Dance which can be viewed here at Electric Jive. His album Zandile recorded in 1975 included Ngwenya from the Woody Woodpeckers and can be viewed at flatinternational. After Ndlazilwana's death in 1978 trumpeter, Johnny Mekoa, assumed leadership of the Ministers. Mekoa would later perform the title track Zandile as a tribute to Ndlazilwana with the Jazzanians, the first nationally recognised group to emerge from the University of Natal's seminal jazz courses.

22) GWI GWI AND HIS GWIGZAS – Emhlabeni – 1956
(Michael Xaba, Troubadour AFC 320, MATA 1599)
23) GWI GWI AND HIS GWIGZAS – Libala – 1956
(Michael Xaba, Troubadour AFC 320, MATA 1600)

As mentioned earlier Benny 'Gwigwi' Mrwebi was the leader of the legendary Harlem Swingsters in the early 1950s. This large fourteen-piece hailed from Alexandra and established itself as the leading group in the 1940s. According to Allingham the personnel on these tracks by Gwigwi and his Gwigzas include Michael Xaba on trumpet, Gray Mbau on trumpet, Dugmore 'Darkie' Slinger on trombone and possibly Boyce Gwele on piano. Michael Xaba is composer on both tunes. Xaba of course performed trumpet with the legendary Jazz Maniacs and is also most famous for coining the term “mbaqanga”.

24) JAZZ MANIACS – Sent For You Yesterday – 1956
(Count Basie, Gallotone Jive, GBJ 2456, ABC 14629)
25) JAZZ MANIACS – Tamping At The Tappa – 1956
(Billy May, Gallotone Jive, GBJ 2456, ABC 14630)

In many ways the Jazz Maniacs could be viewed as the great grandfather’s of this style of music and were some of the earliest practitioners of big band jazz. Alas I have no early recordings of them in the flatinternational archive. These rather late recordings featuring compositions by Count Basie and Billy May date from 1956. The Jazz Maniacs were formed in 1935 by pianist Solomon 'Zuluboy' Cele; and the group included in time Wilson 'King Force' Silgee, 'Bra' Zacks Nkosi as well as Mackay Davashe. According to Coplan, the band began with four members in Sophiatown.

The Maniacs unlike their contemporaries the Merry Blackbirds led by Peter Rezant, who opted for more western styled arrangements, wanted to indigenize or “Africanise” big band jazz. After all, their leader, Cele was a marabi piano performer prior to forming the group and he introduced elements of that sound to the music. In short the Maniacs blended American swing with marabi. The group made their first marabi jazz recording Izikalo Zika Z-Boy (XU 9) in 1939 almost a decade after the rough piano style had faded.

Wilson 'King Force' Silgee an icon in his own right joined the Jazz Maniacs in the mid-30s as a saxophone player, and later led the group after Cele was murdered in 1944. In the 1950s Silgee would go on to form his own band the Jazz Forces. Huskisson has Zacks Nkosi as the leader of the group after Cele’s death. By the 1940s the band had grown to twelve and included: Cele on piano, Silgee and Jacob Medumo on sax, Vy Nkosi on trombone, David Mzimkulu (later of the African Quavers) and Ernst Mochumi on trumpets, Victor Hamilton on guitar and Jacob Lepere on bass. Mackay Davashe performed with the group from 1944-45. Also in the group Jacob Moeketsi on piano, Zakes Seabi, Edward Sililo and trumpeter, Michael Xaba who famously coined the term “mbaqanga” describing aspects of where the music was going. (Coplan, Ballantine, Huskisson)

26) WILLIE MAX AND HIS BAND – Regtrek Kwela – 1956
(Willie Max, Parade, HP 517, matrix 5274)
27) WILLIE MAX AND HIS BAND – Hot Toddy – 1956
(Willie Max, Parade, HP 517, matrix 5275)

Willie Max, a drummer, led this Cape Town dance band in the mid 1950s. According to Rasmussen their repertoire featured primarily foxtrot, waltzes and quickstep. The band also included a very young pianist, Dollar Brand (aka Abdullah Ibrahim), who was 21 at the time. Ibrahim would perform with the group for about two years. Born in October 1934, Abdullah Ibrahim started performing professionally in Cape Town in the early 1950s. His first recordings were with the Tuxedo City Slickers in 1954, which included Blythe Mbityane on trombone. Early in 1956 he recorded roughly eight tracks with Willie Max en Sy Orkes of which only four were issued. One track, not featured here, 'Lovers Wals' was Ibrahim’s first recorded composition. Two tracks from that session 'Regtrek Kwela' and 'Hot Toddy' are featured here with Willie Max on drums and Ibrahim on piano.

In 1958 Ibrahim toured the Eastern Cape with Mackay Davashe’s Shantytown Sextet who were then backing for the Manhattan Brothers. That same year he formed the Dollar Brand Trio. In August 1959 he recorded My Songs for You (an album which I think remains as an unissued acetate only) with his soon-to-be wife Sathima Bea Benjamin. That same year Ibrahim formed the Jazz Epistles with himself on piano, Kippie Moeketsi on alto, Hugh Masekela on trumpet, Jonas Gwangwa on trombone, Johnny Gertze on bass, Makaya Ntshoko on drums. On January 22nd, 1960 the Jazz Epistles recorded their classic album Jazz Epistle Verse 1. The band would soon dissolve and in 1962 Ibrahim left South Africa and embarked on an international career. He would return many times in the future to live and record. (Rasmussen)

28) THE FLASHES – We Matsoale – 1957
(arr. Davashe, Gallotone Jive, GB 2717, ABC 16062)

This is a legacy track from the early days of the mix. Initially I chose it because Mackay Davashe had done the arrangements on this curious, somewhat Spanish, tune. I decided to keep it after hearing the vocalists. I could be mistaken, but I am convinced that this is Miriam Makeba singing here! If it is her, then this might be quite unique. I have not read anything about her performing with the Flashes, nor have I seen any information about them in general. If anyone knows, drop us a note!

Enjoy!

VOLUME 1: SWING TO MAJUBA (1953 – 1956)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 4)
RS

VOLUME 2: MAJUBA TO SAX JIVE (1957 – 1961)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 5)
Available Here

VOLUME 3: SAX JIVE TO MBAQANGA (1962 – 1967)
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 6)
Available Here

Batsumi Winners

2011-12-08T10:00:00.000Z

Great response to our competition and thanks for all the suggestions for 2012. The two winners who will receive the limited edition vinyl are MalariaTiger and Dan. Two consolation prizes of digital copies go to Fleasbaby and Quexxon-12. Please can you contact me (matt AT matsulimusic.com) to arrange logistics. Keep on grooving.

Classic mbaqanga: The Beat of Smanje Manje (1968)

2011-12-02T00:01:00.004Z

We go back to the king of music in the '60s townships for today's offering. The 1968 compilation The Beat of Smanje Manje brings together twelve memorable tunes originally released on singles on the "Smanje Manje" label - and all twelve of them are true gems.

Hot on the heels of Good Luck Motella, Marena, and all of those "cream of the crop" Mavuthela Music Company compilation LPs, The Beat of Smanje Manje collates some of the most exhilarating 1960s mbaqanga one could ever hope to stumble across.

The likes of West Nkosi, Marks Mankwane, Reggie Msomi and Alex Hendricks (a more mature, saxophone-bearing version of the 1950s/60s kwela star "Little Kid Lex") throw up some damn-near fantastic and rocking sax jives, featuring that tight-knitted trademark electric mbaqanga sound. Guest appearances are made by Julia Yende's Mthunzini Girls, as well as great groaner Mahlathini, both of whom team up for the beautiful "Ngikhala Ngiya Baleka", one of the big mbaqanga hits of the late '60s.

"Vula Bop's", the number that opens this LP, may well just be the perfect example of this kind of music. Joseph Makwela, plucking his electric bass, introduces the tune and, before you know it, is immediately accompanied by Lucky Monama on drums, the oft-underrated professional Vivian Ngubane (on his super-bouncy rhythm guitar), Marks Mankwane playing lilting lead guitar licks, and resident hornblower West Nkosi blowing the alto sax for Africa. The track's title references Mavuthela director/producer Rupert Bopape (who was nicknamed "Bop's" in the Gallo studios), and was released in opposition to "Vala Nzimande", a sax jive song that emanated from GRC's Isibaya Esikhulu Music, so-named after its producer Hamilton Nzimande.

We have often mentioned the Mthunzini Girls and the strong vocals of its leader, Julia Yende, so we'll say no more about them and leave you enjoying the group's biggest hit, "Ngikhala Ngiya Baleka", a soulful and jive-tastic ballad in which every musician in the studio fires on all cylinders.

Reggie Msomi enters the fray with his Hollywood Jazz Band for just one number, but it's a goodie: "Mono Sara No. 2". The song is an instrumental re-recording of a 1964 Mahotella Queens number, "Mono Sarah Nani", a Shona-language song arranged by then-regular vocalist Sarah Mabokela.

"Izulu Liya Duduma No. 2" is a must for all listeners... the Makgona Tsohle Band lives up to its name here and delivers the goods with immense ease. It is another instrumental cover of another big hit, which can be found opening the LP Good Luck Motella. This cover song is one not to be skipped past!

This music is just sublime. From a personal point of view, this was one of the first LPs I came across after getting into this music, so the songs here have a particular resonance with me. Nothing more now needs to be said - all you have to do is download this LP and strut your stuff with The Beat of Smanje Manje. Enjoy!

THE BEAT OF SMANJE MANJE (Various)
Smanje Manje LSJM 1001
1968

1. VULA BOP'S - WEST NKOSI & HIS ALTO SAX
2. NGIKHALA NGIYA BALEKA - MTHUNZINI GIRLS
3. MONO SARA NO. 2 - REGGIE MSOMI & HIS HOLLYWOOD JAZZ BAND
4. UMKHOMBE - ALEX AND HIS ALTO SAX
5. SIKHULEKILE - MARKS MANKWANE & HIS ALTO SAX
6. KHUPA MARAMA NO. 5 - MARKS MANKWANE & DI-ABAFANA
7. SGUB KHWELA JIVE - ABAFANA BE MVUNGE
8. MOPIE SPECIAL - UMKHIZE OMCANE
9. DOVA, DOVA SKUMBA - WEST NKOSI & HIS ALTO SAX
10. BIG BAG NO. 1 - MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND
11. IZULU LIYA DUDUMA NO. 2 - MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND
12. UYAGIYA UMAHLATHINI - MAHLATHINI

RS / MF

BATSUMI GIVE-AWAY!

2011-11-25T00:01:00.007Z

To mark Matsuli's impending release on Monday 28 November of Batsumi's incredible 1974 debut LP we have two copies of the limited edition vinyl up for grabs (if you don't have a turntable Matsuli will arrange a digital copy for download or via CD).

To enter the giveaway please become an electricjive follower and leave us a comment on this posting with an idea of what content you'd like to see us feature in 2012. To become a follower simply click on the "follow" button at the top left hand side of the web-site and fill out your details.

Full details on the reissue are available at the Matsuli site here and Dan Magaziner has given it a big thumbs up at Africa is a Country. Honest Jons describes it as "Landmark Afro Jazz from South Africa, 1974 — urgent, spiritual, political; shimmering, propulsive, surging. Reverbed traditional and trap drums, mesmeric bass, soaring flute and tenor sax. Warmly recommended."

To purchase copies of the limited edition vinyl please visit the Matsuli link or if you are based in South Africa copies are available here. Digital downloads as MP3s are available from 28/11 via iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. It is also available via streaming service Spotify.

Pennywhistle and Sax Kwela

2011-11-22T00:01:00.002Z

Staying within the timeframes of the ‘Vukani’ movie posting, and picking up on the pennywhistle music showcased in it, it is time again to share some great pennywhistle and sax kwela. While the music was a major cross-over success in South Africa, it did not do much to ‘educate’ its white promoters seeking to make a quick buck by issuing an LP targeted at the white audience at the time. More is written in an earlier posting about kwela and racial identity here

The back cover of this fine record reads as follows:

“The flageolet or fipple flute is a cylindrical pipe fitted with a whistle mouthpiece at one end and open at the other. It is pierced with holes, so spaced that when stopped with the fingers, and opened in succession from the bottom, while at the same time blowing into the mouthpiece, a major scale is produced. As with all cylindrical pipes the instrument overblows a twelth ...

“The African doesn’t know all this data, he just calls it a pennywhistle, and blows “lo jive” on it “fanakola record pakati”.

“The African has made the pennywhistle his own, and tens of thousands of flute jive records sold every week testify to its tremendous popularity. There has been considerable demand amongst Europeans for these records and to help meet the demand, the more convenient form of LP has been compiled.

“Perhaps this interest in Bantu Pennywhistle Jazz is not so strange when it is considered what remarkable sounds the best of its exponents are able to coax from an instrument of such extreme limitations.

“The artists heard on this selection are among the cream of the Pennywhistle Players, and the technique that they obtain on these simple instruments is truly remarkable. Included on the album are also a few tracks featuring the saxophone, another instrument that the African is showing remarkable aptitude for.

“Well, there it is ... Flageolet, Fipple Flute, or Pennywhistle .... it is good dance music in anyone’s language.”
1.       First Stop Dube: Abia Themba and Michael Sithole
2.       Mr Balla’s Best: Abia Themba
3.       Sideways Jive: The Gumba Gumba Guys
4.       The New Look: Abia Themba and His Rhythm
5.       Two Steps Parys: Jacob Khotle
6.       Abantwana Ba Seven: David Thekwane
7.       Old Krok Special: Frans Mudau
8.       Blues Ngaphanzi: Jake Lerole and His Rhythm
9.       Lucky Number Seven: Albert Ralulimi and Son
10.   Radio Announcers Kwela: Frans Mudau
11.   Emalhleni: The Gumba Gumba Guys
12.   Fairlane 600: Frans Mudau

More Kwela on Electric Jive can be found here and here

Today’s offering can be downloaded:

Rapidshare here

Mediafire here

Vukani – Awake! (1962) A cinematic context

2011-11-19T00:01:00.018Z

For more than two years Electric Jive has been sharing some wonderful and diverse South African music, and when time permits, also providing a little context and background. Only ten percent of the fifteen thousand or so monthly hits on this website are from within South Africa, so we cannot and should not assume your experience and knowledge of the powerful social and political forces that contributed to a music that provided oppressed generations with joy, celebration, inspiration, upliftment and avenues of cultural expression.

We depart from the musical norm today to share an historically fascinating fifteen-minute movie – not only the first by an African to describe South Africa's conditions, but actually the first film to be shot by an African film-maker on the African continent. While I have some idea of South Africa's music from the early sixties, I have limited knowledge of its film. For this reason I asked my good friends Max Annas and Henriette Gunkel to tell us a little about Lionel Ngakane and the cinematic window he provides into South Africa at that time. The next installment of our usual musical offerings will follow in a few days – but we do believe there are many out there who will find this movie very interesting.

Lionel Ngakane

South African director Lionel Ngakane (1928 – 2003) is considered as one of the fathers of African cinema – at least outside South Africa. Within the borders of the country most people have never heard of him, despite the fact that his reputation equals that of Ousmane Sembene, Djibril Diop-Mambety, Souleyman Cissé or Med Hondo. The legendary ‘table of the elders’ at the pool of the Hotel Independence, reserved for the real dignitaries during Ouagadougou’s bi-annual Pan-African Film Festival FESPACO, used to be occupied by Sembene from Senegal, as well as Henri Duparc and Désiré Ecaré from Côte d’Ivoire – and by Lionel Ngakane.

Ngakane, born in Pretoria, was a student at the University of Fort Hare in Alice and at Wits in Johannesburg. He worked as a journalist for DRUM before he became involved in film. In 1952 Zoltan Korda made him assistant director for his Paton adaptation ‘Cry, the beloved country’, in which Ngakane also featured as an actor in the role of Absalom. At that time he had already spent two years in exile in England. He made a living from acting, mostly through smaller roles, but wanted to be a filmmaker. ‘The trouble in this country is that people in theatre and films simply can't visualise a coloured man as a director’, Ngakane said in an interview (see here). ‘It is hard enough to get through to one of them, and when you do, you hear the secretary say to the boss – “There's a coloured gentleman on the phone”...’

So it was only in 1962 that Ngakane was able to make his first film. With his own camera he went back to South Africa and looked at the living and working conditions of black people in his country. ‘Vukani – Awake’ focuses on poverty and the reasons for it. In this film Ngakane documents the newly builttownships and explains that black people – he says WE in the off commentary – do not want to live there. He counters the images by portraying how white people live and how labor is organized to benefit them – and not the people who do the work.

‘Vukani – Awake’ sets out a number of firsts. It was the first film made by an African person that documents the situation black people had to live in. It was the first movie that was made to mobilize the public – nationally and internationally – against the Apartheid regime. And it was the first visual expression of what was to become the next step in the struggle against racialized injustice – as it was not just a hidden message of the film that the fight against oppression would turn into an armed one from now on. It took more than another ten years before a similar attempt to describe South African realities attracted more attention, when a collective clandestinely shot and distributed ‘Last Grave at Dimbaza’.

Lionel Ngakane

At the time of the production of ‘Vukani – Awake’ most of the countries in West Africa already had won their independence. And it is this part of Africa that people remember as the birthplace of African Cinema; Senegal in particular, where Sembene and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra were fighting for their possibilities to make films, or perhaps Niger, where Moustapha Alassane tried the same. ‘Vukani – Awake’, however, was the first film shot by an African filmmaker on the African continent. But whenever or wherever the start of African cinema is claimed Lionel Ngakane and ‘Vukani – Awake’ are missing.

Five years later Ngakane produced his most famous film in London. ‘Jemima & Johnny’, inspired by riots in Notting Hill, is the fantasy - or if you want an utopian future - of a non-racial society expressed through the story of a little girl and a little boy who wander about the British capital. He made a documentary on Nelson Mandela for British TV in the 80s before he returned to South Africa where he lived until his death in 2003.

The movie is in divx format and is about 150mb in size.

Rapidshare here
Mediafire here

Era - Manyano

2011-11-14T14:57:00.008Z

Era – Manyano (Atlantic ACH 1000, 1980)

Queenstown jazz vocalist Stompie Mavi (1955-2008) began his career in the early 1970s as a teenager in an outfit known as the Modern Jazz Sextet, alongside guitarist Ivan Makina. ‘Manyano’ (meaning ‘unity’ or ‘oneness’ in isiXhosa), is the 1980 debut LP from the band he fronted from the late 1970s onwards. Era made their mark on the South African jazz scene, and some HYMAP recordings of them in performance at the Market Theatre have been made available at the ever eye-opening SAMAP site (here). Mavi went on to great success, and much of his music is still quite widely available. The LP we present here is the first outing by this fondly remembered star. A tribute by the former South African minister of arts and culture, Pallo Jordan, can be found here.

Decked out in dashikis, and with their star-signs listed on the back cover in the best 70s soul tradition, Era lay down a polished jazz-funk fusion in the Spirits Rejoice mold, the horns bright and crisp over the infectious, elastic thump of the rhythm section. Enjoy.

Stompie Mavi – lead vocals; Buggs Tafu – guitar; Xuba Xaba – alto; Don Heba – trumpet; Sam Nxusani – bass; Desmond Malotana – keyboards; Gambu Pasiya – tenor; Zola Sishuba – backing vocals; Themba Mngomezulu – drums.

Maskanda Roots (1927 - 1964)

2011-11-08T08:31:00.001Z

I recently acquired a copy of Guy Buttery’s excellent new limited edition LP, To Disappear in Place, featuring outtakes and demo’s from his 2009 album Fox Hill Lane (his third CD). Some years back his brother Paul introduced me to the music with a copy of his second album Songs from the Cane Fields (2005) and I was already struck then by how much this guitarist’s work is about place — that is Kwa-Zulu Natal — the region in which Buttery as well as many on the Electric Jive team, including myself, grew up. You can almost feel the rolling cane fields in his music.

Buttery’s new LP features a remake of the tune Burnside (with Syd Kitchen, Tony Cox and Chris Letcher) from the CD Fox Hill Lane. The track is a homage to maskanda — a style of music often featuring a picking or strumming guitarist — that has significant roots in the Zululand region. (View Buttery's live performance of Burnside at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on YouTube.)

Chris Albertyn and I have often spoken about doing various mixes of this style of music for Electric Jive. Listening to Burnside inspired me to plough through the 78 rpms in the flatinternational archive and look back at the roots of the maskanda tradition.

Almost every text on maskanda usually opens with a mention of this scene: a seemingly lonely figure walking the streets of Durban, decorated guitar in hand, strumming away and singing to himself. The ambulating musician and the cyclical, repetitive structure of the music almost suggests a journey or even a kind of nomadic life.

For maskandi the nomadic life was not unusual, many moving in rural areas from village to village. Also, the life of the migrant worker in the larger context of South Africa required leaving home for long periods — moving to Durban or Johannesburg away from rural areas — and bringing the music was a way to culturally reconnect back home.

Maskanda is often described as a neo-traditional style of music and is most famously linked to the guitar, though not exclusively. The long syncretic tradition has incorporated a number of Western and global instruments including the concertina, accordion, violin, whistle (as in referee whistle) as well as a number of traditional instruments. In many respects the term itself — maskanda — is an amalgam derived from the Afrikaans musikant meaning musician. Carol Muller in her book Music of South Africa suggests that the term itself implies an association with music made by Afrikaans-speakers such as white farmers. (Here I am thinking of vastrap performed with concertina, etc.) Most other forms of Zulu traditional performance such as singing, dancing, drumming were referred to as ngoma.

According to the LP Rough Guide to African Guitar Legends the history of the modern European guitar actually has its roots in Africa. As the liner notes reveal, it was the “Moorish invasion in the eighth century that brought the guitar from Africa to Spain.” Perhaps ironically, it was Portuguese traders in the 1620s that then re-introduced the instrument to Africa through the back door, so to speak, when they settled in the area now referred to as Zimbabwe. Instruments such as the single-string bow were already native to the region and it was not a leap to translate aspects of those traditions to the modern guitar. This instrument as with the concertina became commonplace during the 1930s after cheap locally made versions were produced. Significantly, according to Rob Allingham, only the Zulu, the closely related Ndebele (of Zimbabwe) and the Shangaan (of Mozambique) were known to have adopted the guitar in the region by this point.

There are two main guitar styles within the maskanda tradition, ukuvamba (vamping or strumming of a few basic chords in the marabi tradition) and ukupika (picking), the later being more desired for its technical prowess. By some accounts the picking tradition may have come from the north meaning the southern regions of Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) or Mozambique, though Allingham also points to picking styles (in the case of John Bhengu) originating from the Umkomaas region of southern KwaZulu Natal.

Josaya Hadebe from Makwenda's book*

Both David Coplan and Joyce Makwenda point to the Ndebele (with its close roots to Zulu) styles in southern Zimbabwe, notably Bulawayo, as an early significant influence on maskanda with artists such as Josaya Hadebe, George Sibanda and Sabelo Mathe. Makwenda, in her book Zimbabwe Township Music*, actually credits Hadebe, as having introduced the ukuvamba (vamping) style in the late 1940s when he would come to South African towns, and draw huge crowds while busking on street corners. Both Hadebe and Sibanda recorded each fifteen (royalty-free) tracks for Gallo in 1948* through Hugh Tracy’s African Music Research (AMR) unit. (*The 15 tracks may have been recorded from 1948-1952. Jonathan Ward's new compilation, Opika Pende, features a track by Hadebe. Also check out Hadebe in the SAMAP archive.)

Interestingly these Bulawayo guitarists were referred to as omasiganda and had a distinctive country western influence modeled after the singing cowboy in American films of the time. Omisaganga like maskanda is derived from the Afrikaans musikant. The omisaganda were one-man band troubadours strolling the township streets of Bulawayo, basically busking for money. Often they were in demand as entertainers at functions such as “tea-parties”, shebeens or at venues like the Stanley Hall built in 1935.

That said, perhaps the tracks in the Maskanda Roots mix below might suggest other histories. There are a number of guitar tunes which predate the 1948 Hadebe/Sibanda sessions. Notably the tracks by Phineas Maphumulo's Guitar Twins from around 1942 that reveal a familiar maskanda tradition already set with both picking and vamping. Of course, on the other hand, recording dates cannot be a determinant of how culture moves.

Another interesting detail comes from Judy Kendall and Banning Eyre in their chapter on Zimbabwe music in the "Rough Guide”. They suggest that George Sibanda was so popular in the 1950s that he is credited as influencing the seminal Congolese guitarist Jean Bosco Mwenda, who "by mere coincidence" was also recorded by Hugh Tracey.

John Bhengu as Phuzushukela from his last LP, 1982

Josaya Hadebe is said to have been an influence on John Bhengu who, with his distinctive finger-picking style, is responsible for the popularization of maskanda in South Africa. As Rob Allingham reveals, Bhengu started out as a street performer in Durban in the late 1940s and began recording with Troubadour around 1955. Interesting side note: Cuthbert Matumba, talent scout and producer for Troubadour, is also featured in this mix as part of the Zoutspanburg Bothers. After Mathumba’s death Bhengu moved to Trutone in 1968 and then worked for a short period with producer Cambridge Matiwane, who may have been instrumental in getting him to perform with a backing band, a notable departure for maskanda music. These recordings were also his first to use the name Phuzushukela (or Sugar Drinker) and the rest is history!

As Phuzushukela, Bhengu moved to GRC in 1971, where producer Hamilton Nzimande electrified his sound. The combination of traditional maskanda with the heavy bass lines of mbaqanga produced a product that was irresistible and a formulae that remained for the next 30 years.

Structurally maskanda songs usually consists of four parts: a) the intela or izihlabo, an improvised instrumental introduction; b) a repetitive vocal chorus where all sing in harmony; c) a vocal narrative where the lead tells a story; and d) the ukubonga, where an interjection of praise, usually for the musicians or their family, is rapidly announced.

For this Maskanda Roots mix I have tried to assemble 78 rpms that reflect one or more of these maskanda parts. The tracks are presented more or less chronologically to illustrate the history. Many of the early examples do not include instrumentation and may not be considered “maskanda” in a strict definition (for example the tracks by James Stuart, Simon Sibiya and the ngoma "War Dancers") but I included them if they featured elements such as the ukubonga or praise interjection. With the unaccompanied vocal tracks one can almost ‘hear’ a guitar or concertina overlay in the minds-ear. Also a significant aspect of this research that is missing are translations of the lyrics. Without that, a major part of the context of the music is lost. Perhaps with time and more research this will be remedied.

Pointers for additional maskanda music: The most well known international proponents of maskanda are probably Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu and their band Juluka who performed and recorded extensively in the 1980s. Also Shiyani Ngcobo featured on the African Guitar Legends LP mentioned above. As far as more 'local' practioners of the style go, I would recommend the first three CDs by Phuzukhemisi (not to be confused with Phuzushukela), Mfaz' Omnyama, Skeleton and Vusi Ximba. Also aspects of the maskanda tradition have crept into contemporary music styles such as hip-hop in South Africa. Check out Zuluboy and his brand of "skandi-hop".

For a more historical perspective I highly recommend Rob Allingham’s excellent CD Singing in an Open Space — Zulu Rhythm and Harmony 1962 – 1982 a well documented compilation that traces the music from Bhengu through to the 1980s. Also Squashbox, a CD compilation by Harry Scurfield of concertina-based maskanda is horribly out of print but is available, used, at a serious premium on Amazon.

For a rougher, more 'street', maskanda, I recommend Gumboot Guitar published by the British Library and the Street Sounds of Durban, though I suspect the latter to be almost impossible to find.

Finally, putting this compilation together was a real pleasure! Trying to edit down the number of great tracks though was a bit more difficult. For that reason I decided to split the compilation into two volumes. Volume 1 features the really early material from 1927 - 1952, while volume 2 focusses on tracks from 1954 - 1964. There is no significance to the date periods, it just seemed logical to split the tracks at those points. In theory, Rob Allinghams's Singing in an Open Space would take you from 1962 - 1982.

Enjoy!

MASKANDA ROOTS
Volume 1: 1927 – 1952
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 2)

Perhaps there is some irony in starting a mix of Zulu-based maskanda with a British-born language specialist - maybe the term "Le Zulu Blanc" might apply here. James Stuart recorded at least 24 tracks for Zonophone starting in 1927. All were issued in 1928 and then a further set was recorded and issued in 1930. These were primarily 'eulogies' and versions of Aesop's Fables in Zulu. The 'eulogies' are actually izibongo or praise songs dedicated to leaders like Shaka and Dingaan. The izibongo tradition continues today in South Africa. As far as I can tell, the track featured here is not an izibongo but the cyclical / repetitive structure of the song reminded me of tracks below for example those by The Zulu Minstrel. Simon Sibiya also recorded for Zonophone at least 18 tracks in 1929. As with Stuart the tracts feature a similar structure, though in his examples Sibiya includes the ukubonga or praise interjection so familiar in many maskanda songs. I am assuming both Sibiya and Stuart were recorded in London. Check out John H. Cowley's excellent text, uBungca, which was invaluable in dating these records.

01) JAMES STUART – Wa Tint’ Amankengane! - 1927
(Zonophone, serial 4184, UK)
02) SIMON SIBIYA – Tina Si Nga Ba Sembawuleni - 1929
(Zonophone, serial 4201, UK)
03) SIMON SIBIYA – Udhlule Lap’ Unkonkoni - 1929
(Zonophone, serial 4201, UK)
04) SIMON SIBIYA – UTshaka Ka Sitshayeki - 1929
(Zonophone, serial 4202, UK)

In the first issue of the African Music Society Newsletter (June 1948) Hugh Tracey refers to Mameyigudi as being one of the best-known ndhlamu dance leaders in Durban. The track features a call-and-responce structure though unlike his other recordings does not include drumming. The remaining four Columbia tracks by the "Zululand War Dancers" are examples of ndhlamu dance — often featuring the ngoma drum or sometimes clapping. Tracey refers to these specific tracks in the same newsletter and points out that they are not "war dancers" and that the drum is not a "tom-tom". Columbia had sent a mobile unit to South Africa and there is a good possibility that Tracey may have been involved in the recording of these tracks somewhere between 1930 and January 1933 when they were issued. The recordings are particularly good and there is a slight echo which gives them an almost haunting quality.

05) MAMEYEGUDI AND HIS DANCERS – Sipit ‘Umagazini - c1932
(HMV, GU 84, UK)
06) ZULULAND WAR DANCERS – Ha! Uyamqala Okandaba - c1932
(Columbia, AE 70, UK)
07) ZULULAND WAR DANCERS – Intombi Etengwa Ngemali - c1932
(Columbia, AE 71, UK)
08) ZULULAND WAR DANCERS – Usogaya - c1932
(Columbia, AE 72, UK)
09) ZULULAND WAR DANCERS – Unomatusi Uyeyisa - c1932
(Columbia, AE 105, UK)

To my ear, these two tracks by Nomathenisi (The Zulu Minstrel) are the first in the archive that sound like "maskanda", with a single repetitive voice accompanied by concertina. The beautiful yet lugubrious Ngiyoyilo Bola Ngami is featured in Hugh Tracey's book, Lalela Zulu, a collection of 100 Zulu songs. According to Tracey it is a "man's song for singing along the road" and the lyrics go: "With what will I wed her? There are no cattle. With what will I wed her?" Isaac Mzobe's Crocodile Male Voice Choir was one of the very early isicathamiya groups performing in Natal. Like the previous tracks, Sasingaxabene also features a concertina though one played in manner far closer to the Afrikaans tradition. For more on this disc check out flatinternational.

10) THE ZULU MINSTREL – Ngiyoyilo Bola Ngani - c1932
(HMV, GU 84, UK)
11) THE ZULU MINSTREL – Zinuk Abafazi - c1932
(HMV, GU 93, UK)
12) CROCODILE MALE VOICE CHOIR – Sasingaxabene - 1939
(Better, XU 13, UK)

These tracks by Phineas Maphumulo's Guitar Twins are the first "maskanda" tunes in the archive to feature the guitar. Recorded roughly around 1942 they reveal the familiar maskanda guitar tradition already set including both picking and vamping. Though the recording was made in the early 1940s, Rob Allingham maintains that the disc was only issued in 1948. Also check the difference between Maphumulo's early version of U Josephine and a later 1964 version by Mandlakayise Mkize at the end of Volume 2. This set also includes two brilliant tracks by Zimbabwe omasiganga George Sibanda who was a major influence on the guitar picking style in the late 1940s. Alas the shellac here has seen better days, but the sparkle of the picking still shines through. In Hugh Tracey's Gallotone catalogue from 1951 he refers to Umfazi We Poyisa Usegqoka Amalube as a "topical song" where the translation is: "A policeman's wife wears roses", while the b-side is "We have been found guilty". The Herman Magwaza track is one of my favorites and is the only one to come from a 10" 33rpm LP record, issued by London in the UK and Decca in the USA. Zulu Music and Songs was probably one of the first vinyl issues to feature black South African music worldwide. The record was issued in 1951 so I am assuming the track was recorded somewhere in 1950, but it could have be even earlier.

13) THE GUITAR TWINS – Ngaqa - c1942
(Singer Gallotone, GE 955, UK)
14) THE GUITAR TWINS – U Josephine - c1942
(Singer Gallotone, GE 955, UK)
15) PETRUS MTAMBO AND HIS ORCH. – Gugu Lami - c1947
(Gallotone, GB 987, RSA)
16) PETRUS MTAMBO AND HIS ORCH. – c1947
Mntana Owomuntu (Gallotone, GB 987, RSA)
17) CASPAR SHIKI & HIS GUITAR – S’Ooliwa - c1948
(Trutone, XU 144, RSA)
18) CASPAR SHIKI & HIS GUITAR – Umtandaso - c1948
(Trutone, XU 144, RSA)
19) GEORGE SIBANDA – Umfazi We Poyisa - 1948
(Gallotone, GE 1160, RSA)
20) GEORGE SIBANDA – Sabashwa Thina Ngendaba - 1948
(Gallotone, GE 1160, RSA)
21) HERMAN MAGWAZA & CALEBCHAMANE SONGS – New Look Thanagan - c1950
(London, LPB 431, UK)

As mentioned earlier, the Zoutpansburg brother included Cuthbert Matumba who would go on to be a formidable producer at Troubadour records and establish a catalogue that easily rivaled Gallo's in the 1960s. Alas, he died in 1965 and by 1968 the company had been consumed by Gallo. The label reveals the style to be "Shangaan Guitar Picking" and the track is interestingly monotonous. Cowboy Superman, if anything, reveals the country western influence on this guitar based music where the singer yodels while strumming. I have often wondered what marabi must have sounded like and in the case of the Nyakaza Merrymakers this might have been close to it. Funnily enough the second track is called Marabi, but its the first track that comes closest for me. Umame is also intersting in that it feature the violin, the first in this mix to do so. The track Marabi on the other hand is particularly unusual in that it features an electric guitar, which must be a unique for the time. While this proto-rock tune, in places, almost suggests aspects of an electrified maskanda it probably has more in common with the mbaganga future that would follow a decade later. But still an electrified instrument around 1952 feels way before its time in this context. Perhaps this would be a good question for Nick Lotay.

22) ZOUTPANSBURG BROTHERS – Hosi Yahina Masia - 1951
(Bantu Batho, BB 753, RSA)
23) COWBOY SUPERMAN – Bayakala Abazali - 1951
(Bantu Bathu, BB 100, RSA)
24) NYAKAZA MERRYMAKERS – Umame - c1952
(Gallotone, GB 1616, RSA)
25) DAN SHABANE WITH NYAKAZA MERRYMAKERS – Marabi - c1952
(Gallotone, GB 1616, RSA)

MASKANDA ROOTS
Volume 2: 1954 – 1964
(flatinternational / Electric Jive, FXEJ 3)

01) PETROS MTAMBO – Yangithela Manga - 1954
(Gallotone, GB 1987, RSA)
02) PETROS MTAMBO – Ngi Kalela Bazali - 1954
(Gallotone, GB 1987, RSA)
03) SIDNEY MKIZE – Bengi Kuthanda - 1954
(Gallotone, GB 2088, RSA)
04) SIDNEY MKIZE – Ngiphoxwe Umuntu - 1954
(Gallotone, GB 2088, RSA)

05) COWBOY NDLOVU – Baba Noma - c1955
(Philips, SB 43, NED)
06) COWBOY NDLOVU – Nga Hlupheka - c1955
(Philips, SB 43, NED)
07) STAR COUSINS – Buya Wena - 1956
(Gallotone Jive Jive, GB 2419, RSA)
08) SAMPLE SIXOGO – Kangaka - 1956
(Gallotone, GB 2550, RSA)
09) MAHLAUTINI LUTHULI – Ngenke Ngiye - 1958
(Troubadour, BZ 1448, RSA) *from Squashbox

10) JOHN HLOPHE & CO – Amakokombane - c1958
(Envee, NV 3199, RSA)
11) ENOCH MAHLOBO – Ntombani Okal’ Ugijima - 1959
(Gallotone, GB 2851, RSA)
12) ENOCH MAHLOBO - We Mzodwa - 1959
(Gallotone, GB 2851, RSA)
13) CAMERON MTETWA – Malume Jamlude - 1959
(Gallotone, GB 3097, RSA)
14) CAMERON MTETWA – Osishaya Amapondo - 1959
(Gallotone, GB 3097, RSA)

15) L. MAHLOBO – Isoka Lajika - c1959
(Tropik, DC 803, RSA)
16) PAUL KHAMBULA – Maphephuka - 1961
(Gallotone, GB 3299, RSA)

17) MAHLAUTHINI LUTHULI – iZulu Eliphezulu - 1962
(Winner, OK 404, RSA)
18) BACA BOYS – Ngiyamqoma - 1962
(Zonk, TV 5006, RSA)
19) BACA BOYS – O’ Stchuzi - 1962
(Zonk, TV 5006, RSA)

20) JOHN BHENGU – Diki Diki - c1962
(Troubadour, BZ 1628, RSA) *from Singing in an Open Space
21) CAMERON MTEMBU & HIS FRIENDS – Johava - 1963
(USA, USA 265, RSA)
22) CAMERON MTEMBU & HIS FRIENDS – Ntosombane - 1963
(USA, USA 265, RSA)
23) MANDLAKAYISE MKIZE – Izinombizakithi - 1964
(Gallotone, GB 3595, RSA)
24) MANDLAKAYISE MKIZE – Ujosifina - 1964
(Gallotone, GB 3595, RSA)
25) MCHUNU AND MTSOMI – Sebenza Egoli - c1964
(Gumba Gumba, MGG 34, RSA)

MASKANDA ROOTS Volume 1: 1927 – 1952 (FXEJ 2)
RS

MASKANDA ROOTS Volume 2: 1954 – 1964 (FXEJ 3)
RS

Born to Lose

2011-11-02T00:40:00.004Z

Another wonderful excursion into seventies stageshow soundtracks with an impressive line-up that includes Dennis Mpale, Duke Makasi, Temba Koyana, Bucs Gongco, Zulu Bidi, Max Diamond and Bingo Mbonjeni. Produced by Cambridge Baba Matiwane. Soloists are Tandi Seoka, Zodwa Dlamini, Japan Fassi and Beulah Hashe.

Bucs Gcongo Langa Community Hall 1971 Pic: Ian B. Huntley

Enjoy this music treat!

MF / RS

Classic Mbaqanga Girl Groups! - A Special EJ Mix

2011-10-25T23:45:00.005+01:00

Continuing the mbaqanga theme (if you haven't already, see Chris Albertyn’s excellent post featuring, among others, West Nkosi, Reggie Msomi, the Mthunzini Girls, and a jive-tastic Nick Moyake), Electric Jive today presents another "EJ mix" of classic mbaqanga material – featuring tunes from some of the great female mbaqanga groups of the 1960s and the 1970s.

In the mix, we spotlight some well-known groups and vocalists. Here are a few insights into the artists that form the basis of today’s special posting.

Top of the list here at EJ is undoubtedly the Mahotella Queens (who also recorded as Soweto Stars, Izintombi Zo Mgqashiyo, Mahlokohloko Stars, Sweet Home Dames, and Dima Sisters), whose signature vocal and dance styles put them on the road to stardom during the mid-to-late 1960s. Backed by the Makhona Tsohle Band and fronted most of the time by their king, Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde, the Queens ruled supreme from 1964 until the late 1970s, when female groups – along with the popularity of mbaqanga generally – began to wane. More than thirty female singers have at one time constituted the line-up of the Mahotella Queens, though their stage appearances have never featured more than six ladies at a time. The more notable members over the years have included sopranos Hilda Tloubatla, Nunu Maseko, Emily Zwane and Thandi Nkosi, altos Juliet Mazamisa, Nobesuthu Shawe and Windy Sibeko, and tenors Mildred Mangxola and Caroline Kapentar among many others. The current line-up of the Queens contains three of the original 1960s team, and they continue to draw big audiences (particularly in Europe) to this day. See here for a much fuller history of the Queens, get the first Queens LP here, and see here for a special EJ mix devoted to Mahlathini.

Of equally significant importance is Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje, who were formed in 1967 as a rival team to the Queens. By the time Izintombi was formed, the Queens had set in stone their unique styling and were the yardstick by which other female mbaqanga groups were measured. But with a line-up that included – at various points – Sannah Mnguni, Nunu Maseko, Thoko Khumalo, Jane Dlamini, Nobesuthu Shawe and Lindiwe Mthembu – it wasn’t easy for the Mahotella Queens of the 1970s to keep up with Izintombi! The classic live line-up of the early 1970s was the trio of Jane Dlamini, Lindiwe Mthembu and Nobesuthu Shawe (stood on the stage in that order), but the recording line-up also featured Ruth Mafuxwana and Hilda Tloubatla in prominent voice. Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje members also recorded under the name S’Modern Girls. Along with the Mahotella Queens, Izintombi found it hard going to sustain their popularity into the 1980s, even with a revised sound. Two mushroomings of the original group still exist to this day but only on very small, local scales. Here is a collection of some of Izintombi’s best 1960s material, and here is a share of one of their late 1970s albums.

Julia Yende’s strong vocal talent rose her to the top. She started first with the Dark City Sisters in the early 1960s, and then in the Mahotella Queens from 1966. Her talent earned her the love of king Mahlathini and then, following a brief spell in the Queens recording and touring line-ups, a group of her own: the Mthunzini Girls (previously one of the loose pseudonyms used for the Queens).

Mthunzini Girls usually comprised Yende alongside Windy Sibeko, Thoko Mdlalose, Virginia Teffo and Teddy Nkutha in their 1960s heyday, but by the early 1970s, opened up to include Olive Masinga, Phyllis Zwane and Irene Mawela. Some of the more junior Mthunzini Girls members also recorded under the name Izingane Zo Mgqashiyo. Another notable group who also recorded under the Izingane Zo Mgqashiyo name is Izintombi Zomoya, featuring (most notably) Thandi Nkosi, Caroline Kapentar, Beatrice Ngcobo, Constance Ngema and Eunice Kwekwe – some of whom became talented enough to rise through the ranks and join the Mahotella Queens frontline in the late 1970s and early 1980s. See here for an excellent 1973 Izintombi Zomoya album.

By all means a first-rate act, the one and only Dark City Sisters were a vital part of the mbaqanga girl group scene of the 1960s. Formed in 1958 and quickly becoming South Africa’s most popular female group of the early ‘60s, the Sisters were at the forefront of the shift from the old marabi swing rhythms to the harder, sturdier and yet more traditional jive sound of the 1960s. At the helm of the group in spite of an ever-changing line-up was the sweet-voiced Joyce Mogatusi. Various groupings of the Sisters also recorded as the Killingstone Stars and the Flying Jazz Queens. Some of the most significant voices to grace the Sisters throughout the years aside from the great Mogatusi include Nunu Maseko, Esther Khoza, Grace Msika, Audrey Zwane, Doris Ntuli and Emily Zwane. After the formation of the Mahotella Queens and subsequent growth of Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje, the Sisters were forced to update their soft styling to the new, tough mbaqanga. The Sisters remained popular and active, but in the shadow of these new, younger groups. After a brief split in 1971, the group returned with Joyce at the helm in 1973.

The Sisters continued to record and perform until the early 1980s when they again split up. They were back again by the end of the decade, though, and recorded a comeback album in 1994 (which we hope to share with EJ readers sometime soon). The Sisters are still around in one form or another today, featuring the magic duo of Joyce Mogatusi and Grace Moeketsi (formerly Msika) – both of them still golden voices in their golden years. Here is a classic album of their very early (1960 – 1962) material.

Irene Mawela was seventeen years of age when Rupert Bopape saw her singing at a wedding in Limpopo. Impressed with her sweet, saccharine vocals, Bopape quickly brought her to Johannesburg (one assumes with Irene’s parents’ permission!) and so she began a lengthy career as a studio singer: first with Bopape at EMI (and in such legendary line-ups as the Dark City Sisters and the Killingstone Stars), then with Cuthbert Matumba at Troubadour, then under Daniel Makhubela at Trutone, and finally back with Bopape at Gallo’s Mavuthela in 1969. At the company she began recording with a small session quintet under the names Irene and the Sweet Melodians, and the Mgababa Queens. She also recorded her instantly recognisable voice onto hits by the Mthunzini Girls and Izintombi Zomoya, the lower-tier girl group line-ups. Bopape and Mawela grew close and, by the mid-1970s, were man and wife. Further into the 1970s, Bopape and Mawela began working together more closely in the studio – writing together and later on singing together. Mawela graduated up into the line-up of the Mahotella Queens around 1978, where she stayed for a few years before launching her own solo career.

Lastly, The Queens (not the Mahotella Queens!) were the tight band of female singers who backed Mahlathini at Satbel Record Company (from 1972 to 1977) and EMI (1978 to c. 1980). When Mahlathini left Gallo-Mavuthela in 1972, some of the Mahotella members followed him, creating the newly-formed The Queens. Most notably Mildred Mangxola (the leader of The Queens), Jane Makhanya, Nunu Maseko and Thoko Nontsontwa. The other singers included Paulina Zulu, Jane Twala, Belinda Sithole and Agnes Mhlauli. Although they primarily served as Mahlathini’s backing group, they sometimes recorded their own fantastic songs – two of the best are contained here.

The thirty wonderful tunes in this EJ mix were originally recorded between 1962 and 1977, at the height of mbaqanga's rule over the townships of South Africa. Tough guitar, pounding bass, growling basses, and sublime female close-harmony vocals. What more could one ask for?

Do yourself a favour... download this mix, listen to these fantastic grooves, and get ready to jive 'til you drop! YEBO!

Classic Mbaqanga Girl Groups!

1. THOKO - MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1964)

2. LALELA MNTANAMI - KILLINGSTONE STARS (1962)

3. UMKHWEKAZI - DARK CITY SISTERS (1962)

4. HAMBA PHEPHA LAMI - IZINTOMBI ZO MGQASHIYO (1967)

5. KHANYISANI ISIBANI - IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA (1973)

6. UMKHUMBI KA NOAH - IZINGANE ZO MGQASHIYO (1969)

7. ISINKWA NOBANANA - IZINTOMBI ZESI MANJE MANJE (1967)

8. SILANDELA UMGQASHIYO - MTHUNZINI GIRLS (1967)

9. MAKOMANE - DIMA SISTERS (1964)

10. WOZA MABALANE - MAHLOKOHLOKO STARS (1967)

11. UMAHLALA EHLATHINI - IZINTOMBI ZESI MANJE MANJE (1971)

12. HOLE THABA - DARK CITY SISTERS (1966)

13. EVELYN - KILLINGSTONE STARS (1962)

14. SPONONO - DARK CITY SISTERS (1967)

15. MMATHOBELA - MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1977)

16. IGAMA LAMI - IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA (1975)

17. REKENI KASE JUALEJUALE - S'MODERN GIRLS (1974)

18. MMADITABA - IRENE & THE SWEET MELODIANS (1975)

19. ISITIMELA - THE QUEENS (1976)

20. LETLAPA LABUTSOA - DARK CITY SISTERS (1974)

21. THAKA TSESO - IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA (1971)

22. DUMAZILE - SWEET HOME DAMES (1968)

23. ISALUKWAZI - IZINTOMBI ZESI MANJE MANJE (1967)

24. MMAMOKWANGTITI - DARK CITY SISTERS (1967)

25. AMAZONDO - MTHUNZINI GIRLS (1967)

26. NTSHWARELE NTATE - MAHOTELLA QUEENS (1975)

27. ZOLILE - THE QUEENS (1975)

28. AWUFUNI UKULANDELA NA? - S'MODERN GIRLS (1974)

29. EZOMCULO - DARK CITY SISTERS (1974)

30. SESHEGONG SAMELODI - DIMA SISTERS (1967)

RS / MF

Do you remember Nick Moyake?

2011-10-20T00:01:00.011+01:00

Today we share some special early 78rpm mbaqanga from, amongst others, a South African jazz saxophonist whose star burnt bright and then went out all too early. One of our objectives here at Electric Jive is to grow and promote an accessible digital archive of great and otherwise unobtainable South African music.

It is always fantastic to learn of institutions committing resources to researching and documenting South Africa’s music history – and even more so when they are really reaching out to find people who may have information, pictures and stories that must be remembered and passed on. Do you remember Nick Moyake? Do you know someone who has stories to tell of Nick? If so, then some intrepid researchers at the University of Fort Hare in East London want to connect with you.

Nick Moyake - (Pic from Kagablog - interview with Johnny Dyani)

Max Annas recently contacted me and we spoke of the exciting work he and Professor Gary Minkley (SARChI Chair in Social Change) from the University of Fort Hare in East London are doing. They have a research project going on the Blue Notes and are currently conducting interviews with musicians and family members in the Eastern Cape where five of the six members of the band grew up. At the moment there is a focus on the great saxophonist Nikele Moyake. Max says that “even if some musicians remember Nik Moyake well and some family members are still alive it is difficult to collect substantial information on him”. So Minkley and Annas are asking you, the readership of electricjive, for help, especially for discographic information on Nik Moyake and for photos showing him. If you can help, please contact Max Annas per email: mannas@ufh.ac.za

From our side on electric jive, we are very happy to oblige and share something different and rather special – Nick Moyake playing mbaqanga. When I told Max of these records he was excited to tell me the story he had heard from Patrick Pasha about “the sparletta song”.

While playing with the Jazz Giants and other bands Moyake was also in demand as a session musician, and made regular trips from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg to record. Patrick Pasha, bandleader from Port Elizabeth and Nik´s contemporary, said that Moyake made most of his money as an anonymous contributor to Mbaqanga recordings. He recounts an episode when Moyake was in Johannesburg to record music for a Sparletta radio advertisement. Back in Port Elizabeth Moyake later heard the song on the radio and angrily called the producer asking where his payment for the recording was. But the answer he got infuriated him even more: “We didn´t sign a contract!” was what the guy said. So Moyake never saw money for that tune.

The sparletta number five track shared here today is played by Moyake and a backing band, but the authorship is credited to Gibson Kente – so, perhaps Nik got his own back and re-recorded the track a little later, or maybe this was a different version? Do you know? The estimated date of these recordings is around 1962 or 1963. Gibson Kente was the producer at Big Beat Records. By 1964 Kente had left Big Beat - following his success with the musical Manana, the Jazz Prophet (yes Doug, another one to come).

Siemon's Flat International Site - here

Nik (Nikele) Moyake was born in the early 1930s on a farm in Addo in the Eastern Cape and moved to Port Elizabeth as a youth. In the 1950s he was one of the key figures of the local jazz scene with its roots in Walmer Township where he met and played together with alto and piano player Dudu Pukwana who grew up there. Both later played in Pukwana´s band The Jazz Giants in the early 1960s and won a prize at the Jabavu Jazz Festival in 1962 in Johannesburg.

From 1963 onwards both Nik Moyake and Dudu Pukwana were part of the final line-up of a band that only one year later left the country. Together with Chris McGregor (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Mongezi Feza (trumpet) and Johnny Dyani (bass) the two sax players were The Blue Notes, one of the most exciting and most important bands to come from South Africa. After an invitation to the Antibes jazz festival in 1964 the band stayed in Europe where they luckily found work in Zurich. Moyake went with the band to Switzerland but soon returned home to Port Elizabeth where he played for some more years before he died, most likely in 1969.

Do you remember Nick Moyake? The Soul Giants certainly did! If you have not heard this great 1968 tribute album yet – do yourself a favour and give this page a visit and download the album.

There have been many lovers of African jazz who poured scorn on mbaqanga music as being the equivalent of fast-food and without any real substance. Whatever our opinions and tastes, mbaqanga was hugely popular among South Africa’s black urban working class in the 1960s and 1970s – with a seemingly endless stream of records being sold.

Nick Lotay has written extensively on these histories here and here and here and I encourage you to visit these if you are interested. In adding to the electric jive mbaqanga archive today a handful of tracks from 78rpm records are offered as a small window onto the early evolution of the music form.

We kick off with four 1963 tracks from West Nkosi, recorded at the Gallo Studio's just before Rupert Bopape turned everything upside down the following year with the establishment of Mavuthela Music. As described by Rob Allingham, this is still the older style mbaqanga derived from swing rhythms 2 'twinned' saxes with electric lead guitar.

If you listen to West Nkosi’s “Majikaduze Twist” (dance closely twist) we can hear the echoes of kwela and the twist blending into early mbaqanga. Likewise, play a friend Reggie Msomi’s 1963 “Blue Ska” and ask her to place what is most definitely a ska song with an African take. The flip side, “Small Ngane” is a languid slide into what was to become mbaqanga proper in a few years’ time. You can find more of Reggie Msomi on electricjive here and here.

And we round off today’s offering with what can, in my opinion, be considered Mbaqanga “proper”. First off, The Mthunzini Girls on Motella from around 1966. Then, the Makhona Tsohle Band in 1967, Mavuthela Music's premier backing band with West Nkosi on sax and Joseph Makwela laying down irresistible base lines. For me the cherry is Mahlathini in his prime singing “Ngikhala Ngiya Baleka No2.” (I am crying in pain and running away).

Please, kick off your shoes, clear the furniture, and enjoy the heady melting pot of popular urban black South African music in the mid sixties.

Nick Moyake:
Meritone Big Beat BT299
a) Brown Sauce (Nick Moyake)
b) Shabaza (Nick Moyake)

Meritone Big Beat BT 400
a) Egg Shells (G. Kente)
b) Sparletta Number 5 (G. Kente)

All four tracks can be downloaded here: RS / MF

West Nkosi (all tracks composed by Nkosi)
Gallo USA 248
a) Zwelitsha
b) Majikaduze Twist

USA 269
a) Kathumba
b) Tshisa Mdala

Reggie Msomi
USA 277
a) Blue Ska (Msomi)
b) Small Ngane (Msomi)

Mthunzini Girls
Motella MO120
a) Moli (Julia Yende)
b) Gijima Mfana (R. Bopape, S. Piliso)

Makhona Tsohle Band
Motella MO139
Ngikhala Ngiya Baleka No. 2 (S. Nkabinde - Julia Yende)
Madula Shokeng Special (R. Bopape - W. Nkosi)

All ten tracks can be downloaded here RS / MF

Enjoy!

In the Driver's Seat with Almon Memela

2011-10-14T22:31:00.008+01:00

One of the artists that we have featured a number of times is guitarist Almon Memela. These include the much hyped LP Funky Africa and the late sixties AM Stragglers LP. Aside from these outings we are unaware of any other full length excursions aside from some of his production work such as this French issued compilation from 1977 being shared today. Enjoy!

Various Artists - Highway Soul
1. Mississippi River - Izintombi Zodumo
2. Phata Twelve Part 1 - Almon's Jazz 8
3. Phata Twelve Part 2 - Almon's Jazz 8
4. New Year Sikiza - Almon's Jazz 8
5. The Best Lover - Almon's Jazz 8 and the Sweethearts
6. Fast Sikiza - Almon's Jazz 8
7. Touch and Go Part 1 - Abafana Bamaswazi
8. Touch and Go Part 2 - Abafana Bamaswazi
9. There You Are - Almon's Jazz 8 and the Sweethearts
10. Don't Ever Think of Leaving Me - Izintombi Zodumo
Produced by Almon Memela

RS / MF

Miriam Makeba – Tracks Less Travelled (1958 – 98)

2011-10-09T16:01:00.001+01:00

For the last six years I have been working on a project documenting the work of Miriam Makeba. After reading the liner notes of her highly political 1965 LP An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, it dawned on me that these mass-produced commodities, issued all over the world, were a perfect and significant vehicle for spreading an anti-apartheid message. I set a goal to accumulate as many examples as I could of those messages and in the process discovered some amazing music.

Over her prolific career, from 1954 up to her death in 2008, Makeba issued no less than 29 individual albums along with countless 78s, 45s and EPs, pressed in at least 33 countries. In addition, over 28 compilations of her works have been and continue to be issued on compact disc.

For my post today I constructed a small experiment using iTunes as a database. First I dumped every “best of” Makeba CD in my collection into the application. Secondly I loaded at least one copy of each of her albums; as well as digitizing those not available on CD. I then picked through the singles and EPs and digitized tracks not found on albums. The provisional result was 832 songs or two days of listening to comb through. My goal here was see what songs were more popular—widely issued on multiple pressings—and which were less common. I was also curious to see how many variations of individual songs there were. From that list I then selected tracks or versions of tracks (with one or two exceptions) that seemed to come up only once. For the most part these were tracks that either had never been reissued on CD or if they were, are seldom, if at all, included on her “best of” compilations. I was surprised to see the number of significant hits and gems remaining un-reissued. Of the 29 albums made by Makeba, there are at least six that have never been re-issued on CD. (Some of these can be viewed here.) Of those that have been reissued (and this is my biggest gripe) almost none include the original cover art or liner notes, but rather come across as budget-bin reissues. Where are all those fancy digipaks?

Here are some notable side facts from the project: The song with the most versions is Qoqotwane (aka The Click Song) with at least nine variations. Amampondo comes second with seven variations. The songs that appears to be most commonly included on albums are Miriam and Spokes’ Phatha Phatha with the Skylarks (here there were at least nine repetitions); Hush and a live version of Jolinkomo with eight repetitions; Kutheni Sithandwa, Live Humble and Orlando with seven repetions; and Kikirikiki (Chicken), Samba, Pata Pata, the live version of West Wind all with six repetitions. Of course this examination is by no means scientific, but I thought it still interesting.

OK, here is the final list of 25 of my favorite least common selections by Miriam Makeba:

1) Rockin’ in Rhythm (1958)
Something New from Africa LP
(Decca, LK 4229, UK)
Avid collectors of South African music will be familiar with this track, featuring a wordless interpretation by Makeba of the Ellington tune with Lemmy Special Mabaso on flute and Jimmy Pratt on piano. I have only ever seen this record as a UK pressing, but the ABC matrix leads me to wonder if there might be an equivalent South African pressing. No doubt, all the tracks on this LP were probably issued as 78 rpms by Gallo Records. For what it is worth, this track is probably the first “vinyl” recording to feature Makeba.

2) Hamba Bekile (c1958)
New Sounds of Africa Vol. 2, EP (c1963)
(Gallo, New Sound, ESL 7141, SA)
When I first saw this EP, I assumed it was a promotional complement to Gallo’s two fantastic compilation LPs New Sounds of Africa volumes 1 (NSL 1001) and 2 (NSL 1002), first issued on the New Sound label in 1960. (The former LP also being issued on the Fiesta label in the USA.) Though two of the tracks from the EP are on the second LP, the remaining two are not, including this track, Hamba Bekile, featuring Makeba with the Skylarks and Spokes Mashiyane on flute. Oddly the track is also not included on Rob Allingham and Albert Ralulimi’s two fantastic CD compilations of Skylark’s material: Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks (1956 – 1959) Vol. 1 (CDGSP 3130) and 2 (CDGSP 3131). (Be sure to get the 2008 CD reissues, each boasting five additional tracks and superior sound quality.) The cover of the EP shows an image of Makeba taken from her 1960 debut album on RCA Records in the US, but the matrix number on the EP (ABC 23850) reveals that it was probably issued around 1963. Again this track would have originally been issued as a 78 rpm in South Africa.

3) Umqokozo (live, c1964)
4) Love Tastes like Strawberries (live, c1964)
Midnight Hoot, LP (1964)
(Kapp, KL 1357, USA; London, HA-R 8178, UK)
Both these tracks appear to be live recordings from a folk concert that included Alan Lomax, amongst others, and was issued as the Midnight Hoot on Kapp records. The studio versions of the two songs also appear on Makeba’s second LP The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba released by Kapp Records in 1962. I have tried to find a recording date for this concert but cannot—I suspect somewhere around late 1963 or early 1964. It is possible that Kapp re-constructed the LP as a live recording… the deliveries here sound almost too tight to be live!
It is not clear to me why Makeba, after recording her first LP with RCA in 1960 then recorded her second LP with Kapp Records and then returned to RCA for her next five LPs. My only guess is it had something to do with that fact that Gallo demanded that RCA pay a whopping $75 000 to buy Makeba out of her ‘royalty–free’ [my sarcasm] contract with Gallo in 1960. Lawyers finally agreed on a $45 000 buy-out where Gallo also retained the rights to publish that first US recording made by RCA. Subsequently all international pressings of her first album state “Recorded for Gallo” except for the US pressings. Both her first and second LPs were issued in South Africa on Gallo’s London (ZA 6037) and Continental (ZA 6135) labels respectively. Because of the deal, Makeba never saw any royalties from her first album—all proceeds going to pay back RCA for the buy-out from Gallo.

5) Into Yam (June 21, 1963)
6) Little Boy (July 1, 1963)
Forbidden Games, French EP
(RCA Victor, 86 406 M, FRA)
Into Yam is one of the songs that Makeba sings in Lionel Rogosin’s clandestine, 1959 film Come Back Africa about township life in South Africa. The film premiered at the 1959 Venice Film Festival and it was Rogosin who bribed South African officials to let Makeba come to Italy for the presentation. She would not return to South Africa for the next 30 years. Rogosin along with Harry Belafonte financed Makeba’s travels to the US and arranged for her to appear on the Steve Allen show in November 1959. The first song she sang on live television in the United States was Into Yam.
The version of Into Yam on this compilation as well as Little Boy, both featuring arrangements by Hugh Masekela, can be heard on her third LP The World of Miriam Makeba issued by RCA in 1963. Remarkably, neither track has been featured on any of Makeba’s many “best of” compilation CDs. Makeba does sing an updated version of the song on her 2006 album Forever and there, unlike the earlier versions, the composition credits go to Dorothy Masuka. The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba LP has been reissued on CD, but as a budget, two-for-the-price-of-one CD (along with her debut album) and without the original cover art.

7) Qhude (October 30, 1963)
8) Come To Glory (1963)
Chants d'Afrique No. 2, French LP (April 1964)
(RCA Victor, 435 018, FRA)
I am absolutely floored that Qhude has not been featured on more Makeba “best of” compilations. Moreover it is unbelievable that her fourth album, The Voice of Africa, while being reissued on vinyl a number of times, has never been available on CD. The only CD compilation to feature Qhude is a well-researched 1991 US issue titled Africa (now out of print.) This CD is also one of the few to include a number of other fabulous tracks from five of her first six albums including the amazing Dubula and Kwedini. Come to Glory also on The Voice of Africa is a West Indian gospel chant and is one of my favorites.

9) Khawuyani-Khanyange (August 18, 1964)
10) Khuluma (August 18, 1964)
Miriam Makeba, French EP
(RCA Victor, 86 447 M, FRA)
Makeba’s fifth album Miriam Sings! has seldom, if at all, been reissued on vinyl and never on CD, though it boasts some great tracks including her alternative version of Kilimanjaro. Khawuyani-Khanyange, arranged by Masekela, is a combination of two songs by Makeba and Dorothy Masuka respectively and features Betty Mtombeni, Mamsie Gwangwa, Edith Grootboom, Ernst Mohlomi, Caiphus Semenya and Paul Makgoba on vocals.
Khuluma as the liner notes reveal is “another Mbaqanga from the townships, written by Betty Khoza, a singer from Durban living in Johannesburg” and also features Morris Goldberg on alto sax. (Check out more Betty Khoza and Morris Goldberg here.) In desperation to find clean copies of these two tracks, I broke down and opened a sealed copy I had found on eBay. All was not as it appeared and it turned out to be used… lesson here… be skeptical!

11) Oxgam (original studio version) (1966)
Canta en Espanol, Spanish 45
(RCA Victor, 3-10308, SPA)
Another shocking omission from many Makeba compilations is the original studio version of Oxgam (sometimes referred to as Click Song No.2); the preferred variation being the haunting, almost a cappella Baxabene Oxamu on the 1988 Sangoma album (one of her all time best LPs.) This Letta Mbulu track was first issued on Makeba’s 1966 LP, The Magic of Makeba and live versions are featured on In Concert! and the recently issued Live At Bern’s Salonger. The original album has also been reissued as part of a box set of seven of her LPs. Oxgam is a type of tongue twister meant to teach children how to pronounce clicks. Check out the funky organ stabs towards the end of the song!

12) Khawuleza (Russian booklet version)
(originally recorded April 1965; Russian version, 1970)
Kpyro3op (Krugozor Magazine with six flexi-discs)
(Issue 6, 1970, USSR)
Khawuleza (or Hurry, Mama, Hurry!) comes from the album An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, issued on RCA Victor in 1965 and is widely available on CD. The album itself is significant in that Makeba won a Grammy for it and it is one of her most politically overt. This is an important album for me personally in that it is the very one that generated the entire Makeba research project when I found a copy in a thrift store in the United States and was struck by the very political nature of the liner notes. The album includes Vuyisile Mini’s classic protest song Ndodemnyama or Beware Verwoerd. Khawuleza speaks of police raids in the townships and written and originally recorded by Dorothy Masuka in the 1950s. Like many of Makeba’s post-1963 UN address records, the album was banned in South Africa. Three tracks from that album can be found on a very unique Russian audio booklet and this is where the version of Khawuleza comes from. Although all three songs are identical to the LP versions, they are unique in a remarkable way: It appears that the editors of the magazine have overlayed voice commentary or perhaps a translation in Russian over Makeba’s introduction to the song! The booklet itself consists of a number of other tracks by other artists and each song is ring bound as a floppy flexi-disc in the book with extensive text in Russian. To play a song, one must simply go to the page of choice, fold the book completely open and place the entire object on the record player.

The Soviet Union was sympathetic to anti-apartheid causes and supported the ANC in exile with training and shelter. A number of historic ANC albums were recorded and issued in the USSR including the Amandla group with Jonas Gwangwa. Gwangwa also played a prominent role in conducting and arrangements on this album. Makeba herself had a number of albums issued in the Eastern block during the 1970s, after she became “self-exiled” from the US. The 1974 album A Promise was issued on the East German label Amiga and a compilation album Miriam Makeba was issued in Czechoslovakia on the Supraphon/Reprise label in 1974.

13) Charlie (Oh Mama) (c1966)
La Merveilleuse Miriam Makeba, French LP
(Mercury, 124 016 MDL, FRA)
An interesting earlier version of Milélé with English lyrics on Makeba’s first Mercury release, The Magnificent Miriam Makeba. The later version was included on the album Myriam Makeba & Bongi, issued on Syliphon Conakry in 1975.

14) Chomba Cha Ajaba (1968)
Le Bateau Miracle, French EP
(Campagne Mondiale Contre La Faim, FAO 01, Part 62.723, FRA)
Chomba Cha Ajaba is a Makeba adaption of French singer Gilbert Bécaud’s Le Bateau Miracle or The Miracle Boat. The EP, sponsored by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was issued in 1968 for their worldwide campaign against hunger. The EP was pressed in at least three countries: in France as Le Bateau Miracle, and in Ecuador and Mexico as El Barco Del Amor.

15) Malayisha (original studio version, 1967)
Golden Miriam Makeba, Japanese LP (c1968)
(Reprise, SWG 7113, JAP)
This Manhattan Brothers track has a huge hit for Makeba in 1967. Remarkably it was not issued on the Pata Pata album (from about the same time) and existed as a single only. The only two LPs that feature the original studio version are the Japanese compilation Golden Miriam Makeba and the Italian version of Pata Pata. Also the song can be found as an added bonus track on the US CD reissue of Pata Pata.

16) A Piece of Ground (live, August 28, 1968)
Miriam Makeba in Tokyo, Japanese LP (1968)
(Reprise, SJET 8082, JAP)
This track by Jeremy Taylor comes from one of Makeba’s rarest records, a Japan-only live recording made in Tokyo. (View it here at Electric Jive.)

17) The Ballad of Sad Young Men (demo, c1967)
18) Untitled (demo, c1967)
(Steel demo disc, Nola Penthouse Sound Studio, USA)
These two tracks are probably the rarest in the current selection. Both come from a steel demo disc featuring seven tracks, six of which would eventually appear on Makeba’s 1967 Mercury album All About Miriam. Of those tracks three would be further re-mixed on the famous Pata Pata album issued by Reprise in 1967. The tracks here are quite stripped down and my guess is they were used as reference for the future LPs. Their is a suggestion in the eBay auction that the disc may have come from the estate of Luchi DeJesus, the arranger of many of the tracks on All About Miriam and Pata Pata, but that is hard to verify. In all cases the final recordings are quite different from these demos but none are as distinct as The Ballad of Sad Young Men where the earlier version is quite somber compared with its upbeat final mix. This track is also most famous for being the b-side to the Pata Pata single. The Untitled demo track seems very familiar to me, but I can’t seem to identify it. Let us know if you recognize the tune.

19) Ibabalazie (original studio version, c1967)

20) Emavungwini (Down in the Dumps) (c1968)
Miriam Makeba, Italian LP (issued 1968)
(Reprise, RI 5119, ITA)
Ibablazie is another Letta Mbulu song that quite frankly addresses that morning after phenomenon known as a “hangover.” Remarkably this funky original studio version never made the cut on any of Makeba’s official albums—generally the live version is featured. Also note the English lyrics in this version. Emavungwini, a tune by Douglas Xaba, is featured on what I think is Makeba’s best album simply titled Makeba! Both these tracks were great hits and were usually issued together as a single 45 rpm, one notable exception is the Italian version of the Pata Pata LP which includes both as additional tracks. While Emavingwini has been available through the CD reissue of the album Makeba!, neither of these tracks have been featured on any of her “best of” compilations.

21) You Suffer Too (1971)
La Guinee Guine, 45
(Editions Syliphone Conakry, SYL 536, FRA)
The bluesy You Suffer Too is the b-side of La Guinee Guine and comes from a series of 11 rare singles issued on the Syliphon Conakry label in the early 1970s, a period that spanned Makeba’s so-called “Guinea Years”— and which is also the title of a fabulous CD compilation of many of her songs from this period. The track unfortunately does not appear on the compilation. Perhaps its blues inflection did not meet the more African feel of the CD… but this track is one of my favorites.

22) Mansane Cissé (1973)
Africa, 45
(Editions Syliphone Conakry, SYL 551, FRA)
Mansane Cissé is the b-side to Africa, also on the Syliphone Conakry label. This traditional Senegalese tune is performed by what appears to be Makeba’s backing group, but ironically the instrumental does not include her voice. I however could not resist including it.

23) Les Trois Z (c1975)
24) I’mm You’mm We’mm (c1975)
(Disques Esperance, ESP 155027, FRA, 1978)
Les Trois Z is a political song from Zaire (now Congo) by Gérard Madiata. The term "Les Trois Z" referred to the “Authenticité” or authenticity campaign of Mobutu Sese Seko in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the late 1960s and early 70s, to “rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western culture and to create a more centralized and singular national identity.” The campaign included renaming the country, the Congo River and the currency—“Zaire” and referred to them as Les Trois Z — Notre Pays, Notre Fleuve, Notre Monnaie (The Three Zs — Our Country, Our river, Our Money). Makeba’s version of the song was a significant influence on a young Angelique Kidjo who found early success with an adaption of it.
I’mm You’mm We’mm is the apparent b-side to Les Trois Z on this 1975 Disques Esperance single and, to my knowledge neither appeared on any of Makeba’s vinyl albums. Oddly, a pressing error reveals the b-side on this single to be Talking and Dialoging another less common track. I’mm You’mm We’mm does appear to be a studio recording and can be found on the German CD re-issue titled Live in Conakry but the track does not occur on the original 1970 LP Appel a L’Afrique.

25) Kwanong Zongo (Nongqongqo) (live, November 19, 1997)
Les Voix De La Paix, EP CD (1998)
(International Yehudi Menhuin Foundation, Q 885, FRA)
This is a live version of Nongqongqo, recorded in Brussels, comes from a concert Voices For Peace organized by the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. The original version is featured on the classic album, An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, issued in 1965 and mentioned above. The song speaks about South African leaders—Sobukwe, Luthuli and Mandela—and their role in the struggle against apartheid.

At this point I should add the two tracks Makeba recorded for Toyota in 1980, but as those have already been featured on Electric Jive, perhaps I should end it here! Enjoy!

RS

Allen Kwela - Black Beauty

2011-10-03T17:02:00.011+01:00

Long term readers of EJ contributor Matt’s pioneering Matsuli Music blog might recall a post from 2009 which showcased two jazz collections issued on Robin Taylor’s Satbel label in the late 1970s, Super Jazz vols. 1 and 2 (here). Stand out tracks on these collections are the two contributions by legendary guitarist Allen Kwela, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Quaphela’. Both titles were lifted by Satbel from the LP Black Beauty, a record originally issued on the Satbel subsidiary label Soweto, and it is this LP we share today.

Durban born but Johannesburg based for most of his life and career, the felicitously named Allen Kwela (1939-2003) was one of the pioneers of modern jazz guitar in South Africa, and played a formative role in the development of kwela through his productive early association with Spokes Mashiyane. Kwela never enjoyed the success found by his one-time band mate, and recordings by him are scarce. His 1973 LP Allen’s Soul Bag is can be found here, along with some links to biographical information (see also here). Black Beauty is a further addition to the slim discography. The LP sleeve gives no detailed information on the personnel, with the exception of one name whose presence provides a further reason to treasure this music: gracing the session on alto, Kippie Moeketsi.

edit: herewith larger scan of the back cover

Mahotella Queens - Khwatha O Mone (1984)

2011-09-26T00:00:00.002+01:00

We present to EJ readers today some clean 1980s mbaqanga courtesy of the Mahotella Queens.

A tasty mix of sounds cooked that great big pot, 1984’s Khwatha O Mone fuses straight-cut mbaqanga with rootsy stuff (“O Boshako”) and gospel (“Thato Ya Modimo”, “Moleko Ntlohele”) but also offers the winning formula of up-front stomping jive (“Ke Mmarona”, “Bana Mamelang”). The cover description calls it “Sotho Vocal / Traditional”, which doesn’t say much at all about how good this material is… American-style soul this definitely isn’t.

“O Boshako” is perhaps one of the finest tunes on this LP. Strong lead vocals from Emily Zwane, striking accordion work from Mzwandile David, amazing drumming from Michael Stoffel and layered lyrics written by Caroline Kapentar all help to make this song a great one. Every song is a gem, and this one gets the album off to a great start.

The friendly rivalry between the Queens and Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje was still going strong in the 1980s: the serene pose of the five Queens on the jacket of Khwatha O Mone mirrors the photo on the front of Izintombi’s 1981 LP Izenzo Zakho. Incidentally, Izintombi’s line-up in the early 1980s included two former Queens, Nobesuthu Shawe and Hilda Tloubatla – who, by the time of Khwatha O Mone’s release, had become a part of a reunion of the original Mahotella Queens in early 1983 – under the name Mahlathini Nezintombi Zomgqashiyo. (Stay tuned for a special EJ post soon, featuring music taken from two LPs from that 1983/4 reunion.)

Marks Mankwane, producer of the Queens at the time, once again provides crystal clear guitar work in combination with the typical florid keyboards and intricate bass lines. The vocalists on this album are: Emily Zwane (lead), Maggie Khumalo (alto), Beatrice Ngcobo (alto), Hazel Zwane (tenor) and Caroline Kapentar (tenor).

Enjoy…!

KHWATHA O MONE (Mahotella Queens)
Hit Special HIL 4005
1984

1. O BOSHAKO
2. MMAMODIEHI O KAE?
3. BANA MAMELANG
4. O DULETSENG
5. THATO YA MODIMO
6. KE MMARONA
7. MOLEKO NTLOHELE
8. MMAMOTSE
9. BADISA
10. TLAMA THOTO YA HAO

RS / MF

Shebeen (1959): South African Jazz musical

2011-09-20T00:01:00.007+01:00

Some great 50s African Jazz on this musical performed by the cast of African Jazz and Variety – well honed after seven years of touring southern Africa from 1952 to 1959. Supported by a diverse cast, Lionel Pillay, Lemmy Special and Elijah N’kwanyana were largely responsible for musical composition while Bill Brewer wrote and produced.

Like its more famous contemporary, King Kong, this recording of Shebeen gives us well crafted stand-alone songs that do not succumb to the “group-sing” tendency of some musicals. Set in Cape Town’s District Six (before the apartheid government tore it down), Shebeen fuses African jazz, kwela, marabi, and some great vocal performances from Ben Satch Masinga and, sadly, unlisted women. The likes of Dorothy Masuka, Dolly Rathebe, and Thandi Klaasen cut their teeth in this troupe.

“One of the most notorious spots in Southern Africa is “District Six. Tough and vice-ridden, but possessing a definite dingy beauty, this is Cape Town’s “Casbah”, and no white man in his right senses ventures there at night. Crouching under the shadow of Table Mountain, the square-fronted houses crowding the pavements present impassive poker-faces behind which are hidden scores of “shebeens” – illicit drinking haunts, each presided over by its own “queen”, who distils and dispenses her own high-powered concoctions and can also provide a selection of “Nize Time Girls” for the added pleasure of her patrons”.

... The original cast of “SHEBEEN” was drawn from “AFRICAN JAZZ AND VARIETY”, a talented vaudeville company composed of Zulus, Swazis, Xhosas, Basutos, Pondos, Fingos, Indians, Malays and Cape Coloured artists. This group toured the Union of South Africa and the Rhodesias over a period of seven years, It was a hard but efficient training school from which are now emerging many of the leading figures in the new exciting theatre of Africa.” (from the record sleeve).

Rapidshare here
Mediafire here

The Drive - Coming to the End of This (1976)

2011-09-14T13:34:00.000+01:00

A return to the jazz fusion sounds of the Drive. But it's a disturbing cover and title given that both Henry Sithole and Bunny Lithuli came to their end in a car crash under a year later in May 1977. And after that the Drive dissolved with remaining members moving on to Spirits Rejoice, Sakhile and elsewhere.

But there are three glorious tracks with the band at the height of their powers. The copy of the album being shared today was manufactured and distributed in Mozambique under a Teal imprint. The urbane tastes of Maputo and Beira residents clearly needed to be met!

For detailed context and background please visit these earlier posts at matsuli and here at electricjive where a detailed discography is available.

The Drive - Coming to the End of This (RCL1208, 1976)
1. To the End
2. Ama Swazi
3. T.J. Bump
All compositions by Henry Sithole. Produced by David Thekwane

MF/RS

The Movers - Greatest Hits Vol. 4 (1971)

2011-09-08T01:00:00.010+01:00

This post comes to you on the fly from OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg and because of that it will have to be short! But then again what more could be said about the funky soul sounds of The Movers who have been featured on Electric Jive at least five times in the last year. Today we focus on their fourth album Greatest Hits Volume 4 issued in 1971 on Teal's City Special label. View their other albums on Electric Jive including Greatest Hits Vol.2 (1970), Repeat After Me (1974), Bump Jive (1975), Bump Jive 6 (1975) and on the compilation Tower Special (1975).

Hope you enjoy!

The Movers
Greatest Hits Volume 4
1971
City Special
CYL 1007

01) Alex Soul Hit
02) Last Word
03) Watch Out (with Diana Mbatha)
04) Hard Day's Work
05) Crying All Night (with Diana Mbatha)
06) Plea to my Heart (with Blondie Makhene)
07) Crying Guitar No.2
08) Soul Party (with Blondie Makhene)
09) It's a Pity
10) Sleep Out
11) Swazi Pineapples
12) Swazi Tribal Soul

RS