Record Store Day Jive Bonanza - A three way giveaway!

Electricjive, flatinternational and Matsuli Music have joined forces for a Record Store Day giveaway.

So we don't have a retail store made from bricks and mortar. But that doesn't stop us from spreading our love of records. And better still no money changes hands. We simply give the records to you. We won't even ask you to pay the postage.

We get lots of pleasure out of sharing great music, honouring the musicians who make it, and we hope to turn on a whole new audience to fantastic out-of-print sounds that might otherwise become lost to global memory. We avoid sharing music that can still be legitimately purchased.

The offer comprises
- two copies of the Dick Khoza Chapita reissue LP from Matsuli Music;
- four 5-packs of seventies mbaqanga/jive singles mostly on the King, Soweto and Groove labels; and
- four copies of the electric-jive assisted Mahotella Queens/Soul Brothers CD compilation on Nascente Records

So ten winners in total and all you need to do is to send an email to recordforthe AT gmail.com telling us why you visit our sites and what music you would like to see more of. We will select the winners at random and close the competition after 5 days.


For more info on World Record Store day visit here

Join the Party Pt 2

This is part two of a series of posts themed around political propaganda. In many ways its an update to an earlier post at Matsuli where Matt detailed the origins and recordings made by the ANC's Amandla Cultural Group. Its worth repeating what was quoted in that post to give context to the recording which is being shared today.

"From the mid-1970s exiled political groups, particularly the African National Congress (ANC), came increasingly to recognize the value of culture in promoting the struggle abroad. 1974 saw the establishment of the Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble, a London-based grouping that was to achieve considerable success in Europe. Mayibuye was an agitprop group whose performances consisted of an awareness-raising narrative about apartheid interwoven with poetry readings and rousing renditions of freedom songs. In the late 1970s, as increasing pressure forced many of Mayibuye’s performers into more direct political work, another group was in the budding stages of development closer to home. The Amandla Cultural Ensemble originated amongst ANC exiles based largely in military training camps in southern Africa, and became a popular ambassador for the movement across Africa, Europe, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere. It offered large-scale, increasingly professionalized performances incorporating jazz, theatre, and dance. Its performances were intended not only to raise international awareness about apartheid, but also – perhaps more importantly – to present an alternative vision of a future, more inclusive South African culture." (Gilbert, Shirli. Singing against apartheid: ANC cultural groups and the international anti-apartheid struggle, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, 2006-10-05)

The Amandla Cultural Ensemble first performed at Festac in Nigeria in 1977 and the following year at the Cuban Youth Festival. Their first recording was made at Radio Luanda and Radio Zambia studios during 1980 and released internationally by the Swedish Labour Movement Record Company in 1980. The first international tour took place in 1981 in Sweden. The musical director of Amandla was Jonas Gwangwa, one of the stalwarts of South African jazz.

Full liner notes and more details have been published by Siemon over at Flat International


MF / RS

Classic mbaqanga: Marena (1971)

A return to jive for this post - and if this LP we are sharing today does not fall under the category of "classic mbaqanga", I don't know what does.

This rarity is Marena, one of the many compilation LPs released on the Motella label in 1971 that represented the best tunes of the past year - though "best" may be something of an understatement.

Mavuthela's talented stars again make various appearances...

- Mahotella Queens, with guest vocals from Mahlathini on "Jive Makhona" and Lazarus Magatole on "Senakangwedi"

- Izintombi Zomoya, many of whom went onto become prominent Queens themselves at various points between 1973 and 1983

- Izingane Zomgqashiyo, a pseudonym for the combination of singer John Moriri and girl group Mthunzini Girls, formed by producer Rupert Bopape in 1966

- Zwino Zwino Boys, led by bassist James Mukwebo

- Makgona Tsohle Band, featuring some early guitar playing from Maxwell Mngadi, who was later to join the Soul Brothers' instrumental line-up

Musically, this album represents an exciting and enlightening time as far as mbaqanga music was concerned. Artwork-wise - well, see for yourself!!

From the party beat in "Stop Shouting", to praising the kings in "Marena", to the straightforward jive of "Ingede", to the almost mournful "Senakangwedi"... there's not much more to be said, other than...

...download, listen and get jiving!

MARENA (Various)
Motella LPBS 5
1971

1. STOP SHOUTING – ZWINO ZWINO BOYS
2. MAMODIEHI – IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA
3. TSABOHADI – IZINGANE ZOMGQASHIYO
4. UJOMELA – MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND
5. SENAKANGWEDI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
6. LEFOKOLODI LA DITHOTA – IZINTOMBI ZOMOYA
7. MARENA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
8. DIPEREKISI – MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND
9. JIVE MAKHONA – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
10. KGOMO YA MOSHATE – MAHOTELLA QUEENS
11. INGEDE – MAKGONA TSOHLE BAND
12. KGAREBE TSA GA MOTHUSI – MAHOTELLA QUEENS

RapidShare: here
MediaFire: here

Almon Memela - Funky Africa (1975)

Today we pick up the A.M Stragglers thread (sewn by fortherecord in February) with Almon Memela’s super rare Funky Africa. Information on Memela, like his records, is hard to come by and much of what I have gleaned below has been sourced from various auctions and the research of Yvonne Huskisson.

Composer, guitarist and later producer for WEA Records in South Africa, Almon Sandisa Memela was born in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal in 1936. His first guitar was homemade, but his parents were not supportive of his musical endeavors and so he taught himself to play on borrowed instruments. After briefly working at the United Tobacco Company in Durban, Memela moved to Johannesburg in 1956 to work on the mines. While there he sought to take guitar lessons at the legendary Dorkay House in 1958. The three-storey education and performance centre was purchased by Union Artists (with proceeds from the 1954 farewell concert for anti-apartheid activist Father Trevor Huddleston) and became a fulcrum for artists to meet and share ideas. As it turned out, Memela, rather than becoming a student was asked to teach the guitar lessons!

Memela made his first recordings in 1959 and his early career included band work with the United Artists’ productions of King Kong, In Township Tonight and Mhobelo as well as background music for the Jamie Uys film Dingaka. His first recording as composer was the track Nozizwe with the Travelling Singers in 1960. In 1963 his work began shifting toward instrumentals exclusively—interestingly, the same year that he formed his group, Almon’s Jazz Eight.

The Jazz Eight recorded and performed throughout the 60s and 70s (listen to their HMV 78s in the Ballantine Archive) and the line-up included amongst others, future Drive members, Henry and Stanley Sithole (who joined the group around 1966) and Bunny Luthuli (in 1968). In 1969 the Sithole Brothers formed the Heshoo Beshoo Group before they and Luthuli established the Drive in 1971. In the meantime Memela and his group The A.M Stragglers recorded Soul Bandit (1969, Little Giant, G2) the album featured here on Electric Jive in February.

Memela is remarkably versatile and his style shifts from soul jazz with the Stragglers to bump jive with Abafana Bamaswazi (on Highway Soul and the Swaziland Likwindla Festival, both 1977); from straight mbaqanga on some 45s to the rich afro funk textures featured on today’s offering: Funky Africa.

In the world of eBay, Funky Africa has been elevated to “holy grail” status making this rare album even harder to come by and excessively expensive. The album is tight and excellent, but we might reserve the title of “holy grail” for Memela’s even scarcer album Broken Shoes (1976, Highway Soul, HSL 2009)… or at least until we listen to it!

For a limited discography of Almon Melmela go to flatint.

One final note… I was surprised to see the cover—that stark, hot African landscape—show up again on a Turkish pressing of Pink Floyd’s debut album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn… odd!

ALMON MEMELA

Funky Africa

Atlantic

ATC 9583

1975

Download link here

Golden City Jive (1969)

Whatever imagination they lacked in the cover-design department in this their first ‘African’ issue LP in South Africa, Trutone made up for it with a strong selection of 60s mbaqanga instrumental songs. Not much more needs to be said here, but Enjoy!

1. Phelendaba Special No.5 – Sammy Boy (S. Bengu - 2.24)
2. Did You Know Its Soul – Boogies (M.Smandler - 2.41)
3. Dumaza – Kid Margo (Kid Margo - 2.25)
4. Vuma Special – Victor Ntuli (V. Ntuli - 2.20)
5. Madam “B” – Margaret Buyani (M. Buyani - 2.40)
6. The Return of Spokes – Spokes Mashiyane (S. Mashiyane - 2.32)
7. The Sad Tycoon – Boogies (J. Ntsele - 2.29)
8. Vlak Special No.3 – Jimmy Masuluke (J. Masuluke - 2.17)
9. The Dead Duck – Alexander and the Backstage Boys (A. Langa - 2.19)
10. One Out of the Bag – Sammy Boy (M. Smandler - 2.31)
11. D’Almeida Kwela – The Bay Jazz Combo (A. Daniels - 2.19)
12. Studio Two – Sparks (S. Nyembi - 2.33)

Trutone TBL1 (1969) Various Artists.

Rapidshare here
Mediafire here

Jazz royalty, swinging bittersweet

Winston 'Mankunku' Ngozi - Golden Castle 1968 Jazzking of the Year

When the prohibition on the sale of ‘European liquor’ – beer, wine and spirits – to Africans was lifted in 1962, the South African alcohol industry was quick to capitalise on the existing mythologies and realities that had already indelibly associated jazz in South Africa with shebeen culture and drinking. The Cold Castle Jazz Festivals of 1961-4, sponsored by Castle Lager, are the best known of these attempts to link the drink industry with jazz, and resulted in a rightly celebrated series of recordings, including Jazz: the African Sound, the 1963 studio recording of Chris McGregor's Castle Lager Big Band, assembled after the McGregor group won the 1962 competition (available here; the 1962 festival record is available here).

The Cold Castle festivals promoted beer, and at this stage there was no serious industry attempt to market wine to African drinkers. But toward the end of the 1960s, as wine production in South Africa increased, a more concerted campaign to market wine products – often ‘sweet wine’ or ‘brandy wine’ – to African consumers seems to have been undertaken. As with beer marketing immediately after the end of prohibition, jazz music and imagery was once again employed to sell alcohol to an African market, with the E.K. Green distillery company even marketing a brandy wine named ‘Jazzman’ (slogan: ‘When it’s time for fun – it’s time for Jazzman!’) by giving away free records in Drum magazine. Also involved was the Castle Wine and Brandy Company (unconnected to Castle Lager, despite the name) whose promotion of ‘Golden Castle’ – a ‘swinging semi-sweet natural wine’ – involved a ‘Jazz King of the Year’ award, seemingly chosen by a popular vote. Paul Nugent, who generously supplied the images below, has posted about the wine industry here, where he also documents a some other Golden Castle adverts.

In 1967, the winner was Early Mabuza. In 1968, the same year as his landmark recording Yahkal’ Inkomo, the winner was Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi, and the music shared in this post is taken from the free promotional single that went with the title award. The single has absolutely no information about the music or lineup at all (both the laminated picture sleeve and the record labels themselves are identical on either side), but since the performance is in quartet the date might circumstantially suggest that the personnel is the same as that on Yakhal’ Inkomo (Mankunku being joined on that session by Lionel Pillay on piano, Agrippa Magwaza on bass, and Early Mabuza on drums). No song titles are given (if you recognize the tunes, please let us know in the comments). Both sides are bookended with alternate language versions of a jingle based on the Golden Castle slogan ‘You’re a king with a Golden Castle’.

Mankunku was one of the great tenormen, as authoritative with his instrument as his most illustrious US forebears and contemporaries. Like too many great South African jazz musicians, he has been denied an equivalent historical standing through circumstances that by now need no rehearsal here. Recordings of him in his late 1960s pomp are few in number. At this stage, a mere two more tracks is a lot. Enjoy.

RS/MF

With many thanks to Paul Nugent at the Centre for African Studies, Edinburgh.

Sadness and Joy with Dixie Kwankwa

This is the first LP in South Africa on the Troubadour label and is presented as "Sadness and Joy - Dixie Kwankwa in an Evening of African Cabaret". Dixie had a hit in London and Southern African with the song My Nyasaland Love which was issued in the UK on Melodisc 1573 (c.1961). In a strange way Dixie reminds me of Simphiwe Dana with an assured but quiet and confident delivery and none of the urgency or forcefullness of her peers. In listening to the LP today you can almost visualise this slotting in next to the Harry Belafonte, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra records that the white middle classes were enjoying at the the time. Record players that could play 33rpm records were rare and expensive and until at least the mid-sixties the predominant format in South Africa was the 78 single play.

There is not a lot more information on Dixie apart from what can be gleaned from the sleeve notes which are written in the quaint and mostly patronising manner of the times. Dixie did win the Miss South Africa title in 1957 and in the following year as part of the show African Bandwagon got her first singing job before being signed to Troubadour Records.

There are some great songs here including a take on Ghanaian Hi Life and a rock and roll tune. The accompaniment and chorus is under the direction of Cuthbert Mathumba whilst the LP is produced and arranged by Stuart Cook. Enjoy the ride!

Dixie Kwankwa - Sadness and Joy (Troubadour, LPA1, c 1959)
1. Hush A Bye
2. Kulusizi
3. Hi-Life the Ghana Way
4. Mary Jane
5. When the One You Love
6. Lost on the Mountain
7. My Heart is Waiting for the Sunrise
8. Kwa Zulu
9. Memories of My Love
10. Nice Time Baby
11. Pick Up The Axe, Sebenza
12. When You Walk Alone
RS/MF


My Nyasaland Love b/w I Left My Heart in Rhodesia 45 RS/ MF