Focus: Music of South Africa

Chapter Notes

Popular in the early part of the 20th century, between about 1910 and 1930.
Strongly influenced by American jazz and blues.
Performed by black urban working-class musicians, often at parties with plenty of alcohol.
Main instruments were guitar, banjo, and keyboard. Percussion provided by someone shaking a tin filled with stones.
Cyclic structure with the following harmonic progression usually used: I-IV-I6/4-V.

Pennywhistle music.
Inspired by American jazz, and is a close relative of marabi.
Kwela musicians Lemmy ‘Special’ Mabaso, Spokes Mashiyane, and Elias Lerole gained international success in the 1950s.

An American inspired genre of jazz created in the ‘townships’ of South Africa that quickly led to the broad category of South African jazz.
Major South African jazz musicians who forged an elitest and international style of jazz based on South African township jazz: Chris McGregor, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Dudu Pukwana, Kippie Moeketsi, Johnny Dyani, Hugh Masakela.
Many of the more famous South African jazz musicians were exiled during apartheid. These musicians went primarily to Europe and America, and were strongly influenced by American jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, but also bebop musicians such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker and ‘free’ jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and (the later work of) John Coltrane.

Musical features of South African jazz:

Strong connection between instrumental performance and vocal style.
Saxophone is primary instrument, with bands having up to ten saxophones.
Extensive exploration with timbre and pitch bending.
Extensive use of repetition.
Although musicians may ‘swing’ it is not uncommon for South African jazz musicians to play in straight eighth notes.

(Maskanda will be dealt with in a later chapter)
Developed out of the marabi music of the 1930s and 1940s.
In the 1960s many of South Africa's important jazz musicians went into exile, and mbaqanga filled the void.
Mbaqanga is a more ‘popular’ genre than jazz.
In the 1960s and 1970s, mbaqanga was primarily a studio generated music, and was also known as msakazo (meaning ‘broadcast music’).
Mbaqanga and its sister-genre mqashiyo are less ‘traditional’ sounding that maskanda and isicathamiya.
Mbaqanga has become an umbrella term used to describe the music made by small bands playing the music popular in black communities from the 1930s to the present.
Mbaqanga is the style featured in much of the protest music-theater of the 1980s and early 1990s (especially in the productions of Mbongeni Ngema, such as Sarafina).

These were literally shows that travelled around South Africa (and eventually overseas) that showcased a wide variety of primarily black and ‘coloured’ performance styles.
The peak era of such performances was the 1950s and 1960s.
Many well-known South African musicians (such as Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masakela, and also the famous singer and actress Dolly Rathebe) launched their careers by performing in such shows.

The first ‘African musical opera’, which travelled to London in the early 1960s.
In many ways, King Kong was a more professional version of the common ‘traveling shows’. (Unlike many of the traveling shows, however, King Kong had a clear plot and was not simply a random showcasing of music and dance).
The story is about a boxer from a township just outside of Johannesburg.

Several genres were included in King Kong:

‘Gangster's dance’: Derived from traditional a Sotho war-dance, this is a modernized version where knives and broken bottles replace traditional spearks and knobkerries (fighting sticks).
Patha Patha (and Kwela, already discussed): A popular and sexual township dance form meaning ‘touch touch’.
Music of religious groups: Evangelical groups that are particularly active in the townships on Sundays. These groups parade through the townships singing with drums and banners.
Pennywhistle troups: Groups of pennywhistle players playing mainly kwela music for money on the side of the roads in the urban centers of South Africa.
Gum boot dance: A type of dance practiced performed primarily by migrant workers. This dance has traditional origins, and the dancers wear heavy rubber work boots.

A New Year's carnival and parade by the ‘coloured’ community of Cape Town.
Begun in the early 20th century, the carnival was prevented several times during particularly harsh periods during apartheid.
Instruments used in the carnival include: guitar, cello, and the traditional ghoema drum.
Costumes and dress for the carnival are elaborate. Many participants are dressed and made-up in minstrel patterns, including fancy suits and black make-up. Other participants dress more extravagantly, with brightly colored make-up and glitter. The moffie (a transvestite) is also an important carnival character.