Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole was one of the most influential kwela stars and, in a revival of his popularity that is described in Keith Addison’s 1998 article ‘Return of the Big Voice‘, must have been one of the last of the originators to still be recording.
The story of how Big Voice Jack ended up [...]
Posted in Bands and Musicians, History, Performance, Video
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Tagged Alexandra, Big, Black Mambazo, diepkloof, Jack, Jake, Lerole, Shukumo Mambazo, Soweto, Voice
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October 12, 2008 – 8:57 pm
The song “Uile Ngoan’a Batho” reminds me very much of Inkomo Zodwa – also sung by Miriam Makeba and The Skylarks, with Spokes Mashiyane improvising behind the verses as well as providing inspired soloing during the breaks. “Uile Ngoan’a Batho” is found on The History of Township Music, and – as this web page demonstrates [...]
Its about time there was some practical, hands-on music around here, and to this end I’ve transcribed|arranged|made-up the short and sweet solo section from Spoke’s Mashiyane’s song called ‘Shisa Phata Phata’ (composed by a ‘R. Msomi’).
Phata Phata was a popular dance “down Jo’burg way” (or sometimes “down Gauteng way“) as Miriam Makeba reminds us in [...]
Posted in Bands and Musicians, Broadcast, Instruments, Playing, Recording, Weblogs
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Tagged lilypond, makeba, mashiyane, msomi, phata, sheet music
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April 20, 2008 – 10:40 pm
Following on from my last post about the Kachamba Brothers, I decided to try and find out more.
First of all, I found some interesting photographs of Donald and ‘friends’ jamming together. These pictures were taken by Rike and Henrik Bettermann when they visited Chileka in Malawi as part of their 1996/97 tour of West and [...]
Posted in Bands and Musicians, Broadcast, History, Images, Instruments, Recording, Weblogs
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Tagged audio, babatoni, bettermann, burns, chileka, dulcimergirl, kachamba, malawi, UCLA
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March 30, 2008 – 11:06 pm
The Voice of America web site is running a very interesting African Music blog – well worth checking out.
Matthew LaVoie has written a fascinating post entitled Musical Sunshine from Malawi which outlines how the Kachamba brothers, Daniel and Donald, discovered kwela to the city that is now Harare, but was then called Salisbury, and bought [...]
October 28, 2007 – 3:46 pm
I apologise for the elapsed time since my last post – I’ve been busy learning guitar and catching up with old friends. In addition I switched from one kwela arrangement project (that proved a bit too complicated at the time) to another that I am presenting here…
A couple of posts back in ‘Rare Willard Cele [...]
October 2, 2007 – 10:48 pm
Skokiaan is a significant instrumental that was composed, performed and recorded originally in South Africa’s neighbour, Zimbabwe. We’ve already seen that the influence of kwela has been felt in this country, and although Skokiaan is described as tsaba-tsaba, it shares a common ancestor with kwela: marabi.
The instrumental was later recorded by Gallotone (which, perhaps, lead [...]
Posted in Bands and Musicians, History, Playing, Recording
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Tagged audio, bulawayo, gallotone, musarurwa, sheet music, skokiaan, tsaba-tsaba, zimbabwe
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September 18, 2007 – 9:18 pm
Many thanks to The In Crowd and his/her learning2share blog for making these very early Willard Cele tracks available. Willard was the inspiration for many kwela players, maybe including Spokes Mashiyane. Listen to these recordings (Penny Whistle Blues and Penny Whistle Boogie) and you’ll hear quite a different style of kwela to that recorded by [...]
September 11, 2007 – 10:35 pm
The song Inkomo Zodwa was recorded by Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks in March 1959 and features Spokes Mashiyane on the pennywhistle. It is accredited to the South African playwright Gibson Kente. I originally got hold of this track on The Rough Guide to the Music of South Africa, and you can too (although I [...]
August 22, 2007 – 10:46 am
Last.fm has some good recorded content that is tagged kwela – unfortunately I can’t figure out how to embed the player here and then not complain that there is ‘Not enough content to play this station’. Follow the link to kwela on last.fm and check it out there – if it complains, try reloading the [...]