The Magic Garden (The Pennywhistle Blues)

Some time ago, after waiting patiently for a long time, I came across an old VHS recording of the film that is alleged to have, specifically, propelled the pennywhistle boogie of Willard Cele into the limelight, and to have, more generally, opened the ears of the South African mainstream to kwela. For me there are… Continue reading The Magic Garden (The Pennywhistle Blues)

Come Back Africa

September 2013 This post was based upon an extended clip from the film that has been taken down due to copyright infringement. The copyright-holder’s own promotional video includes a very short segment right at the beginning that features the kwela band discussed here. In addition to being the film that really propelled a young Miriam… Continue reading Come Back Africa

Big Voice Jack with Black Mambazo: Iye Bulala i Nice Time

Whilst fixing up the broken links from the YouTube article about Big Voice Jack, I came upon this earlier example of his playing: Black Mambazo (“Axe”) was also known as the Alexandra Shamba Band, and was composed of band members Aaron (Jack) Lerole, Elias (Shamba) Lerole, David Ramosa and Peter Khumalo. The band ruled the… Continue reading Big Voice Jack with Black Mambazo: Iye Bulala i Nice Time

Big Voice Jack Lerole on YouTube

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… Continue reading Big Voice Jack Lerole on YouTube

More about Donald Kachamba

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… Continue reading More about Donald Kachamba

Kachamba Brothers: Musical Sunshine from Malawi

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… Continue reading Kachamba Brothers: Musical Sunshine from Malawi

Skokiaan

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,… Continue reading Skokiaan

Babatoni, the Kwela Bass

Back in June there was a blip in the visitor stats that was the result of a link to the Kwela Project from a post in the Banjoroots Yahoo group. The post was about Africa-American single-stringed instruments, and as well as mentioning the renowned ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik (who happens to play clarinet in Donald Kachamba‘s… Continue reading Babatoni, the Kwela Bass

Gadzooks! It’s Sophiatown’s Phalanzani Scots Band!

If you’ve ever wondered how “35 pennywhistlers and two drummers, dressed in Scout hats, kilts, tartan sashes, and neckerchiefs” could possibly be connected to the 1956 Alexandra bus boycott, then David B. Coplan’s essay Sophiatown and South African Jazz: Re-appropriating a Cultural Identity is for you. Telling the story of life, and music in particular,… Continue reading Gadzooks! It’s Sophiatown’s Phalanzani Scots Band!