Whilst researching the music of Erwan Bouvier I came across of a video of him playing in a group with a guest musician playing an unusual bamboo whistle. The musician was Dela Botri, and the whistle was the atenteben. Atenteben is a bamboo fipple flute from Ghana; it was previously used in funeral ritual music, but back… Continue reading Atenteben – Ghanian whistle
Category: Video
Lemmy Mabaso and Shell Spirit
As Al G pointed out in a comment to an earlier post about Lemmy Mabaso, Lemmy played on the soundtrack to a short film by Geoffrey Jones called Shell Spirit. This film can be found on YouTube (probably not for long though, as the film is part of a BFI compilation called ‘Rhythm of Film‘ that… Continue reading Lemmy Mabaso and Shell Spirit
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 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