Bringing down the walls of Jericho

Londoners were treated to an amazing live session on Thursday night at Cargo when Tony Allen, Dele Sosimi, Baaba Maal, Ty and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were in full effect. The place was jammed but I managed to snatch some pics and video to share with you today. Check out for an audio version of the show at Red Bull Music Academy Radio over the next couple of days. All we await is the new Hypnotics LP via Honest Jons? Or via the Inspiration Information series on Strut? (Mulatu/Heliocentrics soon!).
UPDATE: If you don't want to stream the audio via RBMA Radio here's an MP3 version I ripped from the web.



On a personal note I'm going to be traveling in the Middle East and Africa throughout February so posts will be short and sharp or non-existent.

Keep on Bumping

The Movers were "discovered" and first recorded by Hamilton Nzimande. But it was only with subsequent mentor and producer David Thekwane that they gained real success and fame. Their records sold incredibly well in South Africa as well as being released in the USA, France, UK and on the African continent. Archivist and musicologist Rob Allingham insists that their secret was to temper soul with a healthy dose of marabi: "The organ remained a prominent part of the foundation, but in addition to the usual chord patterns keyboardist Sankie Chounyane played intelligent , jazzy solos. More importantly the Movers' sound featured prominent saxophones." Rob, who ran the Gallo Archives for many years was recently working on getting all the original Movers LPs reissued as part of Gallo's Early Years project.

The whole "bump jive" craze spawned many records and the Movers were at its centre with the tune Bump Jive. Bump Jive itself features keyboards that seem to be "treated" in a similar way to Abdullah Ibrahim's piano on Mannenberg (apparently coins were tipped into the piano which give it that unique sound). In addition to the organ-led marabi-jazz style of the mid seventies the Movers were also active with a number of vocalists such as Mavis Maseko and had a string of hits including How Long?, Mama Lisa and She Loves You. If you want to hear more then I suggest picking up the two volumes of their greatest hits CDs available at oneworld.co.za However you can hear a sample of their mid-seventies work on this LP being shared today.


Jacaranda Phata Phata - The Movers (City Special 1975, CYL 1037)
1. Phata Phata No. 1
2. Correction
3. Jacaranda No. 2
Produced by David Thekwane. Photography by Creative Photography.
SAMPLE

Indigenous Afro Jazz LPs for Sale

Right now I am selling a number of duplicates of historic South African jazz. These include the key Malombo recordings, the 1978 Abdullah Ibrahim-Archie Shepp meeting, the solo piano Sangoma from the then Dollar Brand as well as the original Darius Brubeck LP from 1984. The sales are taking place through eBay and you can get all the details here MATSULIMUSIC AT EBAY.


Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim & Archie Shepp - Duet (1981, YZ 133 ND, NEAR MINT)


Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) - Sangoma (1973, Sackville 3006, NEAR MINT)

Malombo (Philip Tabane) - Indigenous Afro Jazz Sounds (original 1969, reissued 1985, GSL 267, NEAR MINT)

Malombo (Philip Tabane) - Pele Pele (1976, ATC 8003, NEAR MINT)

Malombo (Philip Tabane) - Sangoma (1978, ATH 4024, NEAR MINT)

Malombo (Philip Tabane) - Malombo (1984, KAYA 300, NEAR MINT)

Darius Brubeck - Tugela Rail (1984, RTS 609, NEAR MINT)

And whilst I wasn't watching this site has now registered over 300 000 site visits. Thank you! The Movers will be next in our exploration of soul and fusion from the South African seventies.

Soul Drive

And so on to The Drive, the band Henry Sithole and Bunny Luthuli established in 1971. Now some people really don't like it when African musicians make "non-African" music. This cuts close to the debate on authenticity, tradition and modernity. It has political dimensions and can get people very worked up. Witness the recent conversations on the WorldService blog when the writer expressed his dislike for - amongst others - the emphasis placed on the western aspects of African music. I don't want to get involved too far in this debate but I would like to briefly illustrate how jazz, soul and fusion in South Africa came to represent a declaration of independence and freedom from the constrictions that the Apartheid government had made regarding cultural and political expression.

In the 1960s Apartheid social engineering in South Africa resulted in the promotion by the government of indigenous cultural styles. Nine different radio services were created along language lines. This was in line with the government's political strategy of eradicating an urban black population. The aim was to ensure that the black workers required for mining and manufacture were temporary sojourners in the urban areas with traditional homes in the rural countryside (the so-called bantustans, or independent homelands in government parlance).

Within this context playing or at the very least making a passing reference to non-indigenous styles such as jazz, soul and rock was subversive and understood and read to be a declaration of freedom from the government straitjacket. But this political act decreased the avenues available for musicians to make money. Finding and playing to audiences without radio exposure was difficult. Added to this were more and more restrictions and licensing requirements that mean playing to urban audiences in the seventies was inherently problematic. Not many nightclubs existed in urban areas and promoter often took risky decisions to put on live shows.


The Drive (L-R): Bunny Luthuli, Temba (?), Tony Soali, Nelson Magwaza, Lucky Mbatha, Mavis Maseku, Stanley Sithole, Danny Sithole & Henry Sithole.(Photo © David Marks, Orlando, Soweto)
The Drive, along with The Movers, were South Africa's premier soul jazz band and represented an articulate black urban vision of a future at odds with Apartheid's engineers. Despite the political statement inherent in playing jazz or soul the music had a mixed reception. If you listen to the LP being shared today some tracks work better than others and some are probably best left on the cutting floor.

Aside from a number of 7" singles the Drive are known to have recorded and released the following LPs:
Slow Drive to Soweto (1974, AYL 1009)
Lets Cool it (details unconfirmed)
A Tribute to Henry Sithole and Bunny Luthuli (1977, RCL 1216, recorded just two weeks prior to Henry and Bunny's fatal traffic accident)

Slow Drive to Soweto (1974, AYL 1009)
1. Sweet Lips
2. Do It Again
3. Let It Be Me
4. Spinning Wheel feat Lucky Mbatha
5. Yesterday feat. Lucky Mbatha
6. Whats On Your Mind feat. Lucky Mbatha
7. Love and Peace
8. For Friends
9. Howl
10. Slow Drive to Soweto
TRY

In full force for 2009

2009 at matsuli: plenty more lost South African musical gems, original 1970s jive 45s to buy, some limited tee-shirt runs and some surprises along the way. I'm sorry that many of you have been unable to retrieve some of the older posts due to the limited number of downloads. Going forward links to commercially unavailable music will stay up unless the copyright owners object. During the course of this year I will be setting up a programme to assist music students in South Africa with funding and access to archival recordings. And so here we go with today's long lost South African jazz recording Armitage Road by the Heshoo Beshoo Group.


When matsuli regular Chris mentioned the Heshoo Beshoo Band last week I had to dive deep into Gwen Ansell's reference Soweto Blues to get some background. Gwen mentions Heshoo Beshoo as she builds her discussion about the development of South African jazz in the late sixties. The Armitage Road LP is - in her words - informed by both American and South African styles and influences. In short it straddles early hard bop and danceable South African jazz.


With a little more digging I was able to find out a little more: the group was put together by saxophonist Henry Sithole who started out playing jazz with Dalton Khanyile's Keynotes in 1964 before playing in Gibson Kente's musical Sikalo; thereafter with Almon's Jazz 8 and Mackay Davashe's Jazz Dazzlers. In 1969 Henry recruited Ernest Mothle on bass, Nelson Magwaza on drums, Cyril Magubane on guitar and his brother Stanley on tenor for the Heshoo Beshoo Group.

Heshoo Beshoo means moving forward with force. On so many levels this recording is a strong statement of self determination, creativity and freedom in the midst of the brutual subjugation of black South Africans by the Apartheid government. The LP had a limited release in South Africa as well as a subsequent release in France.

In 1971 Henry and Stanley were approached by guitarist Adolphus "Bunny" Luthuli to get a band together to compete in the Alco Best Band Competition at Jabulani Stadium in April 1971. Bunny had played with Henry in Almon's Jazz 8. This approach was the genesis of South Africa's greatest soul jazz band The Drive comprising the Sithole brothers Henry, Danny and Stanley, Bunny Luthuli, Mike Makhalemele, Lucky Mbatha, Nelson Magwaza and Anthony Saoli.

Ronnie Madonsela on the Brook Benton Tour with the Drive - Guitarist Lucky Sithole Band Leader Chris Schilder and Stan & Henry Sithole at the Jabulani Amphitheatre, Soweto 1971 - Photo by David Marks

More information and photographs about the Drive at David Marks' excellent Hidden Years website here. The Drive won the Alco competition and stayed together touring throughout Southern Africa. In 1972 they won best band at the PINA CULO festival in Umgababa in September 1972. The band unfortunately suffered a tragedy in May 1977 when Bunny Luthuli and Henry Sithole were killed outright in a car accident in the Tzaneen area of Nothern Transvaal.

Today Nelson Magwaza and Ernest Mothle are both musicians who command serious respect for their contribution to the rich tapestry of South African Jazz and popular music. Buts its Henry and his brothers and the likes of Heshoo Beshoo Group who we need to hear more about. The old slogan the struggle for jazz - jazz for the struggle rings true once more only today this struggle is as much about memory as it is about change.

The Heshoo Beshoo Group - Armitage Road (1971, JLP 4021)
1. Armitage Road
2. Wait and See
3. Amakhaya
4. Amabutho
5. Lazy Bones
Henry Sithole (alto sax), Stanley Sithole (tenor sax), Cyril Magubane (guitar), Nelson Magwaza (drums), Ernest Mothle (bass). Produced and engineered by John Norwell.

LINK