Despite the influence of the American jazz greats, African piano playing and South African playing in particular, Cape Town jazz piano playing even more particularly, is so distinctive. I recognize it very quickly but I lack the knowledge to be able to describe what characterises it.
Cape Jazz and the Zen of African Piano
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Manenberg Is Where It’s At Is a personal favourite.
I never knew about this effect of the pisno hammerheads.
Rashid Vally, who produced the record in Cape Town in 1974, recalls how the title track evolved: “I think it was on the third day of recording during a short break that Abdullah’s attention was diverted to an upright piano that had drawing pins attached to the hammerheads. This piano was used to record commercial jingles; hence the almost harpsichord sound. He started playing around and called the horn players to join in, and the first strains of ‘Mannenberg’ began to emerge.”
Thanks for this Junior. I shall read that article when I have a moment.
My favourite DB/AI album is Anthem For The New Nations which I have on CD but doesn’t seem to be on the streaming platforms complete, although here’s the title track.
I’m not sure I can describe his music in musical terms, although I’d say it’s a hybrid of whatever South African folk music is, jazz, gospel, and a certain reflective restraint
I saw him live at the Adelaide Festival a few years ago. He played two long medleys, totally mesmerising, going between all those approaches and a few more.
I last saw him at Womadelaide. Swelteringly hot ,a mid afternoon slot. I sat alone in the middle of the lawn draped in cloths to shade me. He came on stage , played one long piece and left.
Simple often naive melodies with the right hand and driving rhythms with the left.
Like this
Love that track.
A very interesting article. Thanks. The albums Mannenberg and African Herbs provided much of the soundtrack to my early years. Magnificent music. I haven’t followed Ibrahim’s output in recent years but two albums I did buy recently are those recorded with Johnny Dyani back in 1973 and 1979 – ‘Good News From Africa’ and ‘Echoes From Africa’. They are not really characteristic of Ibrahim’s recordings and were each recorded in a day and so are not particularly polished, but there is a lovely feel to them. Johnny Dyani’s own recordings on the Danish SteepleChase label are worth following up. They are beautifully produced and draw in some of the old African hands from the mid-1970s.
Central to Dollar Brand’s sound at the time of Mannenberg were the horns of Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen. Basil Coetzee’s ‘Sabenza’ is exuberant and worth a listen. It also has Jansen on it.
A good way to collect the music of Dollar Brand recorded during the mid-1970s is via the compilation CDs put out by Kaz and Camden. ‘Voice of Africa’ has Black Lightning and Mannenberg on it, ‘Tintinyana’ has Soweto Is Where It’s At, and ‘African Sun’ has African Herbs and Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro. ‘African Horns’ has three Brand tracks alongside Tshona from Pat Matshikiza (see below) and two tracks from Barney Rachabane. Camden also put out ‘Jazz in Africa’ Volumes 1 and 2, with Vol 1 being the early (conventional) recordings of The Jazz Epistles (Brand’s first band, alongside Hugh Masekela, Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa and Makaya Ntshako) and the second volume featuring just one Brand track (Kalahari). But what this second volume also has is Pat Matshikiza’s Tshona album in full, with its magnificent title track. Kaz/Camden’s compilations ‘The Mountain’ and ‘Blues For A Hip King’ have assorted recordings from Ekaya and earlier tracks.
Interesting @Munster they are all my favourite records to incl the Dynai stuff on Enja.
The release of ‘Mannenberg’ in 1974 led to an interesting sub-genre of South African township jazz/jive a year later. This sub-genre can be characterized by very long, looping tracks with a repetitive riff over which various instruments are played. The craze/fad didn’t last long (just a year it seems) but was very popular (judging from the number of tracks I can find on Spotify). The pop side (bump jive) was led by The Movers and the jazzier aspects (bump jazz) by Ntemi Piliso And The Members. It is very relaxing music and very evocative of its era, but perhaps don’t play the whole playlist in one sitting as it can become very … well … repetitive.
In the liner notes to ‘Bra Ntemi at Mavuthela Vol 1 – 1975’ (written by Rob Allingham) there is the following: ‘The 1974 visit to South Africa by pianist Dollar Brand inadvertently set the stage for the next phase of Ntemi’s career. Late in that year Brand released what proved to be the biggest hit of his career, an extended performance taking up for the first time on a local jazz recording one entire side of a vinyl LP. Called Mannenberg, it was in fact a dramatically slowed down version of an old Zacks Nkosi tune called Jackpot which the older musician had recorded in 1960. Lulu Masilela, a prominent sax and organ jive player at Teal Records who would later work with Ntemi, takes up the story…
‘“I said to myself how about rerecording this tune and play it the way it is [and] instead I will give credit to Bra Zacks because this is Zacks Nkosi’s song.”’
Masilela recorded Mannenberg with The Movers and, according to him, this version outsold Brand’s version. ‘And then, in early 1975, Masilela and The Movers released an even bigger hit album called Bump Jive which, like the two versions of Mannenberg, was also an extended jazz-flavoured performance that took up an entire side of an LP. This was soon followed by yet another success in the same vein, Cool Down by Lulu Masilela and Thomas Phale. Both albums were helped along by the emergence of a popular “bump jive” dance, itself a variation on the “phata phata” craze some fifteen or more years earlier.’
Here is the playlist I have managed to put together on Spotify. I suspect it is not complete. I have been wanting to get the playlist up on the Afterword forum for ages but the genre is so niche I thought I would wait until the appropriate time, as only dedicated listeners of southern African music would be interested.
Absolutely delighted by this playlist; thanks for sharing. I’ll be grooving around to it for the rest of the day.
@Munster that’s deep knowledge! There’s a few fans who will enjoy this as much as me.
Do you know Chris Albertyn of Matsuli Records? He has a massive collection at his place in Durban and is digitising rare stuff and putting it up on his You Tube channel.
I used to follow the Electric Jive blog several years ago and it still exists. Worth a look:
http://electricjive.blogspot.com
And for a deep dive into South African jazz from 1964 onwards, the Ian Bruce Huntley archive is indispensable:
https://electricjivehuntleyarchive.org
@jazzjet
A great series I had a few contributions to that series including http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2015/06/harare-hit-parade-revisited.html
“Musicians from Cape Town’s multiracial free-jazz group the Blue Notes, including pianist Chris McGregor . . . moved to London in 1965 . . . never returning to South Africa during apartheid.”
Whenever I get the opportunity to post this joyous track by Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath I do so. So here it is: