Sophiatown

/storyville/sophiatown-artists.shtml”>old musicians associated with the place, like Dollar Brand, the Manhattan Brothers, and Dolly Rathebe. From this interview, it’s clear that Pascale Lamche, the director, is hoping for a “Buena Vista Social Club” effect, whereby these old performers will see some recognition in their twilight years. Well, let’s hope so, but the Cuban musicians like Ruben Gonzalez were still, in their eighties, playing with a strength and vitality that the South Africans, to judge from the clips we saw, have largely lost. They were pretty much going through the motions. Still, there’s a point there: South Africa’s musical culture has always been vibrant, and was, until the recent rise of World Music, perhaps the only one in Africa which had an influence outside the continent. There’s Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), Miriam Makeba with her Click Song, the penny whistle (Kwela) of Tom Hart….

There’s a useful history of South African music here.

For me there were three main entry points to the music. First township jazz: South Africa uniquely developed its own jazz culture, with musicians like Dollar Brand, Hugh Masakela, Bheki Mseleku, most of whom were forced into exile. The Blue Notes (Chris MacGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo) relocated in London, put on a great show at a time when a lot of jazz tended towards the over-cerebral, and were hugely influential.

Then there was the series put out by Earthworks (associated with London’s great African music shop Stern’s), “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto“, introducing Mbaqanga, hard-driving urban sounds, with undoubted stars Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens (who put on one of my all-time best concerts at the Forum in London).

Finally there was the Zulu choral tradition, Iscathamiya. I confess I’m not a great fan of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but I have a memory of a quite extraordinary TV programme back in the Eighties, whose name I’ve forgotten, which featured the efforts of migrant workers, living in squalid dormitories hundreds of miles from their homelands and families, to organise a competition between different choirs. To ensure impartiality the judge was picked from outside: a poor white drunk who was paid in booze and who looked totally bemused by the whole affair. It lasted all night, and the prize if I remember right was a chicken. I was inspired to search out this (no longer available) album. The Easy Walkers version of Mbube (Lion Sleeps Tonight), recorded at Glebelands Hostel, is a wonder.

The music world is, we’re constantly told, awaiting the next big thing. It’s assumed, of course, that it’ll come from the West, but maybe it won’t. Maybe, like reggae, a new music will appear in some urban centre in….well, what about South Africa? They’re constantly taking American music and making something new. Kwaito is the latest thing – a hybrid of House music and Rap, but unmistakeably South African. There’s not much chance though – Africa for Western musicians is just another market, whether for our music, or for our charity.