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Kwela
Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s. The music has its roots in southern Africa but later adaptations of this and many other African folk idioms have permeated Western music (listen to the albums ''A Swingin' Safari'' by the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra (1962) and ''Graceland'' by Paul Simon (1986)), giving modern South African music, particularly jazz, much of its distinctive sound and lilting swagger. The Piranha's 1980 UK Top Ten hit 'Tom Hark' was based on an earlier 1950's Kwela hit song. One reason for the use of the pennywhistle is that it is cheap and portable, but it also lends itself as a solo or an ensemble instrument. The popularity of the pennywhistle may have been based on the fact that flutes of different kinds have long been traditional instruments among the peoples of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Kachamba
Donald Kachamba (1953–2001) was a Malawian musician, composer and bandleader. Biography Kachamba was born on 18 October 1953 in Blantyre, Malawi and died 12 January 2001 in Chileka. He was born in a musical family and he contributed enormously to the development of the Kwela music. Beginning in 1972 Kachamba toured extensively covering 33 countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas. In May 1988 he toured Finland on the invitation of the Institute for Workers Music, Helsinki, in May 1989 he performed at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zürich. In 1991 his band toured Belgium and Germany. In September 1994 Donald Kachamba was invited to the colloquium "Music and Anthropology" in Lisbon to present one of his films. Thereafter he gave lecture performances in Berlin, Frankfurt and Salzburg. The most recent European tour was in January 1995 to the Netherlands, Belgium and France (on the invitation by Radio France). Kachamba was artist-in-residence at UCLA Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennywhistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with Irish traditional music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are the flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, or Irish whistle (also ga, feadóg stáin or feadóg). History The tin whistle in its modern form is from a wider family of fipple flutes which have been seen in many forms and cultures throughout the world. In Europe, such instruments have a long and distinguished history and take various forms, of which the most widely known are the recorder, tin whistle, Flabiol, Txistu and tabor pipe. Predecessors Almost all primitive cultures had a type of fipple flute, and it is most likely the first pitched ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of Malawi
Music of Malawi has historically been influenced through its triple cultural heritage of British, African, and American music. Malawians have long been travelers and migrant workers, and as a result, their music has spread across the African continent and blended with other music forms. One of the prime historical causes of the Malawian musical melting pot was World War II, when soldiers both brought music to distant lands and also brought them back. By the end of the war, guitar and banjo duos were the most popular type of dance bands. Both instruments were imported. Malawians working in the mines in South Africa and Mozambique also led to fusion and blending in music styles, giving rise to music styles like Kwela. During the colonial period, Malawi saw rise to very few well-known singers. One such singer was Tony Bird a folk rock singer-songwriter who was born in Nyasaland and performed anti-colonial music about life for regular Malawians during the colonial period. His musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Lerole
Aaron "Big Voice Jack" Lerole (c. 1940 – 12 March 2003) was a South African singer and penny whistle player. Lerole was a leading performer in the kwela music of 1950s South Africa. Lerole was the bandleader of Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes, who had an international hit record in 1958 with "Tom Hark". He co-founded the fusion band Mango Groove in 1984, and later collaborated with Dave Matthews Band, a rock band from the United States. Biography Lerole grew up in the Alexandra township near Johannesburg, and in his early teens play penny whistle on the street with his brother Elias. David Ramosa and Zeph Nkabinde started playing with them, and to defend themselves from street gang attacks they carried tomahawks. Jack Lerole wrote "Tom Hark", although the producer of the song Earnest Bopape claimed the credit and royalty, and Lerole was only paid $15 for the song. The song was first released in 1956, and became popular in South Africa. The tune of "Tom Hark" (which some t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shebeen
A shebeen ( ga, síbín) was originally an illicit bar or club where excisable alcoholic beverages were sold without a licence. The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, the English-speaking Caribbean, Namibia, Malawi, and South Africa. In modern South Africa, many shebeens are now fully legal. South Africa In South Africa and Zimbabwe, shebeens are most often located in townships as an alternative to Eurocentric pubs and bars. Under South African apartheid laws, Africans were prohibited from brewing and selling indigenous beer (sorghum or maize meal with far less alcohol content) and were forced to promote, sell and consume European alcoholic beverages. Separately during some of the Rhodesian era, indigenous Africans were barred from entering pubs or bars reserved for those of White European descent. Originally shebeens were operated illegally by women who were called Shebeen Queens and were themselves a reviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kippie Moeketsi
Jeremiah "Kippie" Morolong Moeketsi (27 July 1925 – 27 April 1983) was a South African jazz musician, notable as an alto saxophonist. He is sometimes referred to as "the father of South African jazz" and as "South Africa's Charlie Parker". Jürgen Schadeberg"Profiles" ''Jazz, Blues & Swing: Six Decades of Music in South Africa'', New Africa Books, 2007, p. 145. He played with and influenced some of South Africa's great musicians, including Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. Biography Born into a musical Johannesburg family, Jeremiah Morolong Moeketsi was the youngest of 11 brothers, and one sister who was a nurse (Mirriam Ntsadi Kathar, ''née'' Moeketsi), all but four of whom played an instrument. Growing up in George Goch township was unpleasant for him and he was often truant. According to the Johannesburg official website, "His mother used to go looking for him, shouting: 'kippie-kippie-kippie', as if he were a chicken" — hence his nickname. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spokes Mashiyane
Johannes "Spokes" Mashiyane (born Vlakfontein (Mamelodi), Pretoria 20 January 1933; died at Baragwanath Hospital of cirrhosis of liver 9 February 1972) was regarded as one of the greatest pennywhistle artists who graced the South African kwela music scene from the 1950s to (approximately) the 1970s. Arriving on the pennywhistle band scene as a juvenile domestic servant from the northern Sotho communities in the Transvaal alongside contemporaries of Alexandra boys such as Lemmy Mabaso, Barney Rachabane, Elias and Jack Lerole. He stated that the pennywhistle's simplicity allowed for greater freedom to bend and blend notes. The success of his recordings provided significant revenue for his recording company, Gallo Record Company, to which he had switched in 1958. His success gained international notice by the 1960s - he played with Bud Shank among others during their visit to South Africa - and in July 1965 he was invited to the Newport Folk Festival. This festival gained notoriety for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chord Progression
In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice era of Classical music to the 21st century. Chord progressions are the foundation of Western popular music styles (e.g., pop music, rock music), traditional music, as well as genres such as blues and jazz. In these genres, chord progressions are the defining feature on which melody and rhythm are built. In tonal music, chord progressions have the function of either establishing or otherwise contradicting a tonality, the technical name for what is commonly understood as the "key" of a song or piece. Chord progressions, such as the common chord progression I–vi–ii–V, are usually expressed by Roman numerals in Classical music theory. In many styles of popular and traditional music, chord progressions are expressed using the name and " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chewa Language
Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambique and Zambia. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for languages, so the language is usually called and (spelled in Portuguese). In Malawi, the name was officially changed from Chinyanja to Chichewa in 1968 at the insistence of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda (himself of the Chewa people), and this is still the name most commonly used in Malawi today. In Zambia, the language is generally known as Nyanja or '(language) of the lake' (referring to Lake Malawi). Chewa belongs to the same language group ( Guthrie Zone N) as Tumbuka, Sena and Nsenga. Distribution Chewa is the most widely known language of Malawi, spoken mostly in the Central and Southern Regions of that country. "It is also one of the seven official African languages of Zambia, where it is spoken mostly in the Eastern P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zulu Language
Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population), and it is understood by over 50% of its population. It became one of South Africa's 11 official languages in 1994. According to Ethnologue, it is the second-most-widely spoken of the Bantu languages, after Swahili. Like many other Bantu languages, it is written with the Latin alphabet. In South African English, the language is often referred to in its native form, ''isiZulu''. Geographical distribution Zulu migrant populations have taken it to adjacent regions, especially Zimbabwe, where the Northern Ndebele language ( isiNdebele) is closely related to Zulu. Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape, is often considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skiffle
Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, it became extremely popular in United Kingdom in the 1950s, where it was played by such artists as Lonnie Donegan, The Vipers Skiffle Group, Ken Colyer, and Chas McDevitt. Skiffle was a major part of the early careers of some musicians who later became prominent jazz, pop, blues, folk, and rock performers, The Beatles and Rory Gallagher amongst them. It has been seen as a critical stepping stone to the second British folk revival, the British blues boom, and the British Invasion of American popular music. Origins in the United States The origins of skiffle are obscure but generally thought to lie in African-American musical culture in the early 20th century. Skiffle is often said to have developed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
