Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes was a

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 h ...

band, formed in the mid-1950s by brothers Elias and

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 Flu ...

, along with David Ramosa and Zeph Nkabinde. The four young men played on the streets of

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

, a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In the early days they called themselves the Alex Shamba Boys. Jack Lerole was only in his early teens when he and Elias started playing

penny whistle 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. ...

. Ramosa and Nkabinde joined them, and they developed a unique sound: Unlike earlier kwela groups, they incorporated guitar and vocal harmony. The "jive flute" in the name Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes is the penny whistle. In 1956, the four were signed to EMI South Africa by the label's "black music"

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, Rupert Bopape. One of the tunes they recorded was "

Tom Hark "Tom Hark" is an instrumental South African kwela song from the 1950s, believed to have been composed by Jack Lerole. The song was arranged for penny whistle and first recorded by Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes—a South African band formed by ...

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

issued the song as a

7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

single, and it was particularly well-received in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the single sold an estimated three million copies. The band did not profit from these sales, however, and in South Africa the song was only modestly successful. The members of the band earned only $10 each for the number, whilst the composer, Aaron Lerole (another of the brothers) earned $15, and saw the songwriting honours being credited to Bopape. In New Zealand Tom Hark went to number one on the Lever Hit Parade. The group began playing dance halls around Johannesburg under a new name, Alexandra Black Mambazo. They developed vocal as well as instrumental routines, and Lerole began singing in a deep, rasping voice. This larynx-damaging vocal style became known as ''groaning''. Zeph Nkabinde also adopted the style, but it was his younger brother Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde who became the more well-known groaner. Chris du Plessis's

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

''The Whistlers'' revived popular interest in kwela in the 1990s. In 1996, some of the members of Alexandra Black Mambazo formed a new band called Shukuma Mambazo.

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* {{Authority control South African musical groups Musical groups established in the 1950s

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