Township Jazz is any of various music genres created by

Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Souther ...

living in poor,

racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

urban areas of

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

townships 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, C ...

") during the 20th century. The principal genres of township music are

mbaqanga Mbaqanga () is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s. History Historically, laws such as the Land Act of 1913 to the Group Areas Ac ...

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 ...

, and marabi. Marabi evolved from

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

influence in the 1920s. Immigrants from

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...

developed the

sound by fusing Malawian music with marabi.

Mbaqanga Mbaqanga () is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s. History Historically, laws such as the Land Act of 1913 to the Group Areas Ac ...

music is marabi's successor. It, too, is jazz-like; its roots are in marabi, American jazz, and traditional Zulu music.

History

The origins of township music in

began from the formation of

, which are urban residential areas where Africans were authorized to rent houses built by the government during the 1950s.Coplan, D: "In Township Tonight!" London, 1985 Binns and Nel state in their article that townships were the poor, black residential areas created under apartheid, explicitly revealing that these townships were not for the wealthy Westerners living in South Africa, but for the lower class of South Africa. According to Ballantine, legislation was passed during the 1950s to further consolidate the apartheid state, and violent methods of implementation also assisted this along.Ballantine, Christopher John. "Marabi nights early South African jazz and vaudeville" Johannesburg 1993 In fact, the most serious legislation that was passed for urban black music was the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system o ...

of 1950, which separated all racially mixed neighborhoods by removing black communities and relocating them on the peripheries into townships. Williams confirms this relocation by describing them as similar to

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

ghettos A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

and illustrates the emotion of musicians within the townships as a lack of power, which resulted in the musicians' need to explore alternative music paths. To those who tried to suppress the lower-class Africans,

aspired to (among other things) musical and social equality, which was viewed as a form of rebellion during the time, hence its suppression. According to Ballantine, "the white and racist South African state" was forming an ideology and program for separating and turning black South Africans against one another.

Different styles of township music

Marabi

Marabi is seen as the very first form of township music that arose between the 1920s and 1940s in the

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 Dem ...

slumyards of South Africa. Marabi was said to be influenced by not only the social and economic conditions of working-class life, but was also influenced by a variety of sources, assimilating a large amount of performance tradition into one main style of music. Marabi was commonly considered by non-lower-class people as a rebellious style of music in its time, being associated with

illegality A wrong (from Old English – 'crooked') is an act that is illegal or immoral. Legal wrongs are usually quite clearly defined in the law of a state and/or jurisdiction. They can be divided into civil wrongs and crimes (or ''criminal offenses'') ...

, police raids,

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

, and a desperately

impoverished Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

working-class. The term marabi appears to have a murky origin; despite this, Coplan sheds light onto possibilities, tracing the meaning, “to fly around” (which apparently describes the styles of marabi dancers) and citing the Mabille and Dieterlen’s Sotho dictionary, which defines marabi as slang for “‘lawless person;

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

’”. Also, as Robinson references the Johannesburg 1936 Empire Exhibition, marabi music was not allowed to be a part of the show, indicating the selective enthusiasm of white audiences for contemporary African performance.Robinson, Jennifer. "Johannesburg's 1936 Empire Exhibition: Interaction, Segregation and Modernity in a South African City." Journal of Southern African Studies 29 (2003): 759-89 Marabi was easy to criticize because it reflected the dangers, dynamics and hardships of urban life in slum-yards along with the fact that it was associated with a heavy drinking culture as well. Because this music originated in the urban townships, this form of township music was frowned upon because of the

candor Candor or candour may refer to: * Candor or parrhesia, the quality of speaking candidly in rhetoric * ''Candour'' (magazine), a British far-right magazine * "Candour", a song by Neck Deep from their 2014 album '' Wishful Thinking'' * Duty of c ...

reflected in its

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

. Common instruments found in marabi style music include the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, brass instruments, and

organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...

; vocalists were also common for marabi music. According to Coplan, Marabi lyrics are considered rather loose in that participants were free to make up lyrics to suit the melody as they wished and also were well-known for being an expression of

political protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

at the time. Other analyses, aside from Coplan’s, regarding Marabi lyrics appear to be lacking within this field, which could be attributed to the obscurity of this subject as well as the age of this style of township music.

Kwela

Kwela is another sub-style under the umbrella of township music that is composed of traditional, marabi and American sing-jazz elements; it is also characterized as urban African penny whistle music of the 1950s, arising slightly after marabi music and popularized in Johannesburg, much like marabi. Coplan states that this particular style makes use of a unique combination of instruments including the

string bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...

, the guitar, drums, and several penny whistles to construct the strong repetitive melodic line. Kwela was at first produced by the children in “black slums in creative imitation of their favorite jazzmen”. Coplan also states that the penny whistles were overlooked by overseas audiences and were still considered to be a child’s instrument. However, Coplan implies that it may not have been met with such friendly ears from everyone, but urban Africans managed to look upon kwela as an authentic expression of their urban culture rather than an indolent

pastime A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...

juvenile delinquents Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

. Kwela was even regarded as the new, close-harmony township style based on marabi or on the songs of

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers who work outsi ...

s. Much like marabi, kwela became popular despite the adversities that it faced. Along with the music, young urban Africans also participated in dancing to kwela music, which entailed a sexually suggestive form of jive dancing where dancers shouted the word “kwela” periodically. The meaning of the word kwela is actually Zulu for “‘climb on’ or ‘get up,’” which is indicative for others to join the upbeat nature of the music. This particular style of music turned out to be quite profitable to the city of Johannesburg, its city of birth, in that it could compete with imported music and also was well commercialized by

studios A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery ( ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

Mbaqanga

''Mbaqanga'' is the Zulu name for a traditional steamed bread made from

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

. This word also came to refer to the commercial South African jazz of the 1950s, which blended marabi and kwela with elements of American jazz. According to Coplan, mbaqanga groups are mainly

multi-ethnic Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...

, which could be attributed to the blending varieties of music in this specific style. It is the continuation of the marabi and kwela styles, coupled with its own freshness, analogous to its new place in African music history. Coplan also appears to be one of only published authorities on this topic, which is evident in the lack of contribution from other sources. Mbaqanga appears to be relatively unexplored in its field of discourse, which can be attributed to the general obscurity of the township music genre, along with the styles within it. Vocalists, in mbaqanga, are considered the core unit of all the performances, while instrumentalists depend on the demands of the recordings or live shows. Although the instruments are not always constant, some of the instruments that are used include

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

saxophones The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, violins,

accordions Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, and drums; some of these more recently developed instruments were implemented later in mbaqanga in the 1960s. Mbaqanga shows are characterized by several different segments, beginning with a more traditional form of music, dance and costume and transitioning to a more contemporary and Westernized form. A specific opening for the typical mbaqanga number is provided by Coplan in that the songs appear to begin with a lead guitar introduction, followed by the bass melody pattern based on the F-C-G7-C formula played over a bouncing 8/8 township

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

. In essence, mbaqanga is distinguishable by its brutish rhythm and

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

melodic style that is combined with the traditional style of marabi. The lyrical study of mbaqanga also appears to be relatively unstudied except for Coplan’s analysis, which, according to him, consists of short

couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

Historiography

Although township music is still quite under the radar in terms of being well-researched, there is still a myriad of information to be uncovered for this unique and historical music genre. The only major books published on the genre include Coplan’s In Township Tonight!, published in 1985, and Ballantine’s Marabi Nights, which was published in 1993. Other sources of information only seem to be articles that mention township music simply in passing, without truly focusing on the characteristics and the nature of the music. Evidently, township music is still quite a new subject of study in the music field, along with many other genres, such as

African drumming Sub-Saharan African music is characterised by a "strong rhythmic interest" that exhibits common characteristics in all regions of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as constit ...

and mustache rock. Through the study of township music, the true background and nature was revealed for this specific genre, which can be applied to music genres just as hidden from view as township music. Marabi appears to be the most well-researched style, while kwela seems to be researched a little less, and mbaqanga even less. Perhaps the more recent the music, the more difficult it is to characterize and classify, since this appears to be the trend in many cases.

Artists

A wide range of artists exist within township music. Some popular artists include."Rhapsody: Township Key Artists" http://www.rhapsody.com/world-reggae/africa/township/more.html *

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of '' isicathamiya'' and '' mbube''. They became known internationally after singing with Paul Simon on his 1986 album '' Graceland'', and have won ...

- This group was the 2009 Grammy Winner for Traditional World Music CD."Ladysmith Black Mambazo" http://www.mambazo.com/ Ladysmith Black Mambazo was first introduced by Paul Simon on his 1986 record

Graceland Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Graceland is located at 3764 Elv ...

Mahlathini Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde (1937 or 1938 – 27 July 1999) was a South African ''mbaqanga'' singer. Known as the "Lion of Soweto", Nkabinde is the acknowledged exponent of the deep-voiced, basso profundo "groaning" style that came to symboliz ...

Mango Groove Mango Groove is an 11-piece South African Afropop band whose music fuses pop and township music—especially marabi and kwela. Since their foundation in 1984, the band has released six studio albums and numerous singles. Their most recen ...

Mbongeni Ngema Mbongeni Ngema (born 1 June 1956) is a South African writer, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer and theatre producer, born in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal (near Durban). He started his career as a theatre backing guitarist. He wrote the mu ...

- Mbongeni Ngema was the main creative force behind the Broadway musical "Sarafina," which was later made into a movie with Whoopi Goldberg. *Mzikayifani Buthelezi - Buthelezi's music powerfully uses accordion, violin and guitar. Male lead and female chorus vocals sing call-and-response lyrics are also common of this artist. *The Boyoyo Boys *

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Township Music South African styles of music