Mbaqanga

Featuring Sipho Mabuse . Hotsticks . Burnout . Mahotella Queens . Umculo Kawupheli . Letta Mbulu . Amakhamandela . Not Yet Uhuru . Koudy . South Africa . Soul Brothers . Umshado . The Mahotella Queens . Mbaqanga . Mzwakhe Mbuli

SouthAfrica.info : By this time, the old strains of marabi and kwela had begun to coalesce into what is broadly referred to as mbaqanga, a mode of African-inflected jazz that had many and various practitioners, with a large number of bands competing for attention and income. Singing stars such as Miriam Makeba, Dolly Rathebe and Letta Mbulu gained fanatical followings.

AbsoluteAstronomy.com : In Zulu, the term mbaqanga means an everyday cornmeal porridge, which is worth noting, considering the history of the music’s popularity. Mbaqanga aficionados were mostly plebeian, metropolitan African jazzJazz enthusiasts.

The Leopard Man’s African Music Guide : This female vocal trio, still comprised of Nobesthutu Mbada, Hilda Tloubatla and Mildred Mangxola, have exerted enormous influence on the musical life of South Africa since forming in 1964.

Tentative Reviews : Mahlathini Nezintombi Zomgqashiyo (hereafter “MNZ”) is described in the liner notes as a mbaqanga (ie. “township”) supergroup, featuring the aforementioned Mahlathini, the original Mahotella Queens, the Makgona Tsohle Band, and guitar/composer Marks Mankwane.

Mail & Guardian Online : Amaswazi Emvelo were last in the long line of great mbaqanga bands on Mavuthela. After the student uprisings in 1976, mbaqanga was viewed by the younger generation as old-fashioned and politically suspect.

Wapedia : The Makgona Tsohle Band was formed in 1964 at Mavuthela (the ‘black music’ division of Gallo Record Company), and became the Mavuthela house band. It garnered success by backing fellow Mavuthela-Gallo stars, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens. It is often referred to as the South African equivalent to Motown’s The Funk Brothers.

Music.org.za : It was as a 16-year-old drummer in Orlando High School’s cadet band that Sipho Mabuse attracted the attention of fellow scholar and guitarist Selby Ntuli. Ntuli approached Mabuse to team up with him and fellow students Alec Khaoli (bass) and Saitana (real name Monty Ndimande; guitar) to form the band The Beaters.

Wikipedia : Mzwakhe Mbuli, a devout former Deacon at Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Naledi Soweto South Africa, known as “The People’s Poet, Tall man, Mbulism”, is a popular poet and mbaqanga singer in South Africa. He was born in Sophiatown in 1958, but his family was forced to move to Soweto when the government bulldozed his home town .