Kwela

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Kwela , also Penny Whistle Jive , is the name of a jazz-oriented , South African music from the 1950s. The use of the tin flute ( penny whistle ) as a melody instrument is characteristic.

history

Inspired by musicians such as Lester Young , Count Basie , Cab Calloway and other musicians of the swing era, kwela music emerged in the townships of South Africa in the 1950s. It is based on the Marabi sound and has a cheerful character. Kwela is characterized by a fast, pushing rhythm. The chord progression is usually tonic - subdominant - tonic - dominant , with these chords having equal priority . Despite the North American influence, according to an analysis by Gerhard Kubik , the Kwela is “surprisingly rich in African elements”. The themes of the pieces are mostly based on short sequences, two- to four-bar melodic motifs, as they are known from traditional African music , and rounded off in a regular summation meter. The improvisation does not take place on the harmonies; rather, the starting points of the improvised game are the short melody themes. Blue Notes appear in numerous Kwela pieces.

Sean Bergin , here with several kwela whistles (unusual style of play)

Kwela was mostly played in a skiffle band on the streets of South Africa : one to three penny whistles , special metal recorders from the German company Hohner , a single-string bass made from a tea box, a guitar and a rattle, for example a bottle filled with cherry stones. This music was very popular in the 1950s and was therefore recorded and successfully distributed with flautists such as Lemmy Mabaso , Spokes Mashiyane and Aaron Lerole. The music industry changed the sound for recordings early on, for example replacing the rattle with a drum kit, the standing bass with a double bass and sometimes the flute with a saxophone. They danced with swinging movements to the Kwela music.

In Johannesburg , Kwela bands were part of the general street scene until around 1962. Kwela quickly spread across much of southern Africa , for example, to Malawi , where the band of Donald Kachamba and after his death in 2001, the Donald Kachamba's Heritage Kwela band cultivates making music. The South African band Kwela Tebza , in which descendants of Aaron Jack and Elias Lerole play, took part in the opening ceremony of the 2009 FIFA.Confederations Cup in Johannesburg.

Saxophonists like Kippie Moeketsi and Gwigwi Mrwebi took up the new style of playing and transferred it to South African jazz; later the Cape Jazz emerged from it . Through the compositions of Abdullah Ibrahim , Dudu Pukwana , Mongezi Feza and Chris McGregor , North American and European jazz musicians also came into contact with the kwela style.

In 1962 the album A Swingin 'Safari by the German musician Bert Kaempfert was released , which is clearly influenced by Kwela music.

The word kwela comes from the isiZulu and means “up”, but was also used as “kwela-kwela” for police cars. On the one hand, this is linked to an invitation to dance, but also a warning of police raids in the illegal bars .

literature

  • Lara Victoria Allen: Pennywhistle Kwela: A Musical, Historical and Sociopolitical Analysis . (MA) University of Natal, Durban 1993
  • Gerhard Kubik: African elements in jazz - jazz elements in popular music in Africa . In: Ders., To Understand African Music. Selected essays . Reclam, Leipzig 1988, pp. 300-321
  • Wolfgang Bender: Sweet Mother: Modern African Music . Edition Trickster published by Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 2000, ISBN 3-87294-843-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Kubik: African elements in jazz - Jazz elements in popular music in Africa . In: Ders., To Understand African Music. Selected essays . Reclam, Leipzig 1988, p. 317
  2. ^ Gerhard Kubik: African elements in jazz - Jazz elements in popular music in Africa . In: Ders., To Understand African Music. Selected essays . Reclam, Leipzig 1988, p. 318
  3. ^ Gerhard Kubik: African elements in jazz - Jazz elements in popular music in Africa . In: Ders., To Understand African Music. Selected essays . Reclam, Leipzig 1988, p. 315
  4. ↑ Marc Boettcher: Stranger in the Night - The Bert Kaempfert Story. Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-434-50523-7 , pp. 124–126