Mannenberg (song)

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Abdullah Ibrahim (undated)

Mannenberg is a piece of music by Abdullah Ibrahim that was first released on record in 1974. It is considered a symbol against the apartheid policy of that time in South Africa . The title refers to the township of Manenberg near Cape Town , which was inhabited by forcibly resettled Coloreds . The piece can be assigned to Cape Jazz .

prehistory

At the end of the 1960s, Ibrahim published a series of articles in the Cape Herald newspaper , particularly encouraging the Coloreds to reflect on their African traditions. But it received hardly any response, had no commercial success and emigrated to the USA in 1969.

Occasionally Ibrahim returned to South Africa. In 1974 he released the LP Underground in Africa , produced by Rashid Vally and recorded with the band Oswietie . The album sold relatively well.

history

In June of the same year Ibrahim performed the pieces in a studio on Cape Town's Bloem Street with Basil Coetzee (tenor saxophone, flute), Robbie Jansen (alto saxophone, flute), Morris Goldberg (alto saxophone), Paul Michaels (bass) and Monty Weber (drums) Mannenberg , also produced by Vally. Coetzee, who like Jansen played with Oswietie , put the band together for Ibrahim.

The 13:37 minute long recording is largely based on improvisation . Ibrahim began on the piano and gradually asked the other musicians, beginning with Coetzee, to play along. According to Ibrahim, the piece was only played once for the recording, according to other sources once or twice.

To create the metallic sound of the marabi , the hammers of the piano were provided with thumbtacks. The only line of text just before the end of the piece is Oh Mannenberg! Jy kan na New York gaan, maar ons bly here in Mannenberg ( Afrikaans ; something like : "O Manenberg! You can travel to New York, but we stay here in Manenberg").

In the USA the album was released in 1977 on Chiaroscuro Records as Cape Town Fringe , the piece Mannenberg was also called Cape Town Fringe . The shorter version Mannenberg (Revisited) recorded Ibrahim in 1985 with the American musicians Carlos Ward (flute), Ricky Ford (tenor saxophone), Charles Davis (baritone saxophone), Dick Griffin (trombone), David Williams (bass) and Ben Riley (drums ) on. She appeared on Ibrahim's albums Water from an Ancient Well (1986) and The Mountain (1989) , among others .

style

The piece is based on an Mbaqanga melody by trumpeter Elijah Nkonyane from the late 1950s. An Mbaqanga melody by Zacks Nkosi that was composed around 1960 and was published as a jackpot is also seen as a possible model, so that Nkosi's descendants later raised allegations of plagiarism.

Other stylistic devices from Mannenberg besides Mbaqanga are marabi , xhosa - ragtime , chorale, folk music of the Cape Coloreds , kwela , American swing and township rhythms. According to another reading, the actual jazz piece is also characterized by the styles ticky-draai (a fast folk dance of the Boers ), ghoema (related to the drums) and long arm (also a dance of the Boers and Coloreds, here related to the saxophone playing) . The style was later referred to as Cape Jazz; In addition to Mannenberg , there were also other style-forming pieces.

Publication and Success

The long-playing record with the title Mannenberg - Is Where It's Happening first appeared on Vally's label As-Shams (also The Sun ) as an album by "Dollar Brand". Mannenberg fills the A-side; on the B-side is the piece The Pilgrim , which is similarly long at 12:47 minutes.

The title Mrs. Williams from Mannenberg was intended for the album . Gladys Williams was the housekeeper of alto saxophonist Morris Goldberg. The title has been discarded, but a photo of the woman and four boys in the background, taken by Ibrahim, is on the cover of the album.

Even before the record came out, Vally was playing the piece in front of his record store in Cape Town and was met with great interest. The record sold well, with 5,000 copies sold in the first week, and around 43,000 after seven months. Eventually Vally ceded his rights to distribute the album to Gallo Records . After two years it was the best-selling jazz album in South Africa. Basil Coetzee, who lived in the township of Manenberg at the time, received his nickname Manenberg or Mannenberg as a result of the song .

From 1975 Ibrahim lived again in the USA. Coetzee and Jansen often played the song at anti- apartheid events in the years following the 1976 Soweto uprising . As a result, it became popular as a protest song and occasionally referred to as the "unofficial national anthem". According to John Edwin Mason, it is not typical for this genre due to its "lively melody" and the "gentle, hypnotic groove ".

reception

According to Mason, the piece received its initial success because it was "an unknown mixture of known ingredients". Because of the variety of stylistic devices, the piece was certified to convey “a sense of freedom and cultural identity”. It has received "almost universal recognition as the most iconic of all South African jazz pieces". According to Mason, for most South Africans - of all ethnic groups - the piece had something familiar to cling to and something exotic to get excited about.

According to Abdullah Ibrahim, the piece was "a confirmation [...] that our own culture is valid" for the musicians. Lindsay Jones called the piece in a 2014 essay "plaintive, passionate and ethereally beautiful".

According to Ibrahim, a record with the song was smuggled by a lawyer to the prison island Robben Island and played there over the central loudspeaker system. The play is said to have sparked encouragement and hope among political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela .

Mannenberg is part of the soundtrack of the 2002 documentary Amandla !: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony about the role of music in the anti-apartheid struggle.

In front of the recording studio in Cape Town there is a sculpture made of seven tubes made of stainless steel, which produce the first seven notes of Mannenberg if you strike them with a stick, for example.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m John Edwin Mason: Mannenberg: Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem. asq.africa.ufl.edu (English; PDF), African Studies Quarterly Vol. 9, Issue 4, 2007 (English), accessed on August 10, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Chris Roper: Great SA songs: Mannenberg. Mail & Guardian of May 28, 2010 (English), accessed on August 11, 2019
  3. ↑ Data sheet Mannenberg radioswissjazz.ch, accessed on August 11, 2019
  4. ^ Nusra Khan: Abdullah Ibrahim and the Politics of Jazz in South Africa. South African History Online , accessed August 12, 2019
  5. ↑ David B. Coplan: tonight in township! South Africa's black music and theater. 2nd, expanded and changed edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2008, ISBN 978-0-22611567-2 , p. 193.
  6. ↑ tickey-draai. dsae.co.za, accessed August 10, 2019
  7. ^ A b Cathy Benedict, Patrick K. Schmidt, Gary Spruce, Paul Woodford (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 9780199356157 , p. 622. Excerpts from books.google.de
  8. ^ Lindsay Jones: The song that fought apartheid. The Spectator, June 21, 2014, accessed August 12, 2019
  9. ↑ Siaa Bekheet: Abdullah Ibrahim, 'King of Jazz' in South Africa. blogs.voanews.com of May 26, 2012, accessed on August 11, 2019
  10. ^ The Light Bulb Moment: The Artists' Concept. sthp.saha.org.za, accessed August 11, 2019