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In the early 1940s, he said, many black bands — among them the newly-formed Harlem Swingsters as well as the veteran Jazz Maniacs — started playing in what he termed an African stomp style: We call it African stomp because there was this heavy bealt... There’s more of the beat of Africa in it... the heavy beat of the African, the Zulu traditional...’ The rhythm of this stomp, as he demonstrated it, is immediately recog- nisable as the typical indlamu rhythm:

The very best players compress enormous inventiveness into that four-bar mbaqangathing. It can also be an eight-bar sequence in which the melody sits only over the third beatof the first bar to the first beat of the second bar. That same bit of melody might happenin a 16-bar sequence, you see.

s the name suggests, mbaqanga is viewed as a morecommercially appealing style than African Jazz and has been popularised in South Africa byartists such as Simon ‘Mahlatini’ Nkabinde and internationally by Paul Simon’s heavilymbaqanga influenced Graceland album. The roots of mbaqanga lie in traditional Zulu musicmixed with influences of marabi and kwela. Rhythmically, mbaqanga is, like tsaba tsaba,generally based on a straight-eighth note feel with a driving bass drum on all four downbeatsof the bar. This quarter note bass drum pattern, commonly referred to as “four on the floor”,is complemented by the hands performing various orchestrations of the rhythm below. Thisuniversal rhythm is known as the Charleston in American jazz, the Habanera in Cuban Latinmusic, and the Ghoema in South Africa

In including trombonist Malindi BlythMbityana and Mackay Davashe, a prolific composer in thembaqanga jazz style, acontingent of the Blue Notes

The revival in South Africa in the 1980s of the long-forgotten traditions of 1950s big-bandmbaqanga – most notably in the form and repertoires of Ntemi Piliso’s African JazzPioneers – filled the vacuum created by the effective disappearance of the practice duringthe long years of apartheid

recordings by the Blue Note

the popular South African big-band swing styleofmbaqanga orAfrican jazz (Musical Excerpts 2.14 to 2.19).

Mackay Davashe, a prolific composer in thembaqanga jazz style, acontingent of the Blue Notes

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Sonia

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Sekela Khulum

Ngena Ngena (To Mov

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Majietas

Grazin' in the Gra

Country Cooking

The Music of Africa

mbaqangarecordingsbytheBlueNotes

big-bandmbaqanga–mostnotablyintheformandrepertoiresofNtemiPiliso’sAfricanJazzPioneers

MackayDavashe,aprolificcomposerinthembaqangajazzstyle

popularSouthAfricanbig-bandswingstyleofmbaqangaorAfricanjazz(MusicalExcerpts2.14to2.19)

Paul Simon’s heavily mbaqanga influenced Gracelandalbum

The very best players compress enormous inventiveness into that four-bar mbaqangathing. It can also be an eight-bar sequence in which the melody sits only over the third beat of the first bar to the first beat of the second bar. That same bit of melody might happen in a 16-bar sequence, you see. You’d get people working all the options with fascinating results. There were people, like those in the band led by “Cups and Saucers,” 3 working with a really great sensitivity to this kind of structuring, and very cleverly, too.