14 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2024
  2. Jun 2023
    1. A rhythmically propulsive dance music,marabi was forged principally by unschooled keyboard players who were a notorious part of theculture and economy of illegal slumyard liquor dens. Harmonically, it rested upon a cyclical patternstretched over four measures, with one measure per chord: I–IV–I6-4–V. The cyclical nature of this styleclearly derived from indigenous sources, repetitive harmonic patterns being typical of traditionalAfrican musics
    2. Marabi
    1. 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:
    2. The term mbaqanga — commonly the Zulu word for a stiff, mielie-based porridge — has designated different kinds of music during the course of the last 40-odd years; but its first musical usage was as a synonym for African Jazz.
    3. he cyclical harmonic structure of marabi, a slow, heavy beat probably derived from the traditional (and basically Zulu) secular dance-style known as indlamu, and forms and instrumentation adapted from American swing. With these was combined a languorous
    4. INARARD ALY TS early south ofrican jazz and vaudeville

      https://docdrop.org/pdf/Ballantine---1994---Marabi-Nights-h8x5v.pdf/

      Marabi Nights: Early South African Jazz and Vaudeville Ballantine, C. 1993

    1. The underlying harmonic structure inmarabitypically uses the major (I), the subdominant major (IV), and the dominant (V) in aperpetually repeating structure suited to dance. In its advanced form inmbaqanga(African jazz), the simple three-chordmarabi harmonic structure was consolidated in alengthened cyclic form in which the (V) root was preceded with the tonic major in itssecond inversion (I 6/4 ). In comparing themarabi harmonic structure and its seminalposition in vernacular jazz improvisatory practice in South Africa to that of the AfricanAmerican blues in its relationship to jazz, Ballantine explained its basis ‘on a cyclicpattern’ as ‘stretch[ing] over four measures, with one measure for each of the followingchords: I – IV - I 6/4 - V’ (Ballantine 1993:26)
  3. May 2023
    1. With these was combined a languorous

      and syncretic melodic style owing less to the contours of American jazz melody than to those of neo-traditional South African music. The result was nothing less than a new kind of jazz: its practitioners and supporters were eventually to call it African Jazz, or mbaganga.”* Mbaganga had been on the agenda since at least 1941, the year in which Walter Nhlapo expressed the hope that the bands ‘would play folklores in swing tempo’. ‘After all’, he declared, ‘[oJur folklores are jazzy in tempo, and only require one thing: arranging the brutish rhythm.7

    2. cyclical harmonic structure of marabi, a slow, heavy beat
    3. The term mbaqanga — commonly the Zulu word for a stiff, mielie-based porridge
    4. 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: J-ca,% But
    5. Throughout, rhythmic accompaniment would be provided by a player shaking a tin filled with small stones. One standard pattern, as demon- strated by Sililo, is among the most basic and widespread drum patterns of traditional Nguni music. @ @dad o & el

      (see notated rhythm)

    1. A rhythmically propulsive dance music,marabiwas forged principally by unschooled keyboard players who were a notorious part of the culture and economy of illegal slumyard liquor dens. Harmonically, it rested upon a cyclical pattern stretched over four measures, with one measure per chord: I–IV–I6-4–V. The cyclical nature of this style clearly derived from indigenous sources, repetitive harmonic patterns being typical of traditional African musics.The melodies superimposed on these endlessly repeating patterns sometimes became legendary; sometimes lyrics were invented, in some instances containing political commentary or protest. A significant proportion of these melodies are traceable to local traditional origins. But often the tunes were drawn from other sources, such as the familiar stock of African Christian hymns, the commercially popular tunes of the day or Afrikaans dance music.In performance, cyclical repetitions of a melody or melodic fragment would eventually yield, perhaps, to a similar treatment of another melody or fragment, and perhaps then still others. In this manner, performers would play for long periods without stopping. A simple rhythmic accompaniment would be provided throughout by a player shaking a tin filled with small stones.

      definition