South African jazz

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

Marabi

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 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.

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

INARARD ALY TS early south ofrican jazz and vaudeville

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)

With these was combined a languorous

cyclical harmonic structure of marabi, a slow, heavy beat

The term mbaqanga — commonly the Zulu word for a stiff, mielie-based porridge

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

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

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.