South African jazz

Sideman on the Frontlines: Gwigwi Mrwebi and South African Jazz History

Schuller differentiates between thewestern and African understandings of polyrhythmic playing by stating that westernmusicians generally see polyrhythm as two or more rhythmic patterns played simultaneouslybut always resolving or meeting at the start and ending of phrases, bar lines and other centralpoints in the music. In contrast, “African music” reveals a far more intricate, extended,“polymetrically organized” understanding of polyrhythms, in which the individual rhythmicphrases hardly ever, and sometimes never coincide vertically (Schuller 1968, 11). These twointerpretations of polyrhythm are apparent in much U.S.-American jazz and can be seen toshift closer to the African approach in the later styles of jazz through the rhythmiccontributions of musicians such as John Coltrane, Tony Williams and Miles Davis. KeithWaters states that polyrhythm and polymeter, which he terms “metrical conflict”, were a keyfeature of music performed and recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet from 1965 to 1968(Waters 2011, 68).In terms of the use of polyrhythm in Western music from the pre-jazz era, Schuller citesCharles Ives as the only European composer who experimented with polymetric andpolyrhythmic structures, stating as an example Ives’s Fourth Symphony. Gridley deviatesfrom Schuller by suggesting that polyrhythms were used in European folk and concert musicin America for a long time before the jazz era came about but were not as prominent as inAfrican music (Gridley 1999, 45). He acknowledges the African ancestry of polyrhythms asoriginating from combinations of rhythms which can be heard in ragtime music. He definespolyrhythms as “the sounding of some rhythms that have a basis of two pulses while

Polyrhythms and Polymeter

TheoryofAfricanMusic

Theory of African MusicVOLUME II

Rhythmic Phrasing

Exoticisation of South African Jazz and Township Culture

Reworking the South African Jazz Sound

Traits of South African Jazz in Masekela’s Style

South African and U.S.-American Rhythm Sections

Rhythmic Influence of Latin Music on South African Jazz Styles

Analysis of Selected South African JazzRecordings

South African Jazz Sound

Jazz in South Africa: Roots and Styles

Hearing the Given and the Made in South African Maskanda Music

What separates mbaqanga from previous styles is the straight beat. Previously urbanblack music was rhythmically swung in general

Apart from mbaqanga and marabi, other styles also developed due to the amalgamation oflocal styles and American jazz. One of these is Cape jazz, which Coplan (2013) describes asfollows:I use the term ‘Cape jazz’ knowingly, because the Mother City has its owncharacteristic style, strongly indebted to the American tradition starting with African-American minstrelsy, but mixed with old indigenous rhythms and melodies, mission

As Chapter One pointed out, ‘South African jazz’ derives from the amalgamation oftransnational (mainly American) jazz and indigenous South African musics. Although this stylehas many ‘dialects’, there is some conceptual consensus regarding elements that historicallycame to signify a South African jazz sound. These include marabi (with its distinctive I-IV-Vchord progression), mbaqanga (this was especially felt in the importance of the rhythmicaldrive and interest and repeating harmonic progressions, rather than the other formal attributes

Shepherd’s music also contain American jazz elements, including as bebop linesin his improvisations and his approach to harmonic progressions reminiscent of Keith Jarrett’s.His experiments with irregular meter connect with West African music practices. Theseattributes preclude a simple reading of the artists’ work ‘South African’ in a singular sense,and rather reminds us that the notion of a ‘South African’ jazz is in a continuing dialogue othermusic practices – whether this is with American jazz (which has historically powerfullyinformed South African jazz and continues to do so) or musics from other places or genres

Sonic signatures in South African jazz: A stylistic analysis of the trio music of Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer and Nduduzo Makhathini

t can be argued that it was the use of these short harmonic cycles that then led tocertain styles of melodic and rhythmic phrasing which mirrored the short, repetitive harmonicmovement, thus resulting in characteristics common to much South African jazz, such asshort repetitive motivic melodies, basslines and drum grooves

Although, mbaqanga became exceptionally popular both locally and internationally, it willnot be a key focus of the analysis presented in this dissertation as, like tsaba tsaba, its musicaltraits reveal it as being more of a hybrid, sub-genre of the original styles of South Africanjazz: marabi, African Jazz and kwela

DECONSTRUCTING “THE SOUTH AFRICANJAZZFEEL”: ROOTS, RHYTHMS AND FEATURES OF SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ

MarabiMarabi is described by Ballantine as just as important in the development of South Africanpopular music as the blues was to American popular music (Ballantine 2012, 7). Merz (2016)echoes this statement claiming prominent South African “musicians ranging from tenor-manBazil Mannenberg Coetzee to pianist Darius Brubeck” have referred to marabi as “SouthAfrica’s blues”, highlighting its central importance in South African jazz as “the form to basecompositions on” (Merz 2016, 34). Described by Matshikiza as a set of “highly rhythmicrepetitive single-themed dance tunes” (Matshikiza in Ballantine 2012, 32) which developedbetween the 1910s to 1930s, marabi was generally performed on keyboard, banjo or guitar inshebeens5 and at drinking and dancing parties. Like the blues, it followed a three-chordcyclical harmonic structure. However, in the case of marabi, the three chords were usuallyplayed in short two or four bar phrases, and were most commonly voiced as triads in thesequence I-IV-I-V. Due to the preference for diatonic tonality in marabi, few chord extensiontones were used other than the occasional addition of a major 6th to chord IV and the use ofthe dominant 7th on chord V. The resulting progression is the iconic I-IV6-Ic-V7 whichbecame the harmonic foundation of the South African sound.

In the pre-colonial music of Southern Africa there seems to be little evidence of the I-IV-V-Iprogression typical to the U.S.-American blues style, or many longer harmonic cycles.Instead, there seems to be a definite predilection for short harmonic progressions, such as theaforementioned two-chord progression of traditional Xhosa music of the Eastern Cape notedby Dargie. It can be argued that it was the use of these short harmonic cycles that then led tocertain styles of melodic and rhythmic phrasing which mirrored the short, repetitive harmonicmovement, thus resulting in characteristics common to much South African jazz, such asshort repetitive motivic melodies, basslines and drum grooves.

Fractal Harmonies of Southern Africa

Tracing the Development of the South African Alto Saxophone Style

How did jazz develop in South Africa?

The Music of Africa

Citing the work of a number of prominent scholars on the style of kwela she states, “Academics who have written about kwela have been no more precise, or more in agreement with one another, about the boundaries of this musical style” (Allen 1993, 58).

like tsaba tsaba, its musical traits reveal it as being more of ahybrid, sub-genre of the original styles of South African jazz: marabi, African Jazz and kwela.

characteristics commontomuch South African jazz,such as short repetitive motivic melodies, basslines and drum grooves.

What separates mbaqangafrom previous styles is the straight beat. Previously urban black music was rhythmically swung in general.

How did jazz develop in South Africa?

As Chapter One pointed out, ‘South African jazz’ derives from the amalgamation of transnational (mainly American) jazz and indigenous South African musics. Although this stylehas many ‘dialects’, there is some conceptual consensus regarding elements that historically came to signify a South African jazz sound. These include marabi (with its distinctive I-IV-V chord progression), mbaqanga (this was especially felt in the importance of the rhythmical drive and interest and repeating harmonic progressions, rather than the other formal attributes Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za85 of mbaqanga itself), ghoema or indlamu, amongst others. One of the ways in which Shepherd, Dyer and Makhathini connect with the South African lineage of jazz, and a sense of place therefore registers in th eir work, is through the incorporation of these elements in certain songs or tracks

Like that of its antecedents, the harmonic base of mbaqanga is the cyclical repetition of four primary chords. Short melodies, usually the length of the harmonic cycle, are repeated and alternated with slight variations, and call-and-response generally occurs between solo and chorus parts. The characteristics that differentiate mbaqanga from previous styles are a driving, straight beat, rather than swung rhythms; melodic independence between instrumental parts, the bass and lead guitars providing particularly strong contrapuntal lines; and electric rather than acoustic guitars and bass guitar

The music style Marabi was characterized by a repeating, ostinato accompaniment, usually in the harmonic pattern I–IV–I64–V, upon which potentially endlessly melodies were improvised.

Marabi

The History of Jazz

Mbaqanga

South African Jazz

Sound of Soweto

Colonialism

maskanda, often marketed as “Zulu blues.”