Jabu, Jozi And Me

I returned from my family visit to South Africa a couple of days ago. My immediate priority was to get the washing on before heading off on a tedious work trip to Mauritius on Thursday, but I had some time during the spin cycle to prepare this post.

I started the visit in Cape Town where I popped into the second hand record shops in the Observatory district. Among the goodies I found was "Mmalo-We", the first album by the second version of Bayete. 

Jabu Khanyile was the drummer and lead vocalist in the original Bayete between 1984 and their break-up in 1992. After the split he recruited a new line-up and stuck his name on the front. This 1993 effort was the first of a series of albums they made up until his untimely early death from cancer and diabetes in 2006.

The second part of the trip involved a culture packed couple of days in Johannesburg. One of the highlights was a visit to the Apartheid Museum where there is much to learn, even (or perhaps especially) for those of us who lived there during that era. 

I was particularly taken by this poster about the workings of the race classification system, a reminder that as well as being cruel apartheid was inherently nonsensical. The sting is in the tail.

While in Joburg I acquired a copy of  "Marabi Nights", a book about the growth of the local marabi jazz scene (sometimes also called "township jazz") from the 1920s to the 1950s. I've not read it yet so can't give you a review, but it comes with a CD of recordings rescued from old 78s that the author discovered in the course of his research. Two selections are below, from 1933 and 1945 respectively. 

Finally on my last night the local Gogginses and I took in a show at the excellent Untitled Basement venue in the hip Braamfontein district of the city. Star of the night was local nu-soul diva Ayanda Jiya. Personally I found a lot of her material a bit samey, but she has a great voice and a winning personality. One of the younger members of the clan was quite starstruck when she met her afterwards.

That's all for now. Stand by for some fine Mauritian sega when I return around the end of next week.

"Ubugwala" - Jabu Khanyile & Bayete

"Ntebejana" - W.P. Zikali

"Marabi No. 2 Jive" - Hot Lips Dance Band

Ra-Ra-Rajasthan

The first part of my extended world work and pleasure tour has now been completed. Over the last couple of weeks I have been in Mumbai, Udaipur in Rajasthan, Dubai for an evening due to my direct flight home being cancelled, and finally Brussels. If anyone is interested I have put some photos of the first three up on Flickr.

I enjoyed them all in their different ways but the highlight undoubtedly was Udaipur, the City of Lakes, with a little side trip to Kumbhalgarh Fort whose 36km walls are apparently the second longest continuous wall in the world after that Chinese one whose name escapes me. I would love to go back and see more of Rajasthan if I get the chance.

The local cuisine is excellent - I became a bit addicted to laal maas, mutton in a spicy gravy - as is the culture. My previous post featured some of the fine likenesses in the local wax museum, and now it is the turn of the music.

Tucked away in the heart of Hathipole market in Udaipur is a small store that sells discs loaded up with mp3s of Rajasthani music and Bollywood hits. I can't remember its name and could not find it when I tried to pay a second visit. Maybe it only existed for one magical moment in time.

Among the discs I bought were Volumes 1 and 2 of a series highlighting the 'representative dance songs of Rajasthan' called 'Ghoomar', which is evidently a traditional dance of the Bhil people. They were put together in 2000 by Veena Music of Jaipur, whose vibrant YouTube channel I relied on to identify the names of the artists.

According to Veena Music "Mahino Phagan Ko" is the best Rajasthani Holi song. As Holi this year was on Thursday and Friday last week it seemed like an appropriate choice to kick things off. Belated best wishes to all those who celebrated. 

"Mahino Phagan Ko" - Manohar

"Kalyo Kood Pado Mele Me" - Seema Mishra

"Gorari Kar Solah Singar" - Mukesh Bagra

The next leg of the journey starts tomorrow evening when I fly to South Africa to see the local branches of the Goggins family. I get back at the end of March and after a quick turn around head off to Mauritius for work. I'm still not sure quite how I wangled that but I have added on a few days for sightseeing and hope to return with stacks of sega CDs to share with you. 

I will report in when I can but until then here is some more music from the Bill people.

Cocoa Tea RIP

The roll call of musicians leaving us too soon continues to be added to on an almost daily basis it seems. Since the start of the month we've lost Roy Ayers, Brian James, Edip Akbayram, Geraint Jarman and Angie Stone to name but a few. RIP to them all.

Earlier this week the man known to his family and friends as Colvin Scott and to the rest of us as the mighty Cocoa Tea was added to the list. He passed away on Tuesday after struggling with lymphoma for a number of years. RIP Mr Tea.

"Africa Here I Come" - Cocoa Tea

"Things In Life" - Cocoa Tea

"Possy" - Cocoa Tea

"She Loves Me Now (Extended Mix)" - Cocoa Tea

Waxing Lyrical

I had intended to share with you over the next couple of days some of the film music and 'representative dance songs' of Rajasthan I picked up while in Udaipur. But that was when I thought I was going to be at home over the next couple of days.

Unfortunately the b****rs at Virgin Atlantic had a different idea. They cancelled my flight this morning and I am now coming back tomorrow with Emirates via Dubai, including what I am sure will be a delightful nine hour layover between flights, arriving in the UK on Tuesday. By the time I finally make it home I will have less than 24 hours before heading off to Brussels.

So the planned cultural treat will have to wait. Instead here are a few of the exhibits from one of the other cultural highlights of my visit, the Udaipur Wax Museum.

And now the theme song from 'Mannequin'. How wrong they were.

Missing In Action

I am not going to around here much between now and mid-April. I would not want you worrying so I thought I should mention it now.

The reason is because I won't be in the UK much. I fly off tomorrow afternoon for a work trip to Mumbai after which my schedule goes: a side trip to Udaipur in Rajasthan to see the sights, home for two days, work trip to Brussels, home for four days, a visit to Cape Town to see Mother Goggins and other family members, home for three days, one more work trip - this one to the bleak, desolate island of Mauritius - before finally coming home for a lie-down.

I'll try to do an occasional post while I'm home doing my laundry and changing my socks but just in case I don't manage it I thought I would prepare a mini version of my tour for you covering all the stops. So we have a song about Mumbai (Mr Dixit himself is from Mysore) followed by musicians from Rajasthan, Brussels, Cape Town and Mauritius.

I'll be seeing Khateÿm live while I am in Brussels as a sort of phonetic warm-up for seeing Khayem while I am in Bristol later in the year. They are teaming up with an outfit called Mange Ferraille for an evening of metal drone bouzouki music. That's far too mainstream for some of you hipsters I expect, but I'm not afraid to be naff.

The only aspect of the grand tour that I wasn't looking forward was the amount of flying - it involves six flights of 10-12 hours duration - but then I remembered the wise words of Chris Farlowe. Air travel is thing of the day!

"I'm In Mumbai Waiting For A Miracle" - Raghu Dixit

"Hari Om Shiva Song" - Dewara Family

"Soukout" - Khateÿm

"Woza" - Louis Moholo-Moholo's Viva La Black 

"Eliza" - Georgie Joe

"Air Travel" - Chris Farlowe

Maybe one day they'll make a movie of my adventures.

Too Many R.I.P.s

There are just far too many good artists dying at the moment. In the last five days alone we've lost Jerry Butler, Gwen McCrae, Ken Parker, Bill Fay and Roberta Flack. This has to stop.

RIP to all of them but particularly Ms Flack who I had the pleasure of meeting once forty years ago when I was a youthful security guard at the Barbican in London and she performed there. I was designated to act as her minder at the merch stall. Very gracious she was too.

"Need To Belong" - Jerry Butler

"Maybe I'll Find Somebody New" - Gwen McCrae

"My Whole World Is Falling Down (Extended Mix)" - Ken Parker

"The Healing Day" - Bill Fay

"When It's Over" - Roberta Flack

The Wikki-Wookie Song

It is sometimes claimed that resistance is futile but that is not a charge you could level at Brother Resistance.

His Brotherness was a leading purveyor of the Trinidadian music style known as rapso, a combination of rap and soca pioneered in the 1970s by Lancelot Layne, Trinidad's equivalent of Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets.

Brother Resistance himself was active as a recording artist from 1981 to the mid 2000s, initially with the Network Rapso Riddim Band and then under his own name. He sadly passed away in 2021 aged only 66. Today's selection are the opening two tracks from his 1986 album "Rapso Take Over", the second being the dub version of the first.

"Star Warz Rapso" - Brother Resistance

"Rapso Space Dub" - Brother Resistance

The break-dancers among may have spotted that the title of this post is a very poor pun on "The Wikki-Wikki Song", the sub-title of Newcleus's 1983 smash "Jam On Revenge". Here are assorted young folks of the era doing their thing to it, followed by Brother and Band from around the same time.