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My naughty self submits some langarm songs that I think qualify for #JazzTwitter's playlist. The only thing excluding them: not on iTunes or Spotify. @Enghumbhini @JimmySmithStan @chrisvick3 @capemanchris @RaymondSuttner @Motloduwa @JCharlesLeonard @grondwerk @nombonisogasa
DJ Steelcase aka MS Shilowa will call this Twaak. (A lovely word used in polite company when one doesn't want to use the word 'Kak.' He remains dignified even when he dispenses sarcasm with battery acid.)
Jazz as we know it has many influences. The slaves imported into various countries, played no small role in the origin and development of jazz. In South Africa, the ghoema drum and its rhythm is strong in what we claim as Cape Town jazz, the centre of South African jazz. (ahem)
All music lends and borrows rhythmic influences, metamorphizing these into something fresh because the existing patterns have become stale & predictable. It's about breaking expectation, remoulding the bones of stereotypes, re-discovering the forgotten.
Jazz is pre-eminent in this. So it is logical that the goema beat was absorbed into jazz.
But because I want to be naughty, I submit these for consideration:
But because I want to be naughty, I submit these for consideration:
1. Mac McKenzie, of The Genuines fame, set up The Goema Captains. Listen to this. Jazz? Or is it langarm?
Goema goema - Mac McKenzie & the Goema Captains of Cape Town. [This piece features two late Cape Town musos: Alex van Heerden and Robbie Jansen]
Goema goema - Mac McKenzie & the Goema Captains of Cape Town. [This piece features two late Cape Town musos: Alex van Heerden and Robbie Jansen]
2. Many 70+ will recall dance bands or langarm bands were the ones who released an LP in time for the festive season. The saxophone was the centre piece and there was everything on there from a jive, to a waltz. It included their versions of Top 20 songs.
South Africa has a strong langarm culture. I have lost touch with many in that community, but almost every place has a group they revere.
Listen to this Jimmy's Grand Six. Langarm Or jazz?
Listen to this Jimmy's Grand Six. Langarm Or jazz?
3. This piece reminds of a group of people celebrating Christmas hols with Bobby Hendricks playing off a cassette tape. Players slam dominoes down on the table, & have some quarts of Castle beer or Liebestein, while the children play in the street or under a peppercorn tree.
Living in a historically white suburb now, one notices the silence and the absence of life. Not in the back yard nor on the street.
Langarm or jazz?
Langarm or jazz?
aside: #JazzTwitter Remember us tweeting the traditional guitarist Oom Hannes's song Mahala? I wonder if the Bobby Hendricks Band gave compositional credit where it is due.
