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For the last three years, UK label Umsakazo has been issuing new recordings of South African music legends such as Mazambane neNqotho Zakhe or Irene Mawela, as well as younger musicians inspired by the country’s 60’s and 70’s-era Sax Jive, Kwela, and other blends the country produced in abundance despite the horrific levels of oppression black South Africans experienced at the time. For example, the label recently released Back to Soweto, the debut LP by Lucas Nwananga, a younger musician born in Yorkshire who became enamored with mbaqanga through record collecting. His music could fool many into believing it was 40 years old. However, the label hasn’t resisted reissuing LPs from the music’s golden era, which has not only included the Mahotella Queens’ 1966 debut, but Makgona Tsohle Reggi a collection of ska and jerk-inspired instrumentals by the Makgona Tsohle Band.
But this is decidedly not a reggae or ska record. What it is instead is a collection of twelve sharp, terse performances featuring organ-drenched staccato chug, guitars that seem to push past the limits of their amplifiers, and saxophones-as-human-voice, all buoyed by drum patterns that skitter and jab. And while the influence of Jamaica is present, it melds so effortlessly with South Africa’s own sounds of the era as to have ended up producing a type of raw, garage groove that occasionally defies geographical identity altogether.
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Just check the tune “Paul Reggi.” Organ screeches over a repeated throb, leaving room for a guitar break and drum fills that sound like someone kicking a trashcan down a flight of steps. This album is also something of a showcase for the Makgona Tsohle Band, one of the most prolific, popular, and sought after bands from the era. The sextet played on hundreds of recordings released on South Africa’s largest indie label Gallo’s all-black subsidiary Mavuthela. Arguably, this band started mbaqanga, and this compilation features them on every track, often different names. Sha-Sha Boy’s “Shashalaza KE” is stop/start South African jive at its rawest, the entire track threatening to come apart at any second.
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Another track (one of two credited to the Big Bag Boys), “Somewhere,” exists between genres, only giving hints as to its origins. Umsako’s reissue is an exact replica of the original as well, with an additional insert providing background and track information. Makgona Tsohle Band apparently translates to “the band that can do anything,” and this LP, originally released 50 years ago on Inkonkoni records, shows their flexibility as well as anything else they released at the time.
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