a gallery of South African music on 78 rpm

dream on…none of the following 78 rpm records will be traced easily in the wild but patience awards those who can wait for the bait. I like to start the year 2010 with some eye candy, a gallery of 78’s pressed in South Africa.

Elias & His Zig Zag Flutes -Tom Hark

Elias & His Zig Zag Flutes -Rij Rij

African releases of local talent were marketed for a small group of afficionados,  those who could afford a  grammophone player or more commonly for the black population, via township radio distribution.  During the fifties and sixties many small locally distributed labels flourished, a few were actually owned by black entrepreneurs. Many of these releases were pressed and controlled by the  Gallo Record Company.  Interesting fact is that ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey was instrumental in choosing the material for those releases. Tracey set up the first arena for the public display of mine dancing,  at the Consolidated Main Reef Mine in Johannesburg in 1943. He later paid tribute to the culture of mine dancing in his book ‘African Dances of the Witwatersrand Gold Mines’,  published by African Music Society in  October 1952

Mambuaulela Makhubela & his Shangaan Drum Dancers -Park Station

Nyasaland Nyo Tribe -Ndano

The Globetrotters -Vuyisile

Patla Pett & his Five boys -Polokwane Nr 4

Morning Lights Choir -Uxazazela -1962 Zulu Vocal acapella

Kid Zondi  -Saley’s Cycle Blues -1967 Sax Jive

with thanks to ILAM Grahamstown, South Africa