Soul Safari presents Township Jive & Kwela Jazz Volume 2 (1930-1962) sneak preview

Words can not describe the sensation of compiling yet another collection of jive and kwela jazz shellac 78’s that were found in the ILAM archives in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Most “African” recordings from the fifties and sixties in South Africa were issued on 78 shellac discs and only compiled to LP for the “overseas/white” market in very limited quantities. So one can imagine how rare these records actually are.

The selection of Volume 2 of ‘Township Jive & Kwela Jazz’ features 18 songs that were recorded between 1930 to 1962. Most of these were no big hits, only The Skylarks with Miriam Makeba and The Batchelors featuring Thoko Tomo are the better known names on this compilation.

The latter knew some local success with their Zulu translation of an American Doo Wop original; ‘Book Of Love’ by The Monotones, a one-hit wonder, as their only hit single peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1958.  ‘Sesik’Inyembezi’ was also released as an ep on New Sound XEP 7025 where the two tracks of the original single by The Bachelors comprise the B side. The A side is by The Skylarks with Miriam Makeba. Interestingly the front of the ep sleeve features a photograph of and mentions only The Skylarks with Miriam Makeba – suggests that The Bachelors were very much the lesser act in sales potential.

All recordings were prepared and mastered from the original 78 rpm shellac discs as found in the archives at ILAM. The goal was to clear the dust and dirt of decades gone by, while preserving the original dynamics and to keep the sound as little altered as possible.

Here is a sneak preview of some of the selections that can be found on ‘Township Jive & Kwela Jazz Volume 2”. Full tracklist + mp3 review to be revealed in my next post. Do check it out!

kudos to Alex. Sinclair for sharing his knowledge