donald kachamba's kwela music

Donald Kachamba's Kwela MusicAuthor(s): Gerhard KubikSource: The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 32, No. 2 (July, 1979), pp. 45-59Published by: Society of Malawi - Historical and ScientificStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29778423 .

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Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music 45

Donald Kachamba's Kwela Music

Gerhard Kubik, Vienna

Two long-playing records of neo-traditional music in Malawi have

just been published: 1.) Donald Kachamba's Kwela Band 1978, Austromechana 0120240, published by Jazz Pub Wiesen, Austria. 2.) Donald Kachamba's Band. Simanje-manje and Kwela from Malawi, published by A.I.T. Records (Kenya) Ltd., P.O. Box 41152, Nairobi.

This should be an opportunity to introduce the artist and the history of his music to readers of The. Society of Malawi Journal. The two LP records may be obtained in Malawi through Moni Bookshop, Limbe.

Biographical Notes

Donald Kachamba was born in 1955 in the area of Blantyre/ Limbe in southern Malawi. He and his family are considered to be members of the Ngoni people, an ethnic group which split away from the Swazi of South Africa one hundred and fifty years ago and

migrated in several successive waves to what is now Malawi and southwestern Tanzania. The Ngoni groups which settled in southern

Malawi were assimilated by the Chichewa-speaking population. Donald speaks Chichewa and English. His relatives possess some land and small houses in the village of Chief Singano, about 1 mile from Malawi's International Airport at Chileka. With his elder brother Daniel, under whose patronage he stood in his childhood, he spent part of his early youth in Salisbury (Zimbabwe), where the family lived from 1957 to 1961. There he and

His relatives possess some land and small houses in the village of Chief Singano, about 1 mile from Malawi's International Airport at Chileka. With his elder brother Daniel, under whose patronage he stood in his childhood, he spent part of his early youth in Salisbury (Zimbabwe), where the family lived from 1957 to 1961. There he and his elder brother had their first contact with the new South African musical traditions of the time, Kwela or pennywhistle jive and various styles of guitar music. As a six-year-old boy he began to play the pennywhistle in his elder brother's band in Salisbury, his elder brother had their firbury. In February 1967 I found the Kachamba Brothers with their band in

Blantyre when they gave a street performance near the big market

(Kubik [6], pp. 1-2). In the following months I was able to make a comprehensive documentation of their musical style on tape and 16-mm film [24].



46 The Society of Malawi Journal

In 1970/71 Donald played guitar, banjo or flute in a group of his own which he had formed with his friend josefe BuLAHAMU, the rattle player in his brother's band of 1967. They mainly played for occasional dance parties at Lundu in the area of Matope Mission at Shire river, north of Blantyre. In 1972 I toured East Africa and Europe with the Kachamba Brothers. In 1973 we did joint studies of neo-traditional music in the Chileka area, Malawi. Since 1973 Donald has performed Kwela and Simanje-manje on concert and lecture tours in 14 countries of Africa, in Brazil, Venezuela and many European countries. He has received international recognition as one of the finest exponents of Kwela flute

music.

A brief history of *Kwela* and *Simanje-manje*

Kwela is a Zulu word given to a popular urban musical style of southern Africa. It means "to climb" or "to go up"; also "to attempt with success", "to go up and win." In a wider sense this word belongs to a conceptional framework associated with social emancipation and increased intensity of life (Kubik [6], p. 13). It also means "to get high" (personal communication by N.V. ralushai from Vendaland, S.A., 17/4/1975) referring to heightened physical and psychical states. The wovd-kwela also exists in Chichewa, the second official language in Malawi, as -kwera, "to climb, ascend; to rise" (Scott [19]).

According to the South African musicologist Elkin Sithole, musical use of the term first occurred during the 1940's in connection with a new kind of Zulu vocal music known as the "bombing style". (See also Rycroft [15], [16] and [17].) When the leader wanted to get the chorus to join in, he would shout "Kwela!"

(Personal communication by SlTHOLE, 18/5/1972, see also Kubik [4], p.52.) In reduplicated form kwela-kwela it expressed the continuous action of the responding chorus (SlTHOLE). Kwela-kwela still has another meaning in South Africa: it is one of the various names given to the green South African police van and in one Kwela hit of the 1950's, "Tom Hark" by Elias and his Zig-zag Jive Flutes (Columbia

DB 4109) this is exploited with great effect. The record begins with a humorous sketch. Young boys are gambling with the forbidden dice at a street-corner. Suddenly one shouts: "Here comes the kwela-kwela!" At the approach of the police van they hastily pocket their winnings and substitute the event with "harmless" flute music

(Kwela) until the van has disappeared. (Compare Rycroft [16], pp.55-56.) Since the early fifties the word Kwela has been associated with bands of penny-whistle playing young boys, seen at street-corners in the South African cities. The boys had become




familiar with American swing from records and films and now played their own adaptations on the metal flutes. The flute set represented the saxophone set of the American Swing bands. Thes? groups worked as mobile street ensembles in the townships and also in the "White" areas of the large cities Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and others, playing for pennies. With their instruments

they walked from one street-corner to the next, playing in front of

shops, bottle stores and hotels. The music was very popular with all sections of the South African public. (For a description of the social

background, see, for instance Modisane [12] and benseler [1], pp.119-125.) A precious testimony of Kwela street concerts is given in the film "Come back Africa" (90 min, USA, 1959) which was produced by Lionel rogosin clandestinely in South Africa with the help of Black organizations. It is an impressive example of Cine ma ve rite with several documentary scenes of Kwela groups playing in the streets. The standard instruments of a Kwela band were one or two (acoustic) guitars, one or more pennywhistles and the home-made one-string box bass. However, the Western factory-made instruments, such as

guitar and flutes, were also adapted by the South African musicians to their own concepts and aesthetics and played with African

performance techniques. As a result, some amazing new ways of

playing these Western instruments evolved. As to the early beginnings of Kwela there is a valuable testimony by David Rycroft, who was perhaps the only musicologist at the time interested in this music. Referring to Johannesburg Kwela he wrote in 1958: "Whistle-playing suddenly became popular there in 1950 after the success of a locally made film called The Magic Garden, which featured a little penny-whistle boogie, played by a cripple boy. Before

this, flute-blowing had always been the traditional pastime of country herdboys and on this account had been frowned upon in town"

(Rycroft [16], p.55). It is evident from the remarks on record covers such as "Pennywhistle

Kwela", SEYJ 105, that some observers assume a connection between the pennywhistle playing and traditional flutes, especially the mablaka used by herdboys in rural areas. So far, there is little evidence for this. I am inclined to believe with David Rycroft that the association flute-flute may have enticed observers to over?

emphasize connections with traditional pipes. (Conversation in

London, April 1975.) Kwela was quickly exploited commercially. "Talent scouts" of the

major South African record companies appeared at street-corners

searching for promising groups. What was published on records, however, did not always represent Kwela as it originally sounded. For commercial reasons it was the policy of some record companies to steer this music as closely as possible towards the contemporary




White man's image of Jazz. Kwela records were also sold to a great extent to the White community in South Africa, they were even

popular in England (see Rycroft [16], p.55). The record companies cashed in on the surprise effect that "dirty little Bantu boys can play Jazz" using such "primitive instruments". It was in line with the racist philosophy that the "native's" musical talent is based in

genetics.

Via records and radio broadcasts, but also as a result of large-scale labour migration in southern Africa, Kwela had spread by the

mid-fifties to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, now the

independent countries Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. There it gained a new foot-hold. In the mid-sixties South African

popular music began to change considerably. The boogie, jive, rock, and twist rhythmus of the Kwela and Phata-phata period disappeared. The swinging and straight-forward beat of the Kwela and

Saxophone Jive bands gave way to an "interruptive", highly accentuated and intersected movement style developing over certain basic bass patterns (see Kubik[4]), illustration P. 106). The short harmonic cycles such as F C G7 C and C C7F G7, which have roots in traditional music of southern Africa and are a characteristic element in Kwela setting it apart from the strophic chorus forms found in

American Jazz, were maintained in the new music. However, passing and substitute chords began to be introduced to a great extent, often

circumscribing or paraphrasing the original harmonic cycles. This new music was referred to as Simanje-manje or Simanje-manje, a term in Zulu language, meaning "things of now-now", "things of

today". The term became current from about 1963 on with the

publication of records of female vocal groups backed by electric

guitars, such as the Mahotella Queens (see: "Meet the Mahotella

Queens", MOTELLA LMO 101). Saxophonist West Nkosi and others created instrumental versions of the new beat. (See, for instance:

"Jump and Jive with West Nkosi", L-USA 2.) This music was no more played in the streets, but in large dance and community halls and in the studios of the record companies. The intrumental set was modelled on Western "beat music" of the time, using three electric

guitars (rhythm, bass and lead guitar) and jazz drums, as a basis for a soloist saxophone, a vocalist, sometimes an accordeon or a piano organ. At the same time-about 1963/64 - Kwela disappeared from the streets of the South African cities. Ten years later Andrew TRACEY of the International Library of African Music in Roodepoort could write to me: "The only people playing pennywhistles these days are

Afrikaans musicians, who still play a few Kwela numbers from the

'50s, still thinking that it is the current African pop music... "(Letter dated October 23, 1974). In 1974 another word was popular for the new music: mbaqanga.




This was the kind of music regularly practised in the rehearsal rooms of the Gallotone Company at Msaho (Roodepoort) by various

professional groups, such as Izintombi zo Moya (Girls of the Wind). I assisted in some of the rehearsals during a visit in Nov/Dec 1975 and found that this was exactly the kind of music that would still be called

Simanje-manje in Malawi or Zambia, where the new term is not current. Another term often used in South Africa in 1975 was

Mgqashiyo music, especially referring to performances by Mahlathini Nkabinde. (See, for instance, a notice in The World of

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1975). Kwela music was a basic source for Donald Kachamba, when he started flute playing at the age of six in Harare township, Salisbury. Like other pennywhistlers in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Zambia and

Malawi, Donald Learned his repertoire from the South African records of Spokes Mashiyane, Lemmy Special, Abia Themba, David Thekwane, Frans Mudau and other famous musicians of the time. (See a list of selected records in Kubik [4], pp. 109 -

110.) But these bands in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe-Rhodesia soon

began to compose their own pieces, and new trends appeared. Some Central African dance patterns were also included. There is an unusual and beautiful rumba piece by a Kwela band privately recorded in Lusaka in 1963 by Dr. H.J. NiESEL of the German

Academic Exchange Service, Nairobi1. There are very few recordings of the Kwela off-shoots in the countries north of South Africa. Far from the major recording centres in southern Africa, these bands had few chances of ever being recorded and popularized. In 1967 I recorded and filmed Kwela music in Malawi played by adolescents even in remote villages throughout the country (Kubik [24]). The Kachamba group at Chileka did not constitute an isolated

phenomenon, though it was the most musically outstanding one in the country. In 1967 when Donald Kachamba was a

twelve-year-old boy playing flute in his brother's band, he had

already developed a distinctly personal style. At least partly his models had ceased to be the South African pennywhistlers. Besides the usual twist, jive, and Sinjonjo numbers, a new dance rhythm was often heard in the Kachamba band of 1967. They called it doublestep because of the double foot steps of the dancers, but five years later

they referred to this music as Simanje-manje. It seems that this

rhythm first came to the area with records such as those by the Dark

City Sisters, but most definitely with saxophone records of the early Simanje-manje period. A record that was crucial in Donald's

development of a soloist flute style was "Mawrong wrong" by Kid Ma Wrong Wrong (published on Winner 45 OK, 159, Rock Patha

Special). Though there are still many Kwela numbers of the 1950's period in




the repertoire of the Kachamba Brothers today, DONALD'S flute

playing developed at a time when Kwela was declining in South Africa. On his flute he began to imitate the playing style of South African solo saxophone players. He developed from this a soloist flute

style with elaborate jazz-type variation techniques. (See, for instance, the flute parts in "Wodala Sofia" and "Maliro aKachamba"

published on the Kachamba Brothers' 1972 LP record [6].)

The social setting of Kachamba's music

For an understanding of neo-traditional music in southern Africa, it is important to consider the enormous influence of modern channels of communication on the creative musicians. Radio and record

players have opened up a new technical and aesthetic approach to

composing in Black Africa. Music sounds from a loud-speaker and is danced to without the dancers seeing the musicians, without being able to observe how the music is actually produced. Contemporary African musicians who record in the studios are aware of this and

they take advantage of the new possibilities for composing thus created.

Donald also has a record studio approach in his compositions. He creates music for multiple reproduction from a permanent imprint, the record. The composed version is final. Compositional techniques and performing time are therefore used as economically as possible. The piece is "built up" to give desired effects with a view of expected reactions from a radiogram or juke box audience. The idea is to create a unique and optimally effective imprint, a concentrated

product which does not last longer than the ca. 3 minutes of a standard single.

1 We are grateful to Dr. Niesel for kindly allowing Donald to copy his recordings for

study.

In the early seventies radiogram parties became increasingly popular in villages round Chileka and replaced to a certain extent the roaming

Kwela groups of the sixties. Such parties are referred to as dansi by the local people. "Ndikupita ku dansi" (I am going to the dance

party). A more descriptive term is dansi yobecha (dance for payment), because the dancers pay for each song. (Communication by Moya Aliya of Donald's Band, March 1978.) The pattern of

payment is exactly the same as it was in the days of live Kwela bands. The owner of a radiogram sets up his equipment in front of his house

expecting that young boys and girls would gather, just as they did in the old days for traditional dances. When the news spreads that there will be a dansi many young people move to the spot




from all directions, on bicycles or on foot. In 1973 Donald and I often visited such parties. Usually they lasted up to about 2 o'clock in the night. The owner of the record player then plays any desired record for a fee of 5 tambala to be offered by one of the dancers. The

continuity in playing records is rarely broken, because social pressure is exerted by the group on those boys and girls who are supposed to have some cash in their pockets. The general happiness must not

stop. The earnings of one night may be considerable by local standards. The owner of the radiogram then uses part of the earnings to buy the

latest, usually South African, records to attract more people to the next party. Within this system only single records is the convenient unit, not LP's which could never be played continuously because of individual record wishes.

The musical instruments

a) The pennywhistle

The hallmark of the Kwela sound is the pennywhistle, a flageolet flute, end-blown, made from a metal tube with cylindrical bore. It has six finger holes and a range of two octaves. In the early fifties, various

models were sold in South African music shops, but as of the late 1950's Hohner, Trossingen, dominated the market (see also Kubik

[6], pp.30 - 32. Some Kwela flautists used home-made instruments

from old bicycle pumps or other metal tubes. Percival Kirby has pointed out that the commonly accepted name

"penny whistle" is in fact, erroneous. He says, "The real name of this instrument...is the 'cylinder flageolet', so styled by reason of its

cylindrical 'bore', as opposed to the conical one of the old 'penny whistle'

" ([3], p.276).

Musicians of southern Africa developed a completely new approach towards these metal flutes. While in Western countries it is considered a toy instrument, not suitable for producing music of

"high standards", Kwela flautists have made this instrument a tool

capable of an unbelievably wide range of expression. Kwela flautists use an embouchure different from the recorder-type embouchure known in Europe. From the viewpoint of the player the flute is rotated clockwise for about 45? and pushed relatively far into the

mouth towards the inner side of the right cheek. An oblique position of the musician's head results from this (see Fig. 1). The oblique embouchure guarantees that the edge and window remain open between the lips of the player, and a full and round tone is obtained, much louder than if it is played in a recorder-type embouchure.




Another result of the Kwela embouchure is that the flute sounds almost a semitone lower than its factory-tuned pitch. In the present films Donald uses a Hohner in G; it sounds almost down to an F

sharp. Kwela flautists also use their own fingering system. They can produce glides, blue notes and chromatic passing notes in a combined

technique of fingering and blowing which goes beyond the factory-tuned seven-note diatonic scale.

Fig. 1 Donald Kachamba playing the

Kwela flute, 1974

b) The guitar In the band of the Kachamba Brothers a guitar with only five strings is used, in contrast to Daniel Kachamba'S solo guitar playing (see films E 2136 [20] and E 2137 [21]). The fifth string of a six-string acoustic guitar is removed before playing, leaving a gap (see Fig. 3). Often the fifth string is not pulled out completely, but just detached. Then it hangs rolled-up on its peg, so that the guitarist can put it back any time he wishes to switch to six-string solo guitar playing. During concerts in foreign countries the absence of the fifth string has often elicited comments from the audience. Some people believe that a string is broken and helpfully point it out to the player!




Fig. 2. Donald playing five-string "Band guitar" in LG tuning with a

JAVEL "plastic" in combination with a mouth organ in F, Golden Melo , dy of Hohner. In this way he walks during long excursions; April 1974

The sixth string remains in its place, but is tuned to a note different from Western guitar tuning. In the items filmed Donald uses a

tuning pattern he and his brother call LG (pronounced as in English); from string No. 1-6 it is: E-B-G-D-.-G. The G of the sixth string is a fifth below the D of No. 4. The LG tuning and its name is also current among other musicians in Malawi, says Donald. For

pressing the strings, fingers 1 - 3 are used for the upper four strings while the thumb stops the bass string, usually at the second fret counted from the capotasta. This creates a two-note shifting bass reminiscent in certain harmonic contexts of the fundamentals of a traditional musical bow. The notes struck on the upper guitar strings often allude to partials of these bass notes.

With a capotasta placed at the third fret, the guitar is raised to the level of the flute in G (sounding slightly lower). The tonic G of the flute is tuned in unison with the fourth (open) string of the guitar. For striking the guitar strings, Donald uses what he calls a "plastic". This is the Kachamba Brother's term for plectrum. It is called

"plastic" because traditionally the plectrums are cut by the Kachamba Brothers from old plastic bottles, preferably Gillette's

JAVEL, found along the roads. JAVEL is a bleach that was made in

Salisbury and sold in large or small yellow bottles in Malawi. The




Kachamba Brothers consider these bottles the best material for

cutting the rather large plectrums which they prefer because of its medium softness.

They also always use steel strings, never nylon strings on their guitars. Concerning nylon strings Donald remarks: "The sound is not good. It is also not loud enough" (note, 29/11/1973).

c) The rattle The tin rattle is the beat-carrying instrument in Donald kachamba's Kwela band. The musicians' and dancers' reference

pulse always goes with the down-strokes of the rattle. This is

important to know, because observers, especially from alien musical

cultures, get easily confused by the accentuation of the guitar patterns an tend to hear the total structure of donald's music, especially Simanje-manje and twist items "upside down", i.e. the beat as after-beat and the reverse. In the "Twist" the up-strokes of both the rattle and the guitarist's right hand carry a strong accent, but the reference pulse (beat) is in the down-strokes. It appears that the rattle was not used in South African Kwela, and

certainly not in the studio recordings. Jazz drums were used instead. In the Malawian Kwela bands the rattle was adopted to represent the sound of the jazz drums, especially the cymbals of the South African

models.

The rattle is known in southern Malawi as nsanje or maseche. It is a home-made instrument. A small tin is used and a series of holes is struck into the sides all around the cylinder with a hammer

using a nail to pierce the holes. Then the inside is filled with a thin

layer, not more than 1-1.5 cm high, of beads, sometimes pebbles. "Masai beads" such as sold to tourists in Kenya is the content of the rattle used in the present films. In twist the rattle player produces a timbre pattern memorized with the aid of the syllables ka-cha ka-cha ka-cha etc.; ka represents the

up-stroke, cha the down-stroke. In Simanje-manje and in Chachacha the mnemonic syllables are cha-cha-cha-cha etc. Incidentally, the name of the Latin-American dance chachacha derives from these mnemonic syllables representing the rattle beat. Mnemonics are

important as a traditional teaching device in African music across the continent (Kubik [6], [7], [8] and [9]). In all instances the rattle player produces not only a "rhythm" or "beat", but patterns of timbre and accent.

d) The one-string bass The one-string box bass was probably introduced to southern Africa with the knowledge of American skiffle music, but the principle is




familiar in most areas ot Black Africa from the playing of the

ground-bow to which the American washtub bass is historically related. The ground-bow is still widely used as a children's instrument in Africa. The introduction of the skiffle bass in South

Africa must have "touched a chord" in the South African boys who started Kwela and corroborated and revived the traditional idea of the

ground-bow. The box bass used in Kwela street music is designed to be a "mobile" instrument, which can easily be carried from place to

place. It is almost always made from a tea chest, such as found in the store rooms of the large tea-exporting companies.

The construction of a one-string bass is easy, provided that a suitable box has been found. The box must be open on the underside. A small hole is bored into the sound-board (upper side), one end of the string is inserted and a knot is made round a nail. The nail is not attached to the box, but remains loose at the lower end of the string inside the

Fig. 3. Position and technique of playing the one-string bass. Donald rehearsing in the Studio of the IWF, G?ttingen,

May 21,1974




box. The upper end of the string is attached to the end of a stick

(string bearer) of some 90 cm length. The string is cut from a length of cord such as that used for packing parcels; it should be about 4 mm thick. The preferable material is sisal (khonje), says Donald.

Before the string bass was ready for performance Donald lit a match and brushed it along the string to burn all the little "hairs" standing off. The string must be smooth enough for the right touch with the

fingers. The basic technique of playing is to sound the string by pulling it with thumb and first plus second finger, and releasing it. This technique may be varied during a performance and temporarily substituted by other techniques, such as for instance, fast pendulum strokes with the index or strokes with the nail of the thumb (in directions to the left) followed by the basic "pull and release" to the

right (see Kubik [6], pp. 42 - 43). The pitch of the note is changed by

pressing gently with the left hand against the upper end of the stick, while the lower end is propped up against the sound-board of the box (see Fig. 1). By altering the left hand's pressure, the musician controls the tension of the string and intonates (in donald's case with amazing accuracy) the desired pitch. The tension of the string also pulls the nail attached to the lower end of the string against the inside of the box.

e) The mouth organ Mouth organs have been used by the Kachamba Brothers only since their first trip to Europe in 1972. This is not, however, an indication of a "European influence" on their music. Europe only provided the opportunity for buying an instrument which has been used in southern Africa for a long time. In the 1930's (and also much earlier) "jew's harps, mouth- harmonicas, 'German' concertinas, guitars, and

autoharps" were available in South African trading stores (Kirby[3], p.257). There are African musical traditions in South Africa using the German concertina which go back to the 19th century. The combination guitar and mouth organ, the latter fixed to a harmonica-holder round the musician's neck, was found among lone minstrels in South Africa, who walked along country roads from place to place. Sometimes these musicians were so poor that the could not afford a mouth organ and used a home-made cazoo of a bamboo tube with a hole covered with a mirlitone. Arthur Benseler met such a minstrel in 1969 near Tzaneen (Transvaal). This was quite a character who called himself "No. 1 Pepsi Cowboy" (BENSELER [1], p.123, and photograph p. 126). Some of the mouth organ and concertina music has flown into Simanje-manje where in one instrumental set, usually labelled




"Accordeon Jive" by the record companies, an accordeon is the

leading instrument backed by electric guitars. (See for instance, recordings of the Makgona Tsohle Band, LP records "From the Beat of Simanje-manje", LSJM 1001, S.A., and Uyavutha Umlilo, GUMBA GUMBA LPBS 3.) Donald's elder brother Daniel began to play with a small mouth

organ on a holder accompanied by his solo guitar in Vienna in May 1972 during long walks in the City's famous wine quarter, Grinzing.

There he composed "Aloni Jive" published on the Kachamba Brothers' 1972 LP record (Kubik [6]). Donald quickly imitated his brother's "new fashion" and already in 1972 created his own songs for mouth organ and guitar, as well as adapting songs the Kachamba Brothers had performed before with other instruments.

The casual observer may think that kachamba's manner of playing guitar and carrying a mouth organ on a holder round his neck has

something to do with blues music. However, the Kachamba Brothers'

approach to the mouth organ is different from that of blues players. The Black US styles often show an aesthetic ideal and a technique of sound production which is strangely reminiscent of the timbre

qualities found in algeita (oboe) music of the Sudanic belt of West

Africa, especially the small oboe made from reed grass. In kachamba's mouth organ playing there are no such "Blues" elements and certainly no "Sudanisms". The instrument represented in Daniel's and Donald's mouth organ style is the accordeon, as used in South African Simanje-manje. The South African connection is perhaps more apparent, when one considers not only the "Malawi Chachacha" (with a Latin American

rhythm) performed by Donald in the film E 2329 [23], but the total repertoire of the Kachamba Brothers. Donald uses a Hohner Golden Melody in F, 16 cm long, diatonic, Hohner Catalogue No. 2416/40. He found that this model combined

excellently with his preferred guitar tuning called LG. In this case he tunes the guitar strings slightly higher than in the Western pitch-pipe tuning, all the (five) strings, without capotasta, are about a semitone

higher, the top string (open) sounding F instead of E. Then he places the capotasta at the second fret and tunes the fourth string in unison with the tonic of the mouth organ in F. The position of the mouth organ in front of his lips is such that the treble notes are always to the left, the deep notes to the right. But

Donald says that anyone can position his mouth organ as it suits

him, also reversed (note, 6/2/1974).




Bibliography

[1] Benseler, A.: Beobachtungen zur Kwela-Musik 1960 bis 1963. Jazzforsch. - Jazz

res. 5 (1973/74).

[2] Gunther, H.: Grundphanomene und Grundbegriffe des afrikanischen und

afro-amerikanischen Tanzes. Beitr. z. Jazzforsch. 1, Graz 1969.

[3] Kirby, P.R.: The musical instruments of the native races of South Africa.

London 1934. Repr. 1965.

[4] Kubik, G.: Die Verarbeitung von Kwela, Jazz und Pop in der modernen Musik

von Malawi. Jazzforsch. - Jazz res. 3/4 (1971/72).

[5] Kubik, G.: Transcription of African music from silent film: theory and methods.

Afr. Music 5, 2 (1972).

[6] Kubik, G.: The Kachamba Brothers' Band. A study of neo-traditional music in

Malawi. Zambian Pap. 9. Univ. of Zambia, Inst. for Afr. Stud., Lusaka 1974.

(Book and LP record.)

[7] Kubik, G.: Donald Kachamba's Rekonstruktionen vergangener Musik. Ein Beitrag zur Erfassung nicht-verbaler Traditionen. In: Aus Theorie und Praxis der

Ethnohistorie. Festgabe zum 70. Geburtstag von Walter Hirschberg. Wien

1974,-Erg?nzungen in Wiener Ethnohist. Bl. 12 (1976), 71 - 74.

[8] Kubik, G.: Patterns of body movement in the music of boys' initiation in

south-east Angola. In: Blacking, J., (Ed.): The Anthropology of the Body. A.S.A. Monogr. 15, London 1977.

[9] Kubik, G.: Perzeptorische und kognitive Grundlagen der Musikgestaltung in

JSchwarz-afrika. Musicological Austriaca 1 (1977).

[10] Kubik, G.: Malawi. In: The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

London 1978/79.

[11] Mensah, A.A.: Jazz - the round trip. Jazzforsch. - Jazz res. 3/4 (1971/72).

[12] Modisane, B.: Blame me on history. London 1963.

[13] Music Spik (anon.). Daily Times, Blantyre, September 22, 1976, p.6.

[14] Rycroft, D.: Melodic imports and exports: a byproduct of recording in

southern Africa. Brit. Inst. of Recorded Sound, Bull. 3, Winter 1956.

[15] Rycroft, D.: Zulu male traditional singing. Afr. Music 1, 4 (1957).

[16] Rycroft, D.: The new "town music" of southern Africa. Recorded Folk Music.

A Rew. of Brit, and Foreign Folk Music Recordings 1, September/October 1958.

[17] Rycroft, D.: African music in Johannesburg: African and non-African features J.

of the Int. Folk Music Counc. 11 (1959).

[18] Rycroft, D.: Music in Southern Africa. The music of the Zulus and their

neighbours. BBC Radio, Teacher's Notes, Summer 1977.

[19] Scott, DC: Dictionary of the Chichewa language. C.L.A.I.M. Blantyre 1929.

Repr. 1970.

Filmography

[20] Dauer, A.M., (IWF), and G. Kubik: Malawi, Southeast Africa - Daniel

Kachamba's Solo Guitar Songs. Film E 2136 of the IWF, Gottingen 1976.




Publication by G. Kubik, Publ. Wiss. Film., Sekt. Ethnol., Ser. 7, No.

32/E 2136 (1977), 16pp. [21] Dauer. A.M., (IWF), and G. Kubik. Malawi, Southeast Africa - Daniel

Kachamba's Solo Guitar Music. Film E 2137 of the IWF, Gottingen 1976.

Publication by G. Kubik, Publ. Wiss. Film., Sekt. Ethnol., Ser. 7, No. 33/E 2137

(1977), 14 pp. [22] Dauer. A.M., (IWF), and G. Kubik: Malawi (Southeast Africa)

- Donald

Kachamba's Kwela Music: Malawi Twist. Film E 2328 of the IWF,

Gottingen 1978. Publication by G. Kubik:, Publ. Wiss. Film., Sekt. Ethnol.,

Ser. 8, No. 29/E 2328 (1978), 20 pp.

[23] Dauer. A.M., (IWF), and G. Kubik: Malawi (Southeast Africa) - Donald

Kachamba's Kwela Music: Simanjemanje, Chachacha. Film E 2329 of the IWF,

Gottingen 1978. Publication by G. Kubik, Publ. Wiss, Film., Sekt. Ethnol.,

Ser. 8, No. 30/E 2329 (1978), 21 pp.

[24] Kubik, G.: Unpublished 16-mm film material, colour, on neo-traditional music in

Malawi (1967): (a) Theatre sketch and music performed by the Kachamba

Brothers, near Chileka; film K 49 A. (b) Donald Kachamba playing solo

guitar at Mzedi; film D 20. (c) Analytical shots of Daniel Kachamba

playing a solo rumba item on the guitar at Singano village; film XI. (d) The

Kachamba Brothers at Singano village; film X 4. (e) The Kachamba

Brothers performing at a local dance party; film X 5. (0 The Kachamba Brothers

performing at a local dance party (Part II); film X 6. (g) Independence Festival at

Rumphi, northern Malawi; films D 19-21. (h) Masoko Sweet Singers, a Jive band

with banjo and one-string bass at Karonga, northern Malawi; film D 40.



donald kachamba's kwela music

Documents

southern malawi

society of malawi journal

donald kachambas kwela

donald kachambas band

elder brothers band

elder brother daniel

jstor terms

jstor archive