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Zulu A Cappella and Paul Simon: How an American Artist Put Township Jive on the World Map
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13213 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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10 / 1987 |
2,524 Words |
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William J. Ruhlmann
William J. Ruhlmann is a music writer based in New York. |
The recent upsurge of Western attention to the music of South Africa, a music that has never before attracted widespread, sustained popularity outside the borders of its native country, raises many questions about the ways that an artistic form can be perceived and understood. Does a foreign style require a catalyst to introduce it? How is it understood outside its native context? Can interest be sustained after the initial introduction?
Though currently gaining in popularity, South African music was long ignored partly due to a mistaken impression about the nature of the music. Isolated songs and musicians from South Africa had been heard in previous years, but the Western public still confused its impression of South African music with the percussive nature of other African musics, notably that of Nigeria.
"People say," lamented Johnny Clegg, "'You're African. So where are your drums?' But the Zulu tradition is a vocal tradition." It was the fall of 1983, and Clegg, the coleader of Juluka, a South African sextet, was sitting in the offices of his American record company, Warner Bros., trying to explain how his music differed from the music American audiences were accustomed to hearing from Africa.
Mbaqanga , or township jive, the Zulu music of South Africa, differs greatly from the polyrhythmic music popularly associated with Africa. Lacking the traditional instruments found elsewhere on the continent (perhaps because of the lack of materials needed to make them), the Zulus evolved a simple rhythmic backing for elaborate harmonies sung by large choirs. To see the potential appeal to the Western ear, one need only recall the adaptation of the Zulu song "Wimoweh," performed by the American folk group the Weavers in the 1950s, and transformed into the pop hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens in the 1960s.
Clegg, who is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Witwatersrand as well as a musician, gave a good explanation of the music of South Africa, but in 1983 few people were interested. Today, however, many Westerners, when they think of African music, are likely to think primarily of vocal music, especially the breathtaking harmonies of the 10-man a cappella group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. This transformation, which has made the music of South Africa widely popular in areas where it was never heard before, is largely due to the efforts of one man: Paul Simon.
At the time when Clegg was in America promoting South
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