I stumbled across this very cool Kwela video. Note the unusual Kwela style of playing (blowing):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DQg5LLT3ANs& ... ed&search=
Kwela on YouTube...
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brewerpaul
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Re: Kwela on YouTube...
Do they play the whistles sideways? Interesting.brewerpaul wrote: Note the unusual Kwela style of playing (blowing):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DQg5LLT3ANs& ... ed&search=
Ramzy Berbawy
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Martin Milner
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Great to see Kwela being played where it was invented!
For those who haven't heard of The Positively Testcard, here's their website:
http://tinyurl.com/2fylj8
For those who haven't heard of The Positively Testcard, here's their website:
http://tinyurl.com/2fylj8
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that schwing
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The Kwela players put most of the head of the whistle up to the square window into their mouths, not just the beak. In this way, they can bend notes by shading the window with their lips. I've tried, but I can't do it!fearfaoin wrote:Wow, I'm not sure how Mr Nbete gets a seal on his mouthpiece.
He's got it turned almost 90 degrees (along the whistle's centerline)
from the expected position.
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Mitch
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Thanks for sharing this Paul!
Those whistles they have on the clip look like the classic Hohner in C.
From what I've learned about Kwela, the Hohner C whistle was the instrument of choice because one could do the lip-shading trick easily. Folks tell me that the Hohner C is tuned quite sharp which is ideal for lip-shading, because that flattens the notes. It also leads to the speculation that Hohner made these whistles for the Kwela market - they can sometimes be picked-up second-hand in S. Africa and Australia. Hohner no longer makes them and researchers have found very little about what became of the whole thing including the metal folding machines and manufacturing process.
Legend has it that the South African Apartheidt regime ruthlessly suppressed Kwela after one of the artists had a global top-10 hit (I still remember the tune but forget the artist and title - maybe Spokes Mokane ... Mashiyane?). "Spokes" BTW is not a nice nickname - A sharpenned bicycle-wheel spoke was the assasination weapon of choice during the Apartheidt struggle - assasins were sometimes called "Spokesman".
These days, Kwela is having a bit of a "come-back" with bands like "The Positively Testcard" in the UK and the Andy Rigby band in Australia. South Africa itself is producing more artists.
I have heard that there is a large body of Kwela field recordings locked-away in the South African national library archive. It would be nice to see that archive unlocked.
Regardless of all that, Kwela is such a happy music form - I'd love to see and hear more of it!
Those whistles they have on the clip look like the classic Hohner in C.
From what I've learned about Kwela, the Hohner C whistle was the instrument of choice because one could do the lip-shading trick easily. Folks tell me that the Hohner C is tuned quite sharp which is ideal for lip-shading, because that flattens the notes. It also leads to the speculation that Hohner made these whistles for the Kwela market - they can sometimes be picked-up second-hand in S. Africa and Australia. Hohner no longer makes them and researchers have found very little about what became of the whole thing including the metal folding machines and manufacturing process.
Legend has it that the South African Apartheidt regime ruthlessly suppressed Kwela after one of the artists had a global top-10 hit (I still remember the tune but forget the artist and title - maybe Spokes Mokane ... Mashiyane?). "Spokes" BTW is not a nice nickname - A sharpenned bicycle-wheel spoke was the assasination weapon of choice during the Apartheidt struggle - assasins were sometimes called "Spokesman".
These days, Kwela is having a bit of a "come-back" with bands like "The Positively Testcard" in the UK and the Andy Rigby band in Australia. South Africa itself is producing more artists.
I have heard that there is a large body of Kwela field recordings locked-away in the South African national library archive. It would be nice to see that archive unlocked.
Regardless of all that, Kwela is such a happy music form - I'd love to see and hear more of it!
Last edited by Mitch on Tue May 22, 2007 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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