Feb 21/06
Your cousin is a rockstar
Guest post today by Benn loxo listener, Matt:
Vikings feat. Al Bentley – Kansas City
Recently I discovered that my second cousin was South Africa’s “king” of rock and roll. After some digging amongst family members and some web research and requests I managed to get a CD-R of his hits. The music is mostly derivative of the imported rock and roll songs and no original material appears to have been written until much later in the decade. This particular tune is taken from the first South African rock and roll LP Rock Party at the Club Pepsi with the Vikings, RCA Victor
Dark City Sisters – Shala Shala Twist
On the other side of the tracks, in musical hotspots such as Sophiatown and elsewhere, black musicians were also taking on the American sounds they were hearing. Only this time they seemed to take ownership of them. A good example is Shala Shala Twist by the Dark City Sisters. This is sung inthe urban lingua-franca of the day – tsotsitaal, an urban mix of Afrikaans, English and Zulu – where they ask “Sonny, come look, we play Shala Shala Twist. Mother, oh, please come judge us doing the Shala Shala Twist”.
The music on this home compiled CD-r was made possible by two other compilations long since deleted. These are “Flying Rock – South African Rock ‘n Roll 1950-1962 (Global Village)” and “Money No Be Sand -1960s Afro-Lypso, Pidgin Highlife, Afro-Soul and Afro-Rock from Nigeria and Ghana (Original Music)” (which was featured here a while back on Benn loxo)
Links:
South African rock and roll archives
South Africa – The Hidden Years
South Africa – Music Styles
The Vikings feat. Al Bentley – Kansas City
Dark City Sisters – Shala Shala Twist

A night fighting for space at La Perle and Le Connetable got quite late, as in the birds were out as I wandered home. So I’m nursing my Sunday coffee a bit and I need some soothing music, a gentle wake-up. Francis Bebey?
I finally checked-out
The Manhattan Brothers dominated the black South African musical scene during much of the 1940s and 50s. They recorded, toured and performed under difficult circumstances given the political climate of early-apartheid South Africa. Despite occasional jailings, troubles getting visas and general discrimination they managed to attain great success.
I picked this album at random yesterday. I figure you can never go wrong with contemporary malian acoustic guitar. As it turns out, the album is gold. Good score.