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south african bands,bands, band cape town
More on Amampondo....
During
the politically turbulent 1980's, the group went
from being Cape Town buskers and cultural activists
to being an internationally acclaimed percussion
ensemble. To this achievement, may be added the fact
that not only are they accomplished musicians, but
educators in their own right.
Amampondo's first appearance "off the streets" took
place at Cape Town's legendary music venue, Scratch
circa 1979. Shortly thereafter, they completed their
debut recording: a cassette release by the
independent Obz Productions. A signing with Cape
Town based Mountain Records followed, and the label
released five albums, establishing Amampondo as the
recording artists we know today. The 1980's also saw
the group's first forays beyond Cape Town, first to
Johannesburg, and then abroad.
With
South Africa's political transition in the early
1990's, the group travelled extensively, and their
1996 signing with the (then) UK-based MELT 2000
label saw growing interaction with a number of great
drummers and percussionists: Brazilian legend Airto
Moreira, Cuban master percussionist Changuito, and
Cameroonian drummer Brice Wassy, who have been label
mates with the Capetonians for their MELT 2000
releases.
Another important collaboration has been that with
legendary South African percussionist Gabriel "Mabi"
Thobejane, who, since leaving afro-fusion group
Sakhile, found a new spiritual home with Amampondo.
During October - November 1998, the 15 Amampondo
members braved the Scandinavian winter and toured
extensively throughout Sweden, Norway and Finland,
performing shows and giving educational workshops at
festivals, clubs and schools. In all, the group
completed 16 full-day workshops, two short workshops
and 16 concerts in 36 days - an intensive programme
by any standard!
Hosted
by the School of Music at University of Gothenburg,
the goal of Amampondo's tour was as much to heighten
the interest in traditional African music, as it was
to demonstrate the importance of African music and
instruments as tools in the education of music
students and teachers. In part, this was done to
mirror a recent programme at UCT's School of Music,
sponsored by the University of Gothenburg. Led by
Linda Muller and "Dizu" Plaatjies, the programme
advocates the use of African music and instruments
in the continuing education of music teachers, in an
attempt to redress the previous reliance on
Eurocentric music teaching methods in South African
schools.
The
impact of Amampondo's workshops on the rural youth,
for whom their visit was a rare treat, was evident
in school corridors between sessions, where groups
of boys and girls spontaneously got together to
practise dance steps and phrases of songs just
learned. After a hectic trip to Nijmegen in Holland,
where the group participated in the 14th Annual
Music Meeting Festival (alongside Busi Mhiongo,
Ernest Ranglin, Trilok Gurtu and many others), the
final days of the tour were spent in Finland and
Sweden.The band performed to a full house at the
Savoy Theatre in Helsinki, and gave a much
appreciated full-day workshop at the Sibeiius
Institute, the music school of the University of
Helsinki. Fittingly, the tour ended with two
fantastic shows at the House of Culture in
Stockholm, where the group had previously performed
in 1988
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