Strut continues their essential three-part excursion into the archives of South African music with the second volume of the “Next Stop… Soweto” series. With international forms of music discouraged by the South African authorities during the 1960s, township jive or mbaqanga arose as innovative artists combined close harmony singing and traditional African styles with a bouncy township beat. Imported US music became strictly the domain of house parties, private record collections and underground shebeens.
Despite this, a small but healthy soul scene flourished with bands like The Movers adding marabi elements into their funk and early disco sound, The Klooks and the Anchors all directly inspired by US soul and R&B and the Hammond organ of Booker T and Jimmy Smith. Volume 2 of “Next Stop… Soweto” also touches on mbaqanga and jazz artists who dabbled with soul and funk fusions during the early ‘70s. The “Next Stop… Soweto” series is the result of several years of painstaking research and vinyl archaeology in South Africa by compilers Duncan Brooker and Francis Gooding.
For Fans of: Booker T & The MG’s, Mahotella Queens, Soundway Records
