Abacothozi - 1975 - Thema Maboneng

Abacothozi 

1975 

Thema Maboneng

01. Thema Maboneng

02. Khwezela Mkhwezeli

03. Jika Sibongile

04. Cothozani Bafana

05. Igxababa Lembhadada

06. Pho Usolani

Berthwel Maphumulo

Joe Zikhali

Justice Maphumulo

Mac Mathunjwa

In 1973, amid the dark days of Apartheid, the Pelican opened. It was the first nightclub in Soweto, and it quickly provided much-needed cultural sustenance for the oppressed citizenry as well as offering a hothouse environment for musicians, where they were given the freedom and space to experiment, forging new hybrids of jazz, funk, and indigenous styles. Among the combos that regularly commanded the stage was Abacothozi, a nimble instrumental quartet formed by bassist Berthwel Maphumulo the same year the club launched. The band was rounded out by organist Mac Mathunjwa, his drum-playing brother Innocent Mathunjwa, and guitarist Joe Zikhali. The group’s nonchalant versatility ensured them plenty of work, often serving as the club’s house band. In 1976 the Pelican’s house manager Dick Khoza convinced Rashid Vally to produce an album featuring him fronting Abacothozi, generating the sleek funk classic Chapita.

Abacothozi soon splintered, but just prior to that recording, they cut a pair of overlooked albums on their own. The group’s debut album Thema Maboneng features addictive grooves heavily inspired by the American soul and R&B of the day; a slick strain of organ-driven soul jazz that gives Mathunjwa the lion’s share of the solo space. The album’s warmly infectious title track, for example, borrows some ideas from “Hung Up on My Baby,” an instrumental Isaac Hayes jam featured on his score for the 1974 film Tough Guys. At the same time, their music satiated local appetites for the emergent homegrown sounds popularized by the brilliant, then-exiled South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who scored a huge hit with his classic 1974 track “Mannenberg,” a paradigm-shifting Cape Town jazz track that fused ideas from several regional styles.

While the cool-burn arrangements and melodic shapes may borrow from the US, the band’s rhythmic drive is purely South African. Just when you expect “Khwezela Mkhwezeli” might break into the theme from Shaft, Maphumulo and Innocent Mathunjwa unleash a loping rhythm (subsequently dubbed “bump jive” after a hit instrumental by the Movers); there’s no missing the connection to mbaqanga, the rhythmically skittery, dominant pop style of the time. On “Jika Sibongile,” the bass intro clearly comes from that tradition, but once the suave organ swells and sweet-toned electric guitar kick in Abacothozi settles into a laid-back cosmopolitanism designed to entertain. The quartet weren’t necessarily groundbreaking, but they responded to local tastes to forge an amalgam that’s providing new pleasures nearly five decades later.

Abacothozi were formed in 1973 by bassist, Berthwel Maphumulo, formerly of the Elite Swingsters. Together with Mac Mathunjwa on organ, his brother Innocent Mathunjwa on drums and Joe Zikhali on guitar, they recorded at least two albums: Thema Maboneng (Soul Jazz Pop, BL 59, December 1975) and Night in Pelican(Soul Jazz Pop, BL 66, February 1976). The two Abacothozi albums were recorded six weeks apart and predate the Chapita sessions with Dick Khoza by eight months. Mac Mathunjwa would go on to play keyboards with the Peddlers backing Mpharanyana.

A brilliant set of funk from the South African scene – a record that's very different than some of the other SA jazz of the time, and which maybe has both a bit of influence from The Meters, and some of the organ-driven instrumental work of the Jamaican scene from a few years before! The grooves are different than either of those references might imply, but also not in a typical South African mode either – and instead the whole thing's got this mix of bubbling and head-nodding energy that makes great use of the organ lines and riffing guitar over a set of basslines that are superb, and augmented with just the right snap in the drums! The whole thing's great – 70s African work, but equally appealing to any fan of funk in general