The Elite Swingsters - Woza (1991)

SINCE 1958, the Elite, Swingsters have been the most consistently popular exponents of that uniquely South African Jazz. Don’t, however, dismiss the band as a bunch of moudly old revivalists! The Elite’s music may have been fashioned from the continuation of a great tradition but they’re not content to merely recreate past glories. And when you see that word “jazz" in this context don’t start thinking about the cool, obscure, atonal variety that requires a musicology degree to “understand"

The Swingsters, African Jazz is quite simply some of the world’s greatest party music! Its strong on good, classic melodies the kind that keep repeating themselves on your own mental jukebox long after the gig is over or the record is finished served up with hot, instantly contagious rhythms that lift bums out of seats and onto a dance floor. Stylistically speaking, its really a blend of African melodies and harmonies with American swing, together with an added dose of New Orleans rhythm and even some rock ‘n roll thrown in for good measure...

...The Elites were first brought together in 1958 as a once-off combination of session musicians hired by Teal Record Company to record four songs for release as 78rpm singles on their RCA label. A Teal executive, Herbert Friedman, decided to issue the records using the name’Elite Swingsters' Rather unexpectedly, one of the four recordings, a tune called ‘Phalafafa' which had been composed for the session by the company’s African producer/talent scout, Lebenya Matlotlo, became an enormous hit. The musicians then decided to form a permanent band to capitalize on the success of ‘Phalafala' and adopted the Elite Swingsters moniker by way of advertisement.

For the next ten or so years, the Elites were one of the most popular attractions in African music. Dubbed ‘The Magnificent Seven' by their township admirers, the band maintained an active performing profile that was centred around Johannesburg, the Vaal Triangle and down into the Orange Free State to Bloemfontein. The Elites also regularly toured Natal and the Eastern Cape under the auspices of the ‘Batfairs' sponsored by United Tobacco Company.

At the same time, the band was kept extremely busy in the recording studio. Ultimately, several hundred Elite Swingsters titles were released, first on the RCA label and then later on Teal’s Drum imprint. In addition, there were a large number of ‘underground' recordings made outside of the band’s Teal contract for other record companies which were issued using a wide variety of pseudonyms. Some of their most popular numbers made during this period, some of which still remain in the band’s repertoire today, were ‘Drumbeat' '6 Rockville' ‘Elite Blues' ‘Two Ball Twist' ‘Payneville' ‘Dinokza' ‘Pul Nel' ‘Funky Mama' and ‘Madubula Hall'

The regular core of the Elite Swingsters' classic lineup consisted of the leader and string bass player, Johannes '‘Hooks'’Tshukudu, drummer Louis Molubi, Rex Ntuli on guitar, Jordan Bangazi on trumpet and Paul Rametsi on tenor sax. The two man alto saxophone section changed around more frequently and at various times used the following players: Jury Mpehlo, Chris Songxaka, Tami Madi, Shumi, Peter Mokonotela, Albert Ralulimi and Mike Selelo. Other musicians who sometimes formed part of the lineup were Elijah Nkwanyane and Johnny Selelo on trumpet, Blyth Mbitjana on trombone, Chris Columbus on baritone, and Dolly Rathebe on vocals.