First issued in 1969, Tapestry Works have reissued the Malombo Jazz Makers’ unknown third album ‘Down Lucky’s Way‘. The core trio featured Abbey Cindi on flute and sax, Julian Bahula on malombo drums and Lucky Ranku, one of the greatest African guitarists of his generation.
The liner notes feature interviews with Julian Bahula and a 2014 interview by Francis Gooding with Lucky Ranku, who passed away in 2016. Originally, the band were only paid for their session time and received no royalties from Gallo and HMV, something Julian pursued in the South African courts when the apartheid regime fell; he managed to recover outstanding royalties as well as publishing and copyright. This reissue is officially licensed from Julian, with monies going to Abbey Cindi and the family of Lucky Ranku in South Africa.
It’s a significant album, being the first to feature additional instruments with Dick Khoza on drums, Zakes Mkhubule on bass and Andrew Mfundi on organ. It was also the first time that Abbey Cindi played on soprano saxophone as well as flute. Even Lucky was shocked when shown the album in 2014; he’d never seen it before.
The album notes highlight both the significance of their playing musically and politically:
Julian Bahula’s introduction of malopo drums to the music of the original Malombo Jazzmen was a moment of crucial political and cultural radicalism for South African jazz. Traditionally used by BaPedi people for healing, the malopo drums of Malombo music re-centred jazz around indigenous sounds and culture, and over the next decade, the Malombo Jazz Makers became deeply involved in political opposition to apartheid. Their recovery of indigenous sounds made them the musical standard bearer for the Black Consciousness movement, and they toured South Africa clandestinely with the writer and anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. They also broke apartheid laws by playing with the white rock group Freedom’s Children, sometimes appearing on stage in masks or made up with UV paint to avoid detection by the authorities; they appeared regularly at the rule-bending Free People’s Concerts organized by David Marks, where Marks’ clever exploitation of a loophole – mixed audiences were prohibited from attending ticketed concerts where anyone was being paid, but the law said nothing about private functions played by artists for free – meant people could come together in defiance of apartheid laws. The notorious Special Branch would raid their concerts; Lucky remembered police storming an auditorium, throwing smoke bombs.
Following in the footsteps of Julian Bahula, Lucky Ranku left South Africa and moved to London in 1974, a terrifying experience that he also discusses in the interview. In London, he joined Bahula’s group Jabula. He reminded in the UK after the fall of apartheid, playing in many bands but never recording an album as a band leader. This album is the closest you’ll get to that experience, as his playing, showcased throughout the album, is on another level.
Listen to the track ‘Matshenyogo’, which translates as ‘the struggle’, representing their fight for democracy and their stand against the apartheid regime in South Africa at the time.
The album is available Digitally and on Vinyl. The Bandcamp digital version comes with liner notes and interviews.