The Sama committee has made a brave start on removing the most obvious apartheid-era absurdities, but they still have a way to go, says Gwen Ansell
We’re still prisoners of our history. Nowhere is that clearer than in the categories that constrain the South African Music Awards (Sama).
The South African music scene was never what the old authorities thought it?was. Since the early years of the 20th century, people of colour in the cities have been listening to, and making, music that crossed the white-defined ”tribal” categories and embraced both ”modern” and ”traditional” instrumentation and styles. That’s one of the wellsprings of?the richness of our scene.
During apartheid, Radio Bantu (with the collusion of some record labels) tried to restore an artificial separateness. It didn’t work. Since liberation, the reach of radio has meant that even in the deepest rural areas’ although there is still a preference for songs in a?familiar language village kids in Venda sing kwaito songs in iscam’tho and?Zulu-speaking patriarchs dig jazz.
So while language may be one valid way to divide award categories, it is not the only way. We have, for example, best Zulu music, best maskandi album?and best mbaqanga album (where most of the entries are in Zulu). Somewhere in this confusion, we have Shaluza Max’s Kusela (best Zulu).
Yes, the lyrics are sung in Zulu, but the socially aware lyrical content and the dominance of Johnny Chonco’s guitar style, however, might place it in?either maskandi or mbaqanga categories.?But South Africa has now entered the international music marketing world.
Perhaps Kusela doesn’t belong in any of these categories, but rather in best African popular music alongside Kampi Moto and George Phiri’s Acha?Msimango and Vusi Mahlasela’s Miyela Afrika as well as Brenda Fassie, Ringo Madlingozi,?Bayete and the rest who are already there? Go figure.
Nowhere is this categorical confusion clearer than in the division between South African traditional jazz and contemporary jazz. One might expect?the former category to mean the musical family of marabi. None of the nominations include music that is centrally in this style.
Sylvia Mdunyelwa’s album a splendid survey of South African jazz vocal styles including the most traditional is nominated in the best contemporary jazz album category. Among the ”traditional” nominations are Zim Ngqawana’s Ingoma one of the most experimental releases last year and Marcus Wyatt’s Gathering, which, if it’s traditional anything, is traditional hardnn bop.?
And where is the Moss Mogale Unit, which produced the best example this year of new music in our distinctive jazz tradition?
”Contemporary” either means ”smooth” or it doesn’t. If it does, what is Mdunyelwa doing in there? If it does not, why is the bland, radio-formula milkshake of ”Smooth Africa” featured? Why aren’t Ngqawana, Wyatt and Carlo Mombelli nominated in this category, or for that matter the Louis Mhlanga/Eric van der Westen duo or Jonathan Crossley? All of these reflect what the?rest of the world considers contemporary (as opposed to adult contemporary)?jazz.
We need a new category called ”best adult contemporary: jazz” where the smooth, P4-style stuff can go. There, the label ”jazz” might be less offensive. We need to use the South African traditional category for jazz roots: marabi, mbaqanga-jazz and their grandchildren. That would free up the?contemporary category for what it should be showcasing: original composition, experimental arrangement and exciting solos.
And how about a few more new categories that cross languages and genres, for?example, ”best composer”? Composition is far more important than, for example, packaging and videos, which do have their own prizes.
Isn’t it also about time we acknowledged the Eurocentrism of the prize labels? We have ”pop” and then ”African pop”. The implication is that ”pop” is the general mainstream, ”African pop” a sub-division. Yet most music fans?in this country are people of colour. ”Pop”, as currently categorised, is?the minority music. Again, go figure.
I won’t be placing bets this year except that even the people nnwho get awards, may well nnnget the wrong ones. nnArtslink.co.za
The South African Music Awards will be held on April 5 at the Sandton Convention Centre