WIT3 // WITCH - "Freedom Fighter" / "Funky Reggae"

Many Zambian bands underwent interesting evolutionary trajectories over the course of the 1970s but nothing matches the radical leap undertaken by WITCH from the bold and progressive Afro-rock of their Janet album in 1977 to their fully fledged boogie outing Movin' On in 1980. These two incarnations of Zambia's most cherished ensemble have been comprehensively documented over the last decade and have attracted distinct legions of Zamrock and disco acolytes. Unreleased until now, the non-album single "Freedom Fighter" (with it's quirky reggae B-side) emerges as the missing link that unites the two WITCH camps, finding the group in Zimbabwe as the new nation came into being and documenting a mercurial period with their sound in the process of shapeshifting.

 

The expanded 1980s lineup of WITCH was interested in exploring the band's potential as a vehicle for modern dance in the vein of Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & The Gang. Joining the existing core of Chris Mbewe on guitar, Gideon Mulenga on bass and Boyd Sinkala on drums were two former bandmates from the group Guys & Dolls in the form of Patrick Mwondela on keyboard and Emmanuel Makulu on guitar. Working alongside founding vocalist Jagari Chanda until his final departure was an additional lead singer named Stanford Tembo, who had cut his teeth a decade earlier fronting a group called Suzie Q. While the band was touring neighbouring Zimbabwe on the cusp of the nation's April 1980 independence celebrations, it was Tembo who introduced "Freedom Fighter" to the WITCH setlist. Resurrecting a composition he had written a couple of years earlier about the political struggle in Mozambique, Tembo recast the lyrics in English as well as Shona, Zimbabwe's most widely spoken language. The track prompted euphoric audience responses and was quickly recorded in Harare to document the historic moment.

 

Drums - Boyd Sinkala (Lead Vocal on "Freedom Fighter")
Guitar - Chris Mbewe (Lead Vocal on "Funky Reggae")
Bass - Gedeon Mulenga
Keyboard - Patrick Mwondela
Guitar - Emmanuel Makulu
Backing Vocals - Shaddick Bwalya

Recorded in Harare, Zimbabwe
Produced by WITCH
"Freedom Fighter" Words & Music by Stanford Tembo
"Funky Reggae" Words & Music by Shaddick Bwalya

Audio Restoration - Neal Birni
Mastering - Morten McCoy
Design & Layout - Ash Pederick
Liner Notes - Calum MacNaughton

Original Zimbabwe Release 1980
2021 Reissue Produced by SHARP-FLAT with Rebel Disko

Edition of 300 Vinyl 7" Single with Numbered Insert
Under License from WITCH
Cat. No. WIT 3

LINER NOTES

DIGITAL SINGLE

SF06 // FREEDOM'S CHILDREN with MALOMBO JAZZ MAKERS - Ourang-Outang

In August 1971, songwriter, producer and engineer David Marks of Third Ear Enterprises presided over a pair of concerts in Johannesburg with the inspired title of Tribal Blues. Marks had earned his chops as an itinerant engineer in North America in 1969, crewing at the legendary Woodstock Festival and John Lennon's Rock & Roll Revival in Toronto. He also brought capital to his nascent independent music label via publishing royalties from his breakout composition "Master Jack," which had been an international hit for Four Jacks and a Jill as well as Trini Lopez in 1968. Tribal Blues assembled the pre-eminent figures of South Africa's folk, rock and jazz underground for a revue of epic cross-cultural collaborations featuring the likes of Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu (who would go on to form Juluka) as well as Freedom's Children with the Malombo Jazz Makers billed as Ourang-Outang.

On the 11th and 12th of August 1971, the recently disbanded white wizards of South Africa's psychedelic rock underground reassembled to share the stage with the black witchdoctors of the Afro-jazz avant-garde at Wits Great Hall. For South Africa, this unlikely alliance of musical druids was akin to Fela Kuti and Ginger Baker joining forces in Lagos the very same year. In the only extant photo of the performances above, Brian Davidson on vocals on stage-left is flanked by guitarists Lucky Ranku and Kenny Henson. On stage-right, songwriter Ramsay Mackay is on bass beside Abe Cindi on flute. Out of the frame, the ensemble is rounded out by Julian Bahula on percussion and Colin Pratley on drums.

Music of the Spirit was the maverick debut release from 3rd Ear in 1971 and was just the approach Julian Bahula's branch of the Malombo franchise needed to document their mercurial sound. Wearing his producer hat, David Marks compiled the LP from a variety of live events and makeshift sessions, providing a raw snapshot of the group in performance that rounded out their more polished studio offerings from the late-60s. Marks had even recorded Freedom's Children with the Malombo Jazz Makers at a rural retreat in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in KwaZulu-Natal in preparation for the Tribal Blues concerts and couldn't resist including a minute-long false start from the session as an amusing coda for Side A. The filler track wasn't listed on the centre label but was given a brief credit on the record sleeve. It was attributed to composer Ramsay Mackay and entitled "Excerpt from Ourang-Outang."

The Freedom's Children with Malombo Jazz Makers recordings from the Valley of a Thousand Hills were edited and distilled onto an album-length reel shaped by Ramsay Mackay's vision of creating an allegorical South African tribal musical entitled Ourang-Outang. The tape was stored in a box scrawled with annotations and accompanied by a skeletal tracklisting. In addition to the "Excerpt" track that made its way onto Music of the Spirit, the recordings provided an outline of the prospective musical, two takes of it's catchy main theme and some outstanding jamming. As fate would have it, after the Tribal Blues shows the idea was shelved and eventually abandoned. The Ourang-Outang theme took on a life of its own through the 1970s via a trail of cover versions by Joburg Hawk, Kenny Henson's Harambee, Finch & Henson, Margaret Singana and even disco divas Joy of "Paradise Road" fame. As for the original Ourang-Outang tape, it was archived for almost 50 years but not completely forgotten.

In partnership with 3rd Ear Music's Hidden Years Music Archive Project and Ramsay Mackay, SHARP-FLAT presents "Ourang-Outang" in which Freedom's Children meet Malombo Jazz Makers in the Valley of a Thousand Hills.

The unfinished Tribal Musical of Ramsay Mackay performed by:

Brian Davidson - Vocals

Lucky Ranku - Guitar

Kenny Henson - Guitar

Ramsay Mackay - Bass • Vocals

Abe Cindi - Sax • Clarinet

Julian Bahula - Congas • Mbira

Colin Pratley - Drums

(Personnel as credited on the Tribal Blues concert programme)

Audio Recording by David Marks for 3rd Ear Music

Tapes Transfers by Warrick Sony & Pakama Ncume

With Support from Lizabé Lambrechts for HYMAP

Audio Editing & Mastering by Richard Vossgatter & Jason Connoy

Album Artwork by Ramsay Mackay

Artwork Scans by Henry Dennis

Design Layout by Rouleaux van der Merwe

Produced for SHARP-FLAT by Calum MacNaughton

 

Recorded July 1971 • Released November 2020

Edition of 300 Vinyl LP with Deluxe Tip-On Sleeve

Distributed by Strawberry Rain Music (CAN)

DIGITAL ALBUM

HILTON SCHILDER // Cape Gypsy

“I’m totally into music as a composer. It’s my whole life. It’s my philosophy. It’s my religion. I started composing very young and the compositions have grown until now. Actually, it’s all just one long composition.” - Hilton Schilder

It’s the opening sequence of the 2011 Cape Town music documentary Mama Goema. A camera glides through the streets of Bridgetown and comes to rest at the home of composer Mac McKenzie. Music score in hand, McKenzie hums the opening bars of an orchestral work he has just completed. Cut to Hilton Schilder playing a guitar at his home in Ottery. “We normally play a guitar like this,” he demonstrates with a flourish of notes. “But what’s wrong with doing it like this?” He flips the guitar on its back, hammers on the neck with his fingers and a whoosh of unfamiliar sound pours from the instrument. McKenzie (bass and vocals) and Schilder (piano and vocals) were the songwriters of the Genuines, a band that yielded three albums of some of Cape Town’s most ambitious rock and jazz in the company of drumming titan Ian Herman and electric guitar wizard Gerard O’Brien between 1986 and 1993.The dichotomy of the group’s creative core plays out in the Mama Goema documentary as we follow McKenzie’s telescopic trajectory through rock and jazz into the hallowed realm of classical. In contrast, Schilder’s narrative is that of a gypsy, bleeding into the fabric of Cape Town’s music underworld and emerging in a variety of guises as composer, collaborator, bandleader and soloist.

Hilton Schilder’s narrative is rooted in heritage. “I come from a huge family of musicians. We are one of the biggest musical families in the world and I’m the sixth or seventh generation. I started playing at the age of three. I’ve done nothing else all these years. Draw and compose, that’s what I do.” Born in 1959 to revered jazz pianist Tony Schilder (1937-2010) and nephew of Chris Schilder of 1970s jazz fusion supergroup Pacific Express, Schilder was exposed to music as a lifestyle from an early age. “As a child there were always musicians in the house. Winston Mankunku and my uncle, to name a few. Piano players, bassists and guitarists.” Forged in the fiery cauldron of mid-80s South Africa, the Genuines provided an outlet for his distinct approach to composition. The group’s tenure with the independent Shifty Records label spawned a handful of memorable Schilder compositions that included “Narrow Escape” in 1986, a menacing account of a drunken bar scene in which a sinister voice of conscience chastises Schilder for provoking a fight with a group of bikers. “Ou Kleine Jannie” on the group’s sophomore album, Mr. Mac & The Genuines, wears a frivolous goema mask while recounting the story of an abused farm labourer moved to murderous retribution.

The Genuines then immersed themselves in the Cape Jazz sound brewed by Mountain Records in the 1990s. The instrumental “Wie is Frank?” from Nights with the Cape Gypsies was written for a friend but could easily be taken for a homage to Frank Zappa in its glorious, unpredictable, angular peculiarity. To say that Schilder ‘penned’ the moving sound-portrait “Khoisan Symphony” for saxophonist Robbie Jansen’s classic Cape Doctor album in 2000 is a misnomer as his compositions are not written. An instinctive, self-taught musician, Schilder carries his songbook around in his head. The act of creation is akin to channelling and Schilder’s muses inhabit an etheric cloud that manifests elusively. His first solo release, No Turning Back, saw him use the Khoisan mouth-bow in “Email to the Ancestors” to great effect. “I’ve got an interesting history with this instrument,” he explains. “I was playing it for about 10 years and I kept hearing this voice, a name in my ear. It took me about 5 or 6 years to find out who it was. He’s a shaman and he played the bow and I feel that I’ve got some of his spirit in me.”

The early-2000s reunited Schilder with McKenzie in the Goema Captains, which saw the recording of the timeless document Healing Destination with a cast of Cape Town’s finest during the Wondergigs concert series in Sea Point. The ensemble featured trumpeter Alex van Heerden (1974-2009), who harboured a penchant for electronic arrangements and went on to partner with Schilder as RockArt, producing the compelling electronic release Future Cape in 2006. Shifting shape once again, 2009 saw Schilder teaming up with South African music stalwarts Errol Dyers and Steve Newman in the acoustic trio All In One to create sonic tapestries with influences as varied as rumba, tango, maskanda and goema.

In 2010, Hilton Schilder fought cancer and lost a kidney in the process. While in hospital, he heard what would become the composition “Rebirth” during a morphine-induced lucid dream. Waking up bedridden and without access to an instrument, he memorised what he could recall of the piece by moving his fingers over the mental projection of a piano keyboard on the ceiling. “Rebirth” is a spiritual masterwork by a seasoned musician at the height of his powers - a sonic journey of sweeping light and shade that is both personal and universal in the depths it traverses.

“Rebirth” has been issued over two sides of a vinyl 7-inch single in a sleeve featuring Schilder’s hallucinatory ink drawings. The composition is part of a solo-piano album that includes two works from an ever-evolving song-cycle dedicated to Schilder’s wife Tesna. “Birsigstrasse 90” was composed at the song’s namesake address in Basel, Switzerland. “The Art of Flying” is inspired by the Rukma Vimana, a mythological flying palace described in ancient Hindu texts. Hilton Schilder’s journey to optimal health shapes his present lifestyle and is spurring a new wave of creativity. He became a proud grandfather to Aiden Ryan Schilder earlier this year.

Originally Published in The Lake #007 in December 2015
Written by Calum MacNaughton

Photography by Franziska Anastasia Lentes