SOVETO SOUTH AFRICA

By the 1930s, the Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown had grown into a vibrant and vital hub for black urban culture. It was here that the cyclic sounds of marabi and big band swing had fused to create the progressive foundations of African jazz, and where flamboyant but dangerous sharp-suited gangs with names like The Americans and The Russians ruled the dance. As Gwen Ansell explains in her essential book Soweto Blues, when Drum magazine asked its readers what they wanted the answer was: “Give us jazz and film stars man! We want Duke, Satchmo and hot dames. Yes brother, anything American. You can cut out this junk about kraals and folk tales and Basutos in blankets.”

read and listen more..