Mannenberg

"Mannenberg" is a classic of South African marabi-influenced Cape jazz, composed by Abdullah Ibrahim and first recorded in 1974. Released under Ibrahim's former name Dollar Brand on the vinyl album Mannenberg - "Is Where It's Happening" (featuring just two long cuts), the title track is particularly notable for the saxophone solo by Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee, for which he earned his nickname.[1] Inspired by and named after the Cape Flats township of Manenberg (although spelled differently), it was an instant hit and later became identified with the struggle against apartheid, "a beloved anthem of hope and resistance for many South Africans".[2]

Mannenberg - Is Where It's Happening

The producer was Rashid Vally and the recording was made in June 1974 in a studio in Cape Town, "against a backdrop of forced removals as the apartheid government finalised its destruction of District Six and evicted coloured families from homes throughout the city".[2] Asked in an interview how the title came about, Ibrahim said: "Because Basil[3] was from Manenberg and for us Manenberg was just symbolic of the removal out of District Six, which is actually the removal of everybody from everywhere in the world, and Manenberg specifically because… it signifies, it’s our music, and it’s our culture…"[4]

On the 40th anniversary of the album's release, Lindsay Johns wrote in The Spectator:

"...the 13-minute title track is threnodic, passionate and ethereally beautiful.

Like all great music, ‘Mannenberg’ is both specific and universal. Ostensibly an elegy for the forced removal of Coloured people to the wastelands of the Cape Flats, the song has also served as the voice of the oppressed, the marginalised and the poor throughout the world.

Today, it is still a beloved anthem of hope, resistance and resilience and a celebration of human dignity in the face of brutality and evil. We can also hear in those entrancing chords and ebullient Cape jazz rhythms a life-affirming joy and the desire to survive against all odds.

Nowadays, the township of Manenberg may be synonymous with poverty, crime and violence, but Mannenberg the album stands as a musical monument to both a sublime jazz genius and the intrinsic nobility and grandeur of the human spirit."[5]

Personnel

Tracks

Side 1

"Mannenberg" (Abdullah Ibrahim) - 13:36

Side 2

"The Pilgrim" (Abdullah Ibrahim) - 13:00

Other recordings

When the album was first released in the United States its name was changed to Cape Town Fringe. The Mannenberg sessions were subsequently released on Abdullah Ibrahim's Voice of Africa album.[6]

A shorter version of the song, "Mannenberg (Revisited)", appears on his album Water from an Ancient Well, released in 1986.

The album African Tributes by Darius Brubeck & the Nu Jazz Connection features Abdullah Ibrahim's "Mannenberg/The Wedding" as track 4.[7] Other artists to have recorded "Mannenberg" include Jonathan Butler and Joe McBride.

Legacy

The place where "Mannenberg" was recorded is commemorated with an abstract sculpture of seven stainless-steel pipes, mounted outside the building where the original studios were. Designed by electrical engineer Mark O'Donovan (of Odd Enjinears) and performance artist Francois Venter, the pipes have been tuned to correspond to the first seven notes of the melody, and are inscribed with the instruction: "Run a stick along these pipes to hear Mannenberg".[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ "Farewell to a musical legend", Sunday Tribune, 15 March 1998.
  2. 1 2 Sunday Times Heritage Project.
  3. ↑ McDonald, Steven, "Basil Coetzee biography" at Allmusic.
  4. ↑ "I write what I know best" - interview with Abdullah Ibrahim by Sue Valentine, Sunday Times Heritage Project.
  5. ↑ Lindsay Johns, "The song that fought apartheid", The Spectator", 21 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Abdullah Ibrahim - Mannenberg.
  7. ↑ Darius Brubeck, African Tributes, 1995.
  8. ↑ "The Light Bulb Moment: The Artists' Concept", Sunday Times Heritage Project.
  9. ↑ Mannenberg sculpture, Odd Enjinears website.

External links

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