Following are the liner notes from the CD
Johnny Clegg & Sipho Mchunu (Duo Juluka)/
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Cologne Zulu Festival
©1992 Network Medien GmbH
Background Notes on Juluka and Ladysmith Black Mambazo
These recordings are nothing less than historic, documenting the very first time either of these groups have ever appeared outside their native south Africa. The title "Ngwaka Nyambe Nkonyane" (track 18), by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, recorded live in Johannesburg on 16th January 1977, is also the first radio recording they ever made. Also featured here are recordings made in 1981 in Cologne, organized by South African composer Kevin Volans, whose work "Mbira", inspired by the traditional music of the Shona, was recorded for the very first time by the WDR (West German Radio and Television Network), and published under the title "Traditional Mbira Musicians & Kevin Volans Ensemble: Mbira" in this series. A copy of the Cologne concert, obtained by American popstar Paul Simon via the BBC, made such an impression on him that he decided, then and there, to one day record with the Ladysmith Black Mambazo Zulu choir. This collaboration was later made possible by Juluka's producer, Hilton Rosenthal.
Johnny Clegg & Sipho Mchunu (Duo Juluka)
If there is one artist in South Africa symbolizing the positive utopia of a freely integrated society, it has to be Johnny Clegg. His broad cultural knowledge, mastery of the language, the dances, compositional techniques and guitar styles of the Zulu, make him a living example of what can still be achieved by a white person, in spite of apartheid, and what could even be possible without it. At home in both cultures, Clegg has, in recent years, achieved great popularity in Europe and the USA, which he continually uses as a platform to provoke fundamental political change in South Africa. The story of his life which, at the age of sixteen, became inextricably linked with that of Sipho Mchunu, is quite unique.
Jonathan Clegg was born on 7th June, 1953 not far from Manchester, England. His mother's parents were Jewish immigrants of Lithuanian Polish origin, who settled as farmers in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), where his mother was born. His father was a Royal Air Force pilot. At the end of 1953, his mother returned to Rhodesia with Jonathan, where he grew up on his grandparents' farm in the bush. The first language he learned was Ndebele. Ndebele has certain similarities with the Zulu language and this linguistic facility was later to make life somewhat easier for him. He is still fascinated by the traditional music of the farm labourers.
Some years later, when his mother was working as a nightclub singer in Johannesburg, Johnny Clegg became more interested in the street music of the Zulus than the popular music of the whites. At fourteen, he met Charlie Mzale, from Kwazulu, who had got a job in the big city as a janitor, and his life immediately took a new turn. "One evening my mother sent me out to do some shopping and I met Charlie, playing guitar on the corner. His skill was so amazing, I just asked him right out if he would be my teacher." Mzale taught him the rudiments of Zulu guitar playing and introduced him to the migrant workers' hostels. This was where he had his first confrontations with the police. They were always arresting youths, who overstepped the apartheid laws and would only release them on bail. "My mother must have spent all her housekeeping money on my bail," he was later to recall. Be that as it may, Clegg discovered a whole new universe. "The hostel really came to life at weekends. That's when everybody would drink huge quantities of alcohol, listen to music, dance and fight. On Sundays there were contests between various Zulu dance teams." Charlie also taught him the basic steps of the isibhaca-dance. Before long, Clegg had joined one of the hostels' dance teams and even took part in the contests. During this time, his mother enrolled him in a Zulu language course at the University of Johannesburg.
In 1970, when he was sixteen Johnny Clegg got to know Sipho Mchunu. It was the beginning of a friendship otherwise inconceivable in a land under apartheid. "One day there was this young Zulu sitting in front of our house and he asked if I was 'Big Ears' (that was my Zulu name). He'd heard that there was a young white who played Zulu music and he didn't believe it. We played some songs for each other and his talent just fascinated me." Indeed, Sipho Mchunu is not merely content to play adaptations of traditional material, but prefers to compose his own songs and music. That was the start of a team that was to work together for the next fifteen years.
Last and twenty-third child of a herbal healer with six wives, Sipho Mchunu was born in 1951 in Kranskop, Natal. He grew up as a herdsman, never having attended school, but trained by his father and steeped in Zulu tradition. Sipho Mchunu was only ten years old when his father died, but already he possessed a great knowledge of the old traditions and a deep fascination for music. Like many other young Zulus, his very first instrument was self-made: a three-stringed guitar, made out of a petrol can. He left home when he was fourteen and worked for two years in Durban, before moving on to Jo'burg, where he found a job as a gardener in a rich (white) suburb.
Street music virtuoso, Mchunu took over the further training of umzulu onhlophe (white Zulu), initiating him into Zulu stick fighting, traditional herbal medicine and the urban slang of the Zulu. More than that, he taught him how to compose songs in Zulu. The language has strict rules; even the shortest phrase has its own particular rhythm, which must be observed.
For the next six years they played street music together, performing in hostels and clubs throughout the city, the surrounding suburbs and Soweto. Occasionally they would have the chance to appear before audiences of mixed races on the university campus. During this time, while Clegg was studying political science and anthropology, Mchunu was learning how to read and write at night school. At the end of the 70's, Clegg completed his studies and took a teaching post at the University of Witwatersrand, only to resign in 1982, when he decided to devote his life to making music.
In 1976, a few months before the Soweto student uprising, they were already so locally know that they decided to go into a studio and record four singles. These are the first recordings of traditional Zulu music ever released on the EMI-Brigadier label. One of the songs, "Woza Friday" became a hit with the migrant workers but the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) still refused to give the singles any air play. An absurd explanation for the boycott was given by one of the white programme directors: "Zulu music played by a white could only offend the blacks." But it was just such an audience who accorded the band such praise, e.g. in Soweto's Orlando Stadium.
In 1979, under the name Juluka the Zulu word for "sweat" Clegg and Mchunu got together with session musicians from the band Spirits Rejoice (later to become the fusion band Sakhile) to record the album Universal Men. Their music was still very much focused on Zulu street music, but they had already combined this with accents from European folk and American pop. This mixture, continually adapting with the ever more numerous influences coming from international pop music, was Juluka's trademark, even making the band popular in white middle class circles. These recordings take us back, letting us hear how their street music used to sound years ago.
Juluka disbanded in 1985. Sipho Mchunu returned to his Natal homeland, to go back to farming: "That was my goal. Being a farmer makes me feel at home and closer to my culture." Johnny Clegg founded a new band Savuka and devoted himself to an international career, subsequently becoming a star, whose albums have sold millions all over the world.
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