South African urban popular music style. During the late 1960s the vocal stream of the South African township style Mbaqanga, characterized by female close-harmony vocals, became known as mqashiyo. Later, all-male variants were called vocal mbaqanga. Mqashiyo evolved from the 1950s vocal jive of Dorothy Masuka and close-harmony groups such as the Skylarks led by Miriam Makeba. The pioneers of the new style in the early 1960s were the Dark City Sisters, who established the use of five- rather than four-part harmonies. By 1965, with driving straight rhythms and electric backing, mqashiyo was exhibiting the same musical characteristics as instrumental mbaqanga. Particularly characteristic of mature mqashiyo is the contrast between close harmony female vocals and the deep, hoarse ‘groaning’ style popularized by Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde. This was best exemplified by Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens accompanied by the Makhona Tsohle Band. Other top vocal mbaqanga groups included the female Amatshitshi and Izintombi Zesi Manje Manje and the male Abafana Baseqhudeni and Boyoyo Boys.
For recording purposes the personnel of mqashiyo groups was fluid. Within each studio the same ensemble of singers recorded as several different groups, each group name generally being associated with a specific lead vocalist. Exact membership was only stabilized for live performances. Like mbaqanga, mqashiyo is a pan-ethnic urban style produced for ordinary township dwellers. The lyrics (commonly in Isizulu, Isixhosa, Setswana and Sesotho) tend to carry a didactic message or reflect circumstances commonly experienced by mqashiyo artists and audiences. From 1975 the Soul Brothers revived the flagging vocal mbaqanga market with a distinctive soul-mbaqanga amalgam characterized by quavering two-part vocals, electric organ and, later, synthesizers.
The Dark City Sisters and the Flying Jazz Queens, Earthworks/Virgin 839182-2
The Lion Roars, perf. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, Shanachie 43081
R. Allingham: ‘Township Jive: From Pennywhistle to Bubblegum: the Music of South Africa’, World Music: the Rough Guide, ed. S. Broughton and others (London, 1994), 379–82, 386
Ezinkulu: the Best of the Soul Brothers, Gallo Music CDGMP 1040, 1996
LARA ALLEN