Description
Release Date Friday 31st May 2024
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day
Madala Kunene (better known to his friends as Bafo) blends Zulu folk
with township blues to produce a unique hybrid and contemporary music
he calls "Madala-line"
Apart from his own colourful life- experiences Madala often uses traditional
songs, nursery rhymes and lullabies as the basis for his material. His highly
spiritual music is guided by the mood, moment and the experience he brings to
his playing. Most compositions are inspired by dreams and messages from the
ancestral realm as well as the teachings of Zulu culture and folklore.
Madala's music has been researched and taught by musicologists as a course
material in music studies. In May 2023 Madala was awarded an honorary Doctor
of Music degree by the University of KwaZulu- Natal for his contribution to the
development of indigenous music and his contribution to the music of Africa and
that of the world. Madala Kunene was born in 1951 in Cato Manor, a vibrant
mixed community in the harbor city of Durban, South Africa.
The son of a carpenter, Kunene was raised by his grandmother - a staunch
academic who wanted him to be something of a bookworm. He started busking
on Durban's beachfront at the age of 7 making his frst guitar out of a cooking oil
tin and fsh gut for the strings. It was friends such as the late guitarist Sandile
Shange who encouraged him to take guitar playing much more seriously. At the
age of eight, in the year 1959, Kunene and some members of his extended family
were trucked off by the Apartheid government to go live in the then relatively new
township of KwaMashu. In very little time he had become the hottest guitar player
and was discovered by the late Sakhile leader and bassist Sipho Gumede. Madala
started to share the stage with such luminaries as Doc Mthalane, Mankunku
Ngozi and Busi Mhlongo.
Madala Kunene's debut album was produced in 1990 by Sipho Gumede for David
Marks label 3rd Ear Music and released on Vinyl and Cassettes. 30 years later the
album was re-released digitally and now you are holding the frst Vinyl re-release
in your hands.
Tracks: U-Gongo Amayeni Wemama / Vumela Abaphani (Song of Happiness) /
Ku-Khon Othwele / U-Ncede / Abangoma / Sanibonani / U-Mata-Gota-Fri 123
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