May 15, 2003
By Lucille Davie
IF you're feeling like a nostalgic night out, with lots of 1950s' swirling skirts and stiff petticoats, slim waists, two-tone shoes, big smiles and great jazz sounds, head off to Sof'Town, A Celebration! at the Rand Afrikaans Universiteit's Sanlam Auditorium.
The swirling skirts and slim waists belong to The RAU Song & Dance Company; the jazz sounds belong to the third-generation African Jazz Pioneers. And, a big bonus, the great voice belongs to the one of the country's most superb singers and a product of Sophiatown, Dolly Rathebe.
The show opens with the 10-piece African Jazz Pioneers walking casually on stage, but once their marvellous music is echoing around the Auditorium, it's clear there's nothing casual in their attitude to their music. Founded in the 1950s by saxophonist Ntemi Piliso, the present band members were largely trained by Piliso, who died in 2000 at the age of 75.
Looking cool in black trousers, white shirts, braces and a range of different headgear, the Pioneers make their way through a foot-stomping programme, including classics like Sip n Fly, Amagama Aphelile, Emalangeni (Jail), Ten-Ten Special and Kofifi. They combine traditional big band jazz with marabi sounds and confirm the band's excellent reputation built up over the years.
Some songs are led by band leader Khanya Ceza, whose elastic knees and gyrating hips have the audience whistling and cheering, and most numbers have the dance troupe come bouncing onto the stage, going through a range of numbers with grace, energy and enthusiasm.
The mood of Sophiatown is captured on stage with a set of large blown-up Jurgen Schadeberg photographs, taken for Drum magazine in the 1950s, lining the upper part of the back wall. Below the famous and familiar photographs is a wall of iron sheets, setting the scene of the ghetto suburb of Sophiatown.
And then, legend and diva extraordinaire Dolly Rathebe walked on stage. Now 75, she has lost none of her warmth and charm, and her voice still has its rich, golden quality. She sang Randfontein, the story of a drunk miner returning home to find his wife in bed with another man, who is then beaten and chased out.
Rathebe was born in Randfontein (west of Krugersdorp) but grew up in Sophiatown which she describes as having been "a wonderful place". She was discovered around 1948 after singing at a picnic in Johannesburg. A talent scout from Gallo approached her and it wasn't long before she become a star.
After Sophiatown was flattened in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Rathebe found it more and more difficult to perform, especially after an 8pm curfew was imposed. She moved with her family to Cape Town, and to survive, ran a shebeen for many years.
She re-established herself as a singer in the 1990s, singing again with the Elite Swingsters, whom she played the nightclub rounds with in the 1950s and '60s. She says she "bears no grudge" towards the police who harassed her while singing and running her shebeen. In fact, she says she is "having the last laugh".
A fun feature of the show was the appearance in several songs of two awkward South African Police constables, in their oversized dirty-blue, short-sleeved safari suits and caps. They poked about among the dancers, looking for trouble, but usually joined in the dancing, looking slightly out of step but drawing laughs from the audience.
The audience were told before the show began that if they wanted to dance along to the songs, not to consider getting on to the stage, but rather stand at their chairs. It's quite easy to enjoy the music, swing the hips and clap while standing at your chair. Lots of people did it.
