Phuzushukela biography of michael

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Male musicians often take center stage, showcasing their skills on instruments like the guitar and concertina. Oh, they were very good. His lyrics were always to the point. Bhengu claimed to have originated the finger-picking style though some accounts have it that he “copied the style after hearing it in a Durban beer hall frequented by a group of amateur musicians from the Umkomaas district.”(Allingham)

On a visit to Johannesburg around 1955, Bhengu met producer Cuthbert Mathumba and recorded his first tune Ilanga Libalela("The Blazing Sun") with Troubadour Records (David Coplan).

Note that the speakers use the terms maskanda and maskandi pretty much interchangeably. People fell in love with it overseas. It connects generations and keeps traditions alive.

Overall, the evolution of Maskandi shows how it adapts to modern society while still holding onto its rich heritage.

They played a little bit on SAFM, which is like a black middle-class radio station. But they disappeared quite quickly, and so with production, the style got orchestrated into ensembles in emulation of mqashiyo, a style of mbaqanga that followed the jazz era in the 1960s.

Phuzushukela (1930-1982)

Mqashiyo was kind of hot in the early '60s when the likes of Phuzushukela—that's the earliest maskandi guitarist—were discovered. His real name was John Bengu.

He is an entrepreneur.

The songs often reflect the daily lives, struggles, and joys of the Zulu people. Because most of the people, even our people in the rural areas, they didn't like it. They didn't like it. It doesn't have that.

This is where it becomes tricky, because you can't really tell other people from other cultures what you think is happening with their music.

So I would say there is still the roots music, music that is not entirely motivated by some commercial intention.

But honestly, in my everyday experience, I don't come across maskanda musicians like you used to. They don't like it." It's like you have superimposed one thing on the other. If you are going to stop them doing that, you're going to be killing their creativity.” They really listened to me and they let it go.

Then Stimela [the late guitarist/singer Ray Phiri’s band] came up and they also did that.

I remember in 1982 in August, we had two artists got the gold disk for the first time. And the song made them to dub me "The People's Voice," because I sing about the plight of the people in the rural areas, how they are struggling.”

Unfortunately, in 2018, Phuzekhemisi got caught up in the violence surrounding maskanda, and has faced a charge of murder.]

Maskanda’s Messages

Maskandi have never been overly political in their texts.

Don't mix with other languages like English and all that." And I said, "We've made a research, and we are following the trends. So they sang in Zulu and it got categorized as maskanda. West Nkosi and his contemporaries' producers were responsible for this, and it was very much embraced by the early ethnic radio.