Amazing cant believe that's my grandpa blowing the saxophone August Machona Musarurwa you were a man of great talent! Gone but not forgotten. So many copies of this song but the original was the best...thanks for sharing just made my day!
Roselyn Musarurwa-Charehwa wow how awesome 😊😊that's my grandpa too talent right there!! My mum is Tamare Musarurwa😊Take care my dear and stay blessed!💖💖💕
I used to work with Msagurgwa Mac in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Head Office in 1970, and wonder if he was your relation, despite the slightly different spelling?
May she rest. But this was an African (negroe) band which had no musical education. Thus, the Rhodies used to call it compromisations, not compositions
@@tichafarabepe9978That was pure foolishness and a lack of understanding that music comes naturally to Africans. We don't need to write music to be able to play. Strange that in 100 years not one Rhodesian white star was bigger than Musarurwa
I learned this song from the 78 when I was five years old in the Bronx. All my adult life, I thought it was about Skokie, IL. I love South African music and just found out tonight (70 years later) that it's a South African song! How cool is that??!!
The greatest insult one can lay upon us Zimbabwean people is calling something of ours South African. This is a Zimbabwean gem. The South Africans have done their renditions , much like Armstrong did, but it remains ours.
when i visited south africa, about ten years ago, there was a tv show that featured a street musician who said his band used to get arrested, brought down to the police station, and 'forced' to play skokian for up to six hours.
I cannot thank you enough for this upload. My grandfather heard this exact recording for the first (and only) time when it was re-released in 1953. He remembered it exactly and was thrilled that I was able to find it here. I was quite supprised that he was also able to sing along with the words that the Bulawayo Sweet Rythm Band added to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". We just love the overall sound of this group. They have such a pretty, happy sound.
My parents had this 78 rpm, when I was a little kid. I would dance around to it all the time. I only found out, today, that it had South African roots. It’s amazing because my daughter is in South Africa, right now. This song brings back such memories!
Distributed by a south African label but the song is not a Zulu traditional song, it's a song performed, composed and arranged by a Zimbabwean musician / saxophonist called August Musarurwa
Augustine Musarurwa is the composer of this beautiful melody...born and bred in what is now known as Zimbabwe, Musarurwa made a bit of fortune and gained world-wide fame. ..so that is what my late uncle told me
Some comments are doubtful about the date of this music from Bulawayo. I believe the original was done by the African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia in Bulawayo in 1947, my birth year. It seems they may have reformed as the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms some time later and did this label in South Africa (probably early 1950s) where it spread to the world, and I believe I remember them playing it at the Grand Hotel in Bulawayo in the mid '50s. You did not need to get drunk on skokiaan to be intoxicated by this music! I think it may also have been the genesis of Southern Africa's famous "kwela" music played on the pennywhistle which influenced a lot of jazz minds, including Paul Simon. Also, its roots to a Zulu drinking song would be fairly nebulous as the writer was a Shona in Rhodesia, but his musical band probably comprised several Ndebele people whose origins were Zulu. All that aside, those notes transcend time!
Actually this song was composed by one of my relatives who was a shona individual who just so happen to live in the Ndebele part of Zimbabwe (The Rhodesia). The song is based upon a shona beverage called Chikokiana Translated to skokiaan in Ndebele not Zulu. Their band was called Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band Enjoy the music guys.
I LOVE this! I was listening to your Bell Hawaiian records and this got cued up. So glad I gave it a play! (but now I have to listen to all by this Sweet Rhythm Band....
A fellow lost his storage and had to get rid of them. He bought them about 7 years ago and just couldn't find the time to do anything with them. Bought them all for $160. Yesterday, I bought 21 old plastic milk crates to haul them home in. I'm fairly dazzled by this group. Lots of really great stuff. 2 car loads of records. Got 8 'JAZZ RECORD' label 78s with Art Hodes (my first). Several Paul Whiteman with Jack Teagarden. Album of Eastern European by Ruth Rubin on DISC label. Cool!
It's from Zimbabwe ( Rhodesia ) originally, notice on the label it says " Shona Dance" The Shona are a people , they are not Zulu , but the title is in the Ndebele language of S. Zimbabwe. The tune was written by August Musarurwa ,and the original recording from there inspired many covers in S.A.
I like the original better than all of them. Because this guys created this with soul, understanding and relation. The others are just people copying and creating their own fun version without any connections to the music.
I had a 45RPM disk with this song on it, had no idea what the title meant (for the first year or so, I thought its title was "Saskatchewan"). This recording certainly beats out the U.S. cover version that I heard as a child, but then, South Africa is famous as a source of some of the most beautiful music on Earth. Maybe, like Ireland and the southern U.S., South Africa is a source of exquisite music because of the great suffering of its people.
Louis Armstrong was here in Zim, Rhodesia at the time on tour. That is when he met Musarurwa and had resolved to take him to the US. Apparently Musarurwa's family wouldn't let him leave, so Armstrong returned to the states and took the song for himself!
@tadz you sound like one of the Musarurwa? You have correct information about my grandfather. My dad said the year my grandmother passed is when they were supposed to leave for the US. He was a legend indeed.
@@roselynmusarurwa-charehwa1793 lol..I am not a Musarurwa but I am a very enthusiastic researcher in Zimbabwean music, and I was very fortunate to have a lot of Zimbabwean musical history passed on to me by my father who also did much research
Please tell me somebody the role of August(ine) Musarurwa in this number. I have been told that Musarurwa composed it and Armstrong became aware of it on his visit to the then Rhodesia in 1960. This must be one of the best tunes out of Zimbabwe.
This is true. It's the most covered song in Zim history. They performed together and Louis was going to take August with him on tour to the US but eventually August had to stay due to family commitments in line with the Shona culture
Louis Armstrong was here in Zim, Rhodesia at the time on tour. That is when he met Musarurwa and had resolved to take him with him to the US. Apparently Musarurwas family wouldnt let him leave, so Armstrong returned to the ststes and took the song for himself.
It has a similar amount of sax and horn, about 2:30 worth....just busted up in the middle by Armstrong's vocal. I edited that out, and it works very well.
Thanks for the kind words. I attempted to post the Armstrong version of this tune but the copyright folks disabled it. Too bad. Though I see other YT people have the Armstrong version up. ??
Wow! That wasn't too bad at all. Congrats for finding it. I must admit I like Louis Armstrong's version best, but I also love the vid of the Carling Family doing "Skokianne". Have a listen, it's pretty good.
This is fabulous! Reminds me of The Mound City Blues Blowers (look them up). Sidney Bechet should have recorded this. Louis Armstrong certainly did - and a rather inferior version too. I seem to recall Johnny Hodges also covered it and rather well.
Imagine a DJ at the time this was released said "This is the end of music as we know it"(not an exact quote. He hosted "The Make Believe Ballroom" personally I thoght this was a great piece of music.
Amazing cant believe that's my grandpa blowing the saxophone August Machona Musarurwa you were a man of great talent! Gone but not forgotten. So many copies of this song but the original was the best...thanks for sharing just made my day!
Lovely
wow.
Roselyn Musarurwa-Charehwa wow how awesome 😊😊that's my grandpa too talent right there!! My mum is Tamare Musarurwa😊Take care my dear and stay blessed!💖💖💕
I used to work with Msagurgwa Mac in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Head Office in 1970, and wonder if he was your relation, despite the slightly different spelling?
I am reliably informed that he loved his whisky and cigars too!
These old songs leaves me shading tears 😭. I'll continue checking the likes over this comment.2024
This is Zimbabwe's greatest musical export to the world! No other song from kumusha took the world as the CSC band did on this august composition!
This is excellent history of the Brilliant Zimbabwe music. Amazing. I am so proud my mother (Music Teacher) was buried there in 1965.
May she rest. But this was an African (negroe) band which had no musical education. Thus, the Rhodies used to call it compromisations, not compositions
@@tichafarabepe9978That was pure foolishness and a lack of understanding that music comes naturally to Africans. We don't need to write music to be able to play. Strange that in 100 years not one Rhodesian white star was bigger than Musarurwa
March 2023 still listening to this gem.
This is the happiest music you will hear if you look all month!
I learned this song from the 78 when I was five years old in the Bronx. All my adult life, I thought it was about Skokie, IL. I love South African music and just found out tonight (70 years later) that it's a South African song! How cool is that??!!
Zimbabwean musician called August Musarurwa ..not South African!
it's a Zimbabwean song
The greatest insult one can lay upon us Zimbabwean people is calling something of ours South African. This is a Zimbabwean gem. The South Africans have done their renditions , much like Armstrong did, but it remains ours.
It is NOT South African, it is Zimbabwean -- Southern Rhodesia at the time of recording.
This is not South African song. The word skokiaan (type of beer) though im not sure whether its Zim or SA origin.
God bless you who made that that MARVELLOUS thing on line !
So proud of this Zimbabwean classic. God bless Zimbabwe
Pure happiness from the past................... So cool
Wow! I haven't heard this for at least 60 years. So much better than the other covers. . .
when i visited south africa, about ten years ago, there was a tv show that featured a street musician who said his band used to get arrested, brought down to the police station, and 'forced' to play skokian for up to six hours.
David Weinstock damn, those cops party hard.💯
New meaning to the phrase "command performance".
Glad these records found a new home who will take care of them, and play em for us. Thanks YOU !
This is great - can't believe you stumbled across this, I haven't heard this version since I was a kid running barefoot back in Bulawayo in the 60s.
my third ear keeps me listening to the great Spokes over and over again. Thanks Spokes. RIP
That recording got to Santa Cruz in my junior high school days. Never sounded better, and certainly thumps all the covers. Thanks.
OMG! My parents had this on a 78, it got lost somewhere. the flip side is in The Mood. Totally classic!
Wonderful! I remember we had to dance to this with our bums sticking out and straight legs as we went around the room!
I had this record when I was 13 and played it till it was worn out. Thanks for a trip back to my youth !
Great listening to the raw version of this piece
If raw means original then I must agree with you 😊
@@Prof_TadGood comment
I cannot thank you enough for this upload. My grandfather heard this exact recording for the first (and only) time when it was re-released in 1953. He remembered it exactly and was thrilled that I was able to find it here. I was quite supprised that he was also able to sing along with the words that the Bulawayo Sweet Rythm Band added to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". We just love the overall sound of this group. They have such a pretty, happy sound.
My parents had this 78 rpm, when I was a little kid. I would dance around to it all the time. I only found out, today,
that it had South African roots. It’s amazing because my daughter is in South Africa, right now.
This song brings back such memories!
Distributed by a south African label but the song is not a Zulu traditional song, it's a song performed, composed and arranged by a Zimbabwean musician / saxophonist called August Musarurwa
This made my day. So brilliant👏 👏 . Maoko vakomana nemhandara. It was way before my time but up in my favorites.
Great Music. Quite nostalgic.
Un bonheur ! Ca swingue, ca bouge ! A écouter et réécouter !
Augustine Musarurwa is the composer of this beautiful melody...born and bred in what is now known as Zimbabwe, Musarurwa made a bit of fortune and gained world-wide fame. ..so that is what my late uncle told me
One of the great tunes from my adolescence; you could just never get enough of this.
Certainly one of the greatest.
This song always gives me a smile
Wonderful... happy memories of my childhood in Africa!
Some comments are doubtful about the date of this music from Bulawayo. I believe the original was done by the African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia in Bulawayo in 1947, my birth year. It seems they may have reformed as the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms some time later and did this label in South Africa (probably early 1950s) where it spread to the world, and I believe I remember them playing it at the Grand Hotel in Bulawayo in the mid '50s. You did not need to get drunk on skokiaan to be intoxicated by this music! I think it may also have been the genesis of Southern Africa's famous "kwela" music played on the pennywhistle which influenced a lot of jazz minds, including Paul Simon. Also, its roots to a Zulu drinking song would be fairly nebulous as the writer was a Shona in Rhodesia, but his musical band probably comprised several Ndebele people whose origins were Zulu. All that aside, those notes transcend time!
aaah.... zuidafrika...
Trevo you have explained it well. I am from Kenya and I love the South African Sax and Flute. You people of Southern region are talented
@@DuncanLangat Thanks for dragging me back to this Happy, Happy Africa music, Duncan. I just played it several more times!
South African Jazz Pioneers Sax made me buy an Alto Sax but I haven't learnt how to play it
@@DuncanLangat Good luck and have fun learning! I have no musical talent whatssoever, but I enjoy hearing it.
I want this song played at my funeral
No other version of this music comes anywhere close to this arrangement. I can see where someone could listen to it for hours.
Try Bert Kaempfert and his Ochestra. You'll love it too
❤
Louis Armstrong did a pretty decent cover of it.
Actually this song was composed by one of my relatives who was a shona individual who just so happen to live in the Ndebele part of Zimbabwe (The Rhodesia). The song is based upon a shona beverage called Chikokiana Translated to skokiaan in Ndebele not Zulu.
Their band was called Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band
Enjoy the music guys.
Hugh Tracey made many wonderful 10" LP's of African music released on London. Some of the best from the Ndebele.
*Part of Rhodesia (just Rhodesia)
You're not truthful. What's Shona in this song? Let music be. Enjoy it, don't tribalise it.
@@rontgumbi8003 whats not truthful about what he said.
What was the name of your relative @K Washington?? My grandfather used to reside in Bulawayo and there is a street there named after him.
I LOVE this! I was listening to your Bell Hawaiian records and this got cued up. So glad I gave it a play! (but now I have to listen to all by this Sweet Rhythm Band....
Unbridled Happiness& Joy !!!
This original is still the best
The best version I've ever heard!!
This song was composed by August Musarurwa, a Zimbabwean. This song is o
ne of Zimbabwe's precious treasures!
This reminds me of my childhood…..
A fellow lost his storage and had to get rid of them. He bought them about 7 years ago and just couldn't find the time to do anything with them. Bought them all for $160. Yesterday, I bought 21 old plastic milk crates to haul them home in. I'm fairly dazzled by this group. Lots of really great stuff. 2 car loads of records. Got 8 'JAZZ RECORD' label 78s with Art Hodes (my first). Several Paul Whiteman with Jack Teagarden. Album of Eastern European by Ruth Rubin on DISC label. Cool!
lucky man
In case your body does NOT begin to shake listening to this, and your feet don't tap the rhythm, there's only one diagnosis: you must be dead.
wow !!this is a masterpiece been listening to latter versions including Mango grove !!!but this is the thing .Absolutely love it.!!!!
Charming authenticity... from another time
Lovely sounds 💖💗💕
I was given this 45rpm in the middle 50s and have enjoyed it ever since. Often wondered about its origin.
The USA single release (1954) had "In the Mood" on the flip side. Musarurwa was a genius, died way too young.
I love Skokiaan
love this song.
It's from Zimbabwe ( Rhodesia ) originally, notice on the label it says " Shona Dance" The Shona are a people , they are not Zulu , but the title is in the Ndebele language of S. Zimbabwe. The tune was
written by August Musarurwa ,and the original recording from there inspired many covers in S.A.
oh dios, qué músicos, por siempre bendecidos estén!
Have this single from the year 1954 with Louis Armstrong!Great song great rythmn,fantastic!
This is a pretty cool find.
I like the original better than all of them. Because this guys created this with soul, understanding and relation. The others are just people copying and creating their own fun version without any connections to the music.
hear hear
Bulu bulu we goes Skokiaan !!!!! 👉👉🎶🎶
That was great! Loved seeing the old 78 doing its thing. Brought back some cool memories.
thanks for posting this marvelous song and playing !!
South African happy music ..
I had a 45RPM disk with this song on it, had no idea what the title meant (for the first year or so, I thought its title was "Saskatchewan"). This recording certainly beats out the U.S. cover version that I heard as a child, but then, South Africa is famous as a source of some of the most beautiful music on Earth.
Maybe, like Ireland and the southern U.S., South Africa is a source of exquisite music because of the great suffering of its people.
Louis Armstrong was here in Zim, Rhodesia at the time on tour. That is when he met Musarurwa and had resolved to take him to the US. Apparently Musarurwa's family wouldn't let him leave, so Armstrong returned to the states and took the song for himself!
@tadz you sound like one of the Musarurwa? You have correct information about my grandfather. My dad said the year my grandmother passed is when they were supposed to leave for the US. He was a legend indeed.
@@roselynmusarurwa-charehwa1793 lol..I am not a Musarurwa but I am a very enthusiastic researcher in Zimbabwean music, and I was very fortunate to have a lot of Zimbabwean musical history passed on to me by my father who also did much research
Every time I hear this song i think of the movie ending in slacker.
Fantastic love this song.
this is soooooo goood
Interestingly, the term "skokiian" actually refers to an illicitly-brewed southern Africa moonshine. Probably why this is such a happy melody.
petru romania fantastic magnific viva africa
I say yesssssssssss❤❤❤❤❤
I used to have that Garrard Turntable.
Please tell me somebody the role of August(ine) Musarurwa in this number. I have been told that Musarurwa composed it and Armstrong became aware of it on his visit to the then Rhodesia in 1960. This must be one of the best tunes out of Zimbabwe.
This is true. It's the most covered song in Zim history. They performed together and Louis was going to take August with him on tour to the US but eventually August had to stay due to family commitments in line with the Shona culture
I wonder about the 1947 date. This was one of the versions that charted in the US in 1954, and I can't believe it was recorded 7 years earlier!
Louis Armstrong was here in Zim, Rhodesia at the time on tour. That is when he met Musarurwa and had resolved to take him with him to the US. Apparently Musarurwas family wouldnt let him leave, so Armstrong returned to the ststes and took the song for himself.
nice! Thanks for sharing it!
soul really doesn't have a color
no: the God-source in all of us (thankfully) hasn't any...
Fabuloso
Envy can be hard to bear.
petru romania AUGUST MUSARURWA ist fantastic magnific
Nice Garrard table! what cartridge are you using with it?
Try to listen to this great piece of music by the Dominican Saxophonist Felix Del Rosario in UA-cam.
You will be gladly surprised.
Great arrangement.
This is featured in Benjamin Button. The scene where Daisy takes Benjamin to the after party club scene.
Found them on Craigslist.
WOW!! were did you ever get so many 78's in one shot??
It has a similar amount of sax and horn, about 2:30 worth....just busted up in the middle by Armstrong's vocal. I edited that out, and it works very well.
Thanks for the kind words. I attempted to post the Armstrong version of this tune but the copyright folks disabled it. Too bad. Though I see other YT people have the Armstrong version up. ??
Wow! That wasn't too bad at all. Congrats for finding it. I must admit I like Louis Armstrong's version best, but I also love the vid of the Carling Family doing "Skokianne". Have a listen, it's pretty good.
This is fabulous! Reminds me of The Mound City Blues Blowers (look them up). Sidney Bechet should have recorded this. Louis Armstrong certainly did - and a rather inferior version too. I seem to recall Johnny Hodges also covered it and rather well.
Oh and I love the very funky Herb Albert/Hugh Masekela take on it.
ZIMBABWE NDIZVO, YETERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW.
WOW!! how do you keep 2000 78's from cracking or breaking on your way home??
you must have alot of time and patience packing them up
Quem nasceu neste ano?
Kioskvältare från 1947
Imagine a DJ at the time this was released said "This is the end of music as we know it"(not an exact quote. He hosted "The Make Believe Ballroom" personally I thoght this was a great piece of music.
Martin Block was the host. Supposedly the man for whom the term "disk jockey" was coined. Hardly an innovator, Block died about fifty years ago.
fine for me
anybody know the musicians on this record?
Andrew Musarurwa
1 9 5 4 !
Ha, me too, just watched my old VHS copy
Your doubts seems justified, because kristof6770 too disproved that "1947 myth"!
F
Think what you will. Personally I don't care but the version of this tune by The Carlings is FAR better.
Quem nasceu neste ano?