MARABI NIGHTS, jazz, "race" and society in early apartheid South Africa

247 pp., illus., paperback, CD, Second Edition, Pietermaritzburg, (1993) 2012

An updated and expanded second edition od Christopher Ballantine's study of South Africa's marabi-jazz tradition. Includes new chapters on gender relations and music in the context of forced migrant labour in the 1950s, a critical study of the Manhattan Brothers that positions their music in relation to the apartheid system, and an account of the musical, political and commercial strategies of the local record industry, and a CD of historic sound recordings.

Foreword by Sibongile Khumalo.

"There are not many books like this, to which you can dance." John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge

"There is no doubt that 'Marabi Nights' is one of the few seminal works in South African jazz history. It made a very significant contribution to mapping South African proletarian history when it first appeared and remains an important work of cultural historiography." Gwen Ansell, author of "Soweto Blues: jazz, popular music & politics in South Africa"

Christopher Ballantine is Emeritus LG Joel Professor of Music at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.