Legendary mbaqanga group Soul Brothers is celebrating 50 years in the music business.
This year, the group will release 50 Years of Ogandaganda — The Legacy of Soul Brothers and will embark on a tour of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
They will kick-start the tour in Piet Retief Town Hall on October 31 before performing at the Empangeni Town Hall on November 1, with more towns and cities to be announced later.
Black Moses Ngwenya, the last surviving member of the original mbhaqanga and soul band, has dug deep within his archives to find unheard and unreleased music made by the Soul Brothers, dating back to the 1970s when they started making songs together.
The Soul Brothers are known for popularising and modernising the rural mbaqanga sound.
Formed in 1970 by lead singer David Masondo and keyboard player and producer Ngwenya, they became the pioneers of mbaqanga.
Ngwenya explained that the band began informally in the early 1970s and released its first album in 1975.
The group initially started with five group members: Tuza Mthethwa, who passed away in a car crash in 1979; Zenzele Mchunu, who fell ill and died in 1984; and America Zulu, who left the band to join the taxi business in Mpumalanga. He was later shot and killed.
Black Moses Ngwenya and David Masondo, who also passed away in 2015 after hospitalisation, remained members of the group.
Retirement out of the question
Today, Ngwenya remains the last standing member, and he wishes to continue the legacy.
Speaking to Sunday World, he said this was not a retirement album, stating that he would continue to raise the Soul Brothers flag until his last days.
“I have been the last standing member for the past 10 years. I have made sure the band does not die or become forgotten. We recorded about four albums after David passed on,” Ngwenya said.
The last album he released under the Soul Brothers title was Uhamba Naye in 2023, and it was a success. The new music features unreleased songs recorded in their early days.
“We were used to releasing albums on CDs, but times have changed, and we will release singles on streaming platforms. We will adapt.
“All the music in this project was recorded in my studio and premises, so I kept a lot of what we didn’t use in the archives.
“I went back to those old files, and we worked on the music and used a little bit of AI [artificial intelligence] here and there, and we came up with the 10-track album,” Ngwenya said.
Positive and uplifting messages
They released the first single, Thath’ Owakho, on October 31, and the full album, 50 Years of Ogandaganda — The Legacy of Soul Brothers, will follow in November.
“Supporters will get to hear the old voices but with brand-new music.”
Ngwenya, the lone remaining original band member, hopes his group’s music leaves a lasting legacy of positive and uplifting messages.
“We have always been authentic. Our music has never changed. Even when the likes of Brenda Fassie and the younger generation came, we remained true to our sound, and that is what set us apart and kept our loyal fans.
“We never struggled; we have always been booked. We might have had tough times here and there, but we never struggled because we remained authentic.
“Our music always had a positive message, and that is what people loved and appreciated even decades after,” Ngwenya said.
