I stumbled across this very cool Kwela video. Note the unusual Kwela style of playing (blowing):
Nice, thanks for sharing!
Great sound…I always wanted to hear Kwela music as I had no idea how it sounds. Thanks for sharing!
so simple and down to earth -a sound of simple man enjoying a day 
Paul - that was really nice. I wondered what Kwela music was like. Thanks! Judith
Sweet! Excellent find.
Great music, I just wish the sound quality was better.
Do they play the whistles sideways? Interesting.
Wow, I’m not sure how Mr Nbete gets a seal on his mouthpiece.
He’s got it turned almost 90 degrees (along the whistle’s centerline)
from the expected position.
Great to see Kwela being played where it was invented!
For those who haven’t heard of The Positively Testcard, here’s their website:
Yes , thank’s a lot !
I really love Kwela Music , and it’s the first time I’ve seen it in video !
South African music sounds so good !
Manuel
The Kwela players put most of the head of the whistle up to the square window into their mouths, not just the beak. In this way, they can bend notes by shading the window with their lips. I’ve tried, but I can’t do it!
interesting sound.
Thanks for sharing this Paul!
Those whistles they have on the clip look like the classic Hohner in C.
From what I’ve learned about Kwela, the Hohner C whistle was the instrument of choice because one could do the lip-shading trick easily. Folks tell me that the Hohner C is tuned quite sharp which is ideal for lip-shading, because that flattens the notes. It also leads to the speculation that Hohner made these whistles for the Kwela market - they can sometimes be picked-up second-hand in S. Africa and Australia. Hohner no longer makes them and researchers have found very little about what became of the whole thing including the metal folding machines and manufacturing process.
Legend has it that the South African Apartheidt regime ruthlessly suppressed Kwela after one of the artists had a global top-10 hit (I still remember the tune but forget the artist and title - maybe Spokes Mokane … Mashiyane?). “Spokes” BTW is not a nice nickname - A sharpenned bicycle-wheel spoke was the assasination weapon of choice during the Apartheidt struggle - assasins were sometimes called “Spokesman”.
These days, Kwela is having a bit of a “come-back” with bands like “The Positively Testcard” in the UK and the Andy Rigby band in Australia. South Africa itself is producing more artists.
I have heard that there is a large body of Kwela field recordings locked-away in the South African national library archive. It would be nice to see that archive unlocked.
Regardless of all that, Kwela is such a happy music form - I’d love to see and hear more of it!
i you’d like to hear more: http://www.sternsmusic.com/discography/4213
click on samples
lovely and confirms the fact—
you can play blues, good blues, on a celtic whistle.
pleasant music !!