Morris Goldberg

Artist Cape Town connection

Cape Town saxophonist, white and classically literate, who was brought into the 1974 "Mannenberg" session because he could read music and could teach Ibrahim's scores to players who could not. His remark about going to visit Gladys Williams in Manenberg gave the tune its name. He was left off the first credits.

Connections

worked with

Abdullah Ibrahim (1974) brought in to teach the scores

lived in

New York City he was living there at the same time as Ibrahim

recorded

Mannenberg (1974) alto saxophone, uncredited at first

Did you know?

The tune was nearly called "Mrs. Williams from Mannenberg", after a real woman in the township.

John Edwin Mason reports that the title came from Morris Goldberg mentioning a visit to Gladys Williams, his family's former housekeeper in Manenberg. Rashid Vally chose a more marketable album title, but Williams's photograph went on the cover.

Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town

Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · As-Shams / The Sun Records: About

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Did you know?

Marabi groove, ticky-draai beat, langarm saxophones, jazz underneath. Mason lists the parts.

Mason breaks the tune into familiar local ingredients: a marabi groove, a beat close to ticky-draai or a lazy ghoema, saxophones with a langarm sound, and a jazz aesthetic holding it together.

Music 1974 Cape Town