The bassists who built Soweto’s distinct sound

We rarely consider how important the sound of the bass is to a band’s identity… Yet there are no histories recording those vital chains of community.” — Gwen Ansell (2021) We don’t often talk about bass players when we tell the story of South African music. We talk about singers and bandleaders. But beneath those histories runs a quieter lineage, one that reverberates through rehearsal rooms, studios and illegal clubs.

It is a lineage carried in the low frequencies. These chains of community can be heard in a generation of Soweto bassists who, during the height of apartheid, helped build a distinctly South African Afro-fusion language. This story must begin outside Soweto, with the godfather of South African electric bass, Joseph Makwela.

As the bassist behind Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, he helped define the electrified sound of neo-mbaqanga. His bass lines were cyclical, melodic and powerful, echoing mbube voices and traditional bows on the electric instrument. The generation that followed did not reject this approach; they stretched it.

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Tony Sauli and The Drive were among the first to blend neo-mbaqanga with soul and jazz. Places like Dorkay House and the Pelican nightclub became informal conservatories. Upon arriving at Dorkay House, drummer Vusi Khumalo recalled, “now I know that, ok, all the hip guys are here”.

In this environment, a young Sipho Gumede emerged as a central figure. With Duke Makasi and a young Bheki Mseleku in Spirits Rejoice, Gumede helped craft one of the first fully realised South African jazz-fusion sounds. The music kept local grooves but stretched them into open, improvisational forms.

For this generation, the bass was no longer just a supporting instrument. As saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu put it, Gumede “transcended that barrier” of the bass as mere accompaniment. This approach developed further in Sakhile, a group that consciously pursued an Afrocentric fusion aesthetic.

The band combined jazz harmony, funk rhythms and traditional melodic sensibilities but from self-definition rather than imitation. “It wasn’t just about the music,” Mahlangu explained. “It was about projecting the African image in a very positive light.” Other bassists from the same circuits carried this language in different directions.

Bakithi Kumalo’s work with Thetha and later Sankomota reflected a more pop-oriented, melodic approach. But for him, the Afro-fusion movement was not about copying American jazz.

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