(Above: Durban Black
Drifters frontman Chris Ntuli with Chesterville Secondary School Isicathamiya
choir, who will participate in the 19th High School
Isicathamiya Choir at the Playhouse on September 6, 2024. Pic supplied)
The 19th High Schools Isicathamiya Choir Summit will be held
on September 6, 2024, in the Playhouse Opera, starting at 11h00 and hosted by
SABC Ukhozi FM genre presenter Lee Hlophe.
A brainchild of Chris Ntuli and TV/radio and theatre guru Caroline Smart, the Isicathamiya Music Workshop project was first conceptualised in 1990.
It was later presented to a classroom in 1992, with a dry run conducted to several schools in Kwamashu where Ntuli used to reside back then in J section, a stone’s throw from the famous Princess Magogo Stadium.
The result was unbelievable as schools started and quickly embraced the first-of-its-kind music school workshop programme. Communities, students, and teachers are warned never to be confused by opportunists who purport to teach this genre to schools. The fact is, for the past 31 years, Durban Black Drifters have been the officially-registered founders and remain sole proprietors of the Isicathamiya Schools Workshops project, including the 19th High Schools Isicathamiya Summit started in 1999. The latter is a direct result of this programme, along with the soon-to-be-launched High Schools Isicathamiya Music TV show.
Furthermore, the project strives to shape and guide these young men to be better citizens who are respectful, competent, reliable, efficient, and self-reliant. They should also uphold their culture when they leave school and be vigilant against all gender-based perpetrators.
The event has established and transferred skills to over 2,000 school groups (and counting). Other artists the project has produced are Ngcolosi Home Boys from Botha’s Hill, Abafana Basentembeni from Melmoth, Mpumalanga White Birds from Hammarsdale, and Uglama kaMaskandi from Pietermaritzburg, to name a few.
It has won the BASA award and numerous other cultural awards as the best youth-based Isicathamiya music development project. DBD has been in music for three decades. They’ve toured France, Belgium, Norway, Canada, the USA, China, and Japan.
Drifters also appeared in a Broadway musical written by American playwright Ermill Thrower called Hurricane Katrina, which was dedicated to the flood victims of New Orleans in 2004.
Ntuli, as a leader, has worked and recorded two albums with Ladysmith Black Mambazo entitled Ukuzala Ukuzelula and Thuthukani Ngoxolo. He later translated both albums for Paul Simon with a little help from a friend, Msizi Shabalala.
He further appeared with Mambazo in King Cetshwayo, a musical play written and directed by Prince Njengabantu Zulu, who had just returned from exile in America in 1994.
The others he has recorded with include Aerto Moreira (Brazil), Madala Kunene, and all three late musicians, Sipho Gumede, Busi Mhlongo, and Jabu Khanyile.
He has come a long way with his music since he first came to Durban in the early 1970s.
He spent his first two years on the streets in Point, eking out a living from shipping contractors, earning R2 a day. He would go for days without a meal when the chips were down. Having worked for various publications, Chris Ntuli is a rare and unique kind of musician with many years of marketing and media experience.
Before engaging in music full-time, he was employed as a sales promotions manager for a long-established national daily newspaper, Sowetan. He also holds a modelling diploma obtained in 1983 from Sexy Katz Modelling School in Bree Street Arcade in Johannesburg.
Ntuli boasts extensive experience in music mixing and mastering, gained from working extensively under the leadership and guidance of the late Joseph Shabalala and award-winning engineer Neil Snyman. He also recorded and produced the first Isicathamiya compilation CD released under the Universal Music label in 2010, featuring 17 Durban-based veteran Isicathamiya groups.
DBDEntertainment, Playhouse Company, and TL Photos will honour SABC Ukhozi FM DJ Lee Hlophe with an excellence award for promoting this Isicathamiya music on radio. Veteran internationally-acclaimed guitarist Dr Madala Kunene will perform during the show's interim.
All interested schools can still register to participate in this event. Huge cash prizes are on offer for winning schools. The lack of funding from the government and corporations has always been the biggest challenge, as the show never happened last year. Durban Black Drifters would like to plea for support from these bodies as the music is on the verge of extinction.
The 19th High Schools Isicathamiya Choir Summit is sponsored by the National Lotteries Commission and Playhouse Company and organised by DBD Entertainment.
Any public members who wish to attend should dress traditional or smart-casual. Weapons, bottles, drugs, and nonsense are not allowed. For further information, contact 073 301 6740.
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