Biography
During the Dave Matthews Band’s 1998 summer engagement at Giants Stadium, the evening’s standout moment arrived when Big Voice Jack Lerole—born Aaron Jack Lerole—joined the stage as a guest pennywhistle soloist. A Newsweek correspondent praised the band’s seamless accompaniment, noting that “the group brought a South African pennywhistle player onstage and seamlessly backed him as he trilled some buoyant Township jive,” yet few listeners grasped the breadth of Lerole’s earlier imprint on South African music.
Lerole first sharpened his skills busking through the streets of Alexander Township in the 1950s and played a formative role in shaping the emerging kwela genre. EMI signed him in 1956, after which he recorded with several ensembles, among them the Alexander Shamba Boys that he co-directed alongside his brother Elias, Black Mambazo, and Elias & His Zig Zag Fluters. The latter outfit supplied the theme for the British television series The Killing Stones; the resulting soundtrack, first issued in 1957, eventually surpassed three million copies sold. His initial success under his own name came with the release of the single “Blues Ngaphansai.” As Zig Zag Magazine observed, “When (Lerole) plays, like an ancient gnome with the fingers of a frog, round spatula tips flying over a worn silver pennywhistle, the sweetest sounds pour forth.”
The ultra-bass vocal technique known as “groaning” that Lerole pioneered gradually eroded the resonance of his voice. At the same time, kwela’s popularity waned in the early 1960s, prompting both Lerole and Black Mambazo to adopt the saxophone-driven idiom later termed mbaqanga. He nevertheless kept recording, producing the hits “Cherry Beat,” “Big Voice Jack,” “Tully La Fluter,” and “Bongo Twang Jive.” The bump-jive revival of the 1970s restored his visibility, and he appeared in starring capacities with multiple South African theatrical productions.
In the early 1990s Lerole rejoined Black Mambazo for a documentary film overseen by Chris du Plessis, after which the ensemble stayed intact. He also maintained an active schedule with his own unit, The Shukuma Mambazo All Stars. Their album Colours And Moods was captured live at Johannesburg’s Bassline venue in 1998.
Lerole first sharpened his skills busking through the streets of Alexander Township in the 1950s and played a formative role in shaping the emerging kwela genre. EMI signed him in 1956, after which he recorded with several ensembles, among them the Alexander Shamba Boys that he co-directed alongside his brother Elias, Black Mambazo, and Elias & His Zig Zag Fluters. The latter outfit supplied the theme for the British television series The Killing Stones; the resulting soundtrack, first issued in 1957, eventually surpassed three million copies sold. His initial success under his own name came with the release of the single “Blues Ngaphansai.” As Zig Zag Magazine observed, “When (Lerole) plays, like an ancient gnome with the fingers of a frog, round spatula tips flying over a worn silver pennywhistle, the sweetest sounds pour forth.”
The ultra-bass vocal technique known as “groaning” that Lerole pioneered gradually eroded the resonance of his voice. At the same time, kwela’s popularity waned in the early 1960s, prompting both Lerole and Black Mambazo to adopt the saxophone-driven idiom later termed mbaqanga. He nevertheless kept recording, producing the hits “Cherry Beat,” “Big Voice Jack,” “Tully La Fluter,” and “Bongo Twang Jive.” The bump-jive revival of the 1970s restored his visibility, and he appeared in starring capacities with multiple South African theatrical productions.
In the early 1990s Lerole rejoined Black Mambazo for a documentary film overseen by Chris du Plessis, after which the ensemble stayed intact. He also maintained an active schedule with his own unit, The Shukuma Mambazo All Stars. Their album Colours And Moods was captured live at Johannesburg’s Bassline venue in 1998.
Albums
Live
