What happened on that phone call kicked off a chain of events that meant Solomon Linda would never be credited or paid what he deserved for his song in his lifetime. Pete Seeger was keen to make sure that the writer of the original song was credited on this new version so he had his publisher call Gallo Records in South Africa to find out more about “Mbube” and it’s origins. They chose to record one of the songs they regularly sang at weddings, their own version of a Zulu folk song that Linda had added his own words and melodies to. It was in this studio that Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds went to cut their first record. In 1938 it moved to the corner of Troye and President street where it remained for the next three decades. However, the first studio they built was on a busy road and traffic noise forced them to relocate. Gallo Recording Studios was not only the first and only studio in South Africa, it was the only studio in the entire sub-Saharan area.
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Setting up this studio not only gave the country its first professional recording studio, but it also enabled the local industry to continue to grow and thrive when imports of records from the UK stopped during World War Two. So, when the company shut down in 1932 he acquired the recording equipment and shipped them to South Africa, he even convinced Hecht to move too and help set up recording and production for Gallo in South Africa. Gallo had previously sent artists to London to record with sound engineer John Hecht at The Metropole Record Company. It was originally set up to distribute recordings imported from Brunswick Records in the USA, but Gallo noticed that despite a wealth of local musical talent there was no recording studio in the entire country. Gallo Record Company is South Africa’s largest independent record label, founded in 1926 by Eric Gallo it now owns 75% of all the recorded music from South Africa. In 1939 he was discovered by Griffith Motsieloa, a talent scout working for Gallo Record Company. They developed their act performing at weddings and entering choir competitions. Solomon Linda found work at the Carlton Hotel and started his own choir using the Evening Birds name.
The group was originally managed by Linda’s two uncles, Solomon and Amon Madondo, and they disbanded in 1933.
Solomon’s group were regular winners of these contests. The choir took part in local singing contests that were a big part of the community, often the prize would be a goat or some other livestock. He took a job in a furniture shop during the day and sung in a choir called The Evening Birds at night. In 1931 he left Pomeroy to look for work in Johannesburg.
Solomon Linda was born in 1909 in Pomeroy a small town in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. In fact, the style is also known as Mbube, named after Solomon Linda’s most famous song, it’s that song that is the basis of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Solomon Popoli Ntsele, also known by his clan name “Linda”, was a South African singer known for what is now called Isicathamiya, a type of South African a capella singing later made world-famous by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Solomon Linda (far left) & The Evening Birds, holding 3 of their trophies for singing contests.
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