(A brief history)

Mountain Records was started in 1980 in Cape Town, South Africa by Patrick Lee-Thorp.

The history of this record label is one of a struggle for survival by an independent music company situated at the southern tip of Africa and how it reached out to a sometimes sceptical and confused European and US audience. On offer was South African popular music that the international music business was beginning to call, ‘world music’.

The firm started as a production business but grew in a short time into an independent record company that recorded mainly local (southern African) performers. “Local is Lekker” was their motto. The reason for this metamorphosis was that the established major companies were not really interested in regionally based artists and particularly those living in the shadow of Table Mountain, over 1000 kms from the business metropolis of Johannesburg.

Early success with David Kramer, the first artist to release a full length LP on the Mountain label, established the company in the South African market. Kramer was essentially a folk singer, who sung in a mixture of the Afrikaans and English languages satirising white South African society.

Prior to establishing the label, Lee -Thorp had been manager/producer of the jazz-rock band Pacific Express. The players were all from Cape Town and were from what was then known as the “coloured community”. Their musical experience included participation in the street carnivals held in the Cape Town and in the variety shows which toured the rest of southern Africa in the 60s and 70s showcasing “non-white”’ musical talent. Their musical inspiration came from the Black American artists in the Jazz and Soul scene.

Though the early records by the group did not appear on the Mountain Records label a number of the members of the Pacific Express band went on to record for Mountain as solo artists. Two CDs were released in 2001 containing some of their first recordings.

The company not only issued records but also often managed the careers of a number of performers. One such performer was Jonathan Butler who after a stint as a pop artist and member of Pacific Express found his niche as a jazz guitarist. Against difficult odds an international recording deal was secured which led to Butler recording for the Jive label in the USA, from where he established an international reputation.

This was in the early 80s when the ‘Cultural Boycott’ of South African arts was gaining momentum. Consistently the target of political discrimination within the country many of the Mountain stable of artists had little prospect of expanding their horizons. Lee-Thorp argued that this blanket boycott of already disadvantaged artists was a cold political ploy and he continued to seek international outlets for his performers while actively promoting their releases at home.

With some hard pushing, Basil Coetzee’s Sabenza album was licensed for release in the USA and Robbie Jansen’s ground breaking Vastrap Island recordings succeeded in gaining a release in Germany. By 1991 the boycott had begun to fall away and artists such as the traditional marimba group, Amampondo toured more freely.

This allowed Lee -Thorp to establish a marketing base in Hamburg, Germany. Though demand was slow, a steady programme of releases and imports of southern African and music from elsewhere in Africa was made available across Europe through this channel.

Mountain Records was not only interested in black music or jazz.The label had South African hits with surf rocker, Robin Auld, soul balladeer, Zayn Adam, singer-songwriter, Edi Niederlander and Kramer, and the recordings of Amampondo. But it was the jazz of Cape Town that became an enduring theme for the label. The release of a label compilation entitled, Cape Jazz, in 1989 was a surprise critical success and was credited with putting a “tag” on this unique music genre. The CD was followed by solo projects by such Cape Jazz artists as, Basil Coetzee, Tony Schilder, Robbie Jansen and others.

A global downturn in the music industry in the mid-nineties, as well as the drastic rise in home copying made the production of new material in specialist genres very marginal. The result for the label was a radical cutback in new signings, though existing deals were allowed to run their course.

In 2002 the first new artist agreements signed in almost 10 years were concluded. Amampondo founder, Dizu Plaatjies and jazz keyboard wizard, Hilton Schilder are the artists concerned and both released CDs this year.

Much of the label’s catalogue of some 70 albums was released on vinyl and cassette and is no longer available, however the more recent recordings and some re-issues are available on CD.

October 2003