Marabi is a style of music that evolved in South Africa over the last century.
The early part of the 20th century saw the increasing urbanisation of black South Africans in mining centers such as the gold mining area around Johannesburg – the Witwatersrand. This led to the development of township slums or ghettos, and out of this hardship came forth new forms of music, marabi and kwela amongst others.
Marabi was the name given to a keyboard style (often using cheap pedal organs) that had a musical link to American jazz, ragtime and blues, with roots deep in the African tradition. Early marabi musicians were part of an underground musical culture and were typically not recorded. Indeed, as with early jazz in the USA, the music incurred the displeasure of the establishment. Nonetheless, as with early jazz, the lilting melodies and catchy rhythms of marabi found their way into the sounds of popular dance bands with a distinctively South African style.
Marabi is characterized by a few simple chords repeated in varying vamping patterns that could go on for a long time; repetitive harmonic patterns being typical of traditional African music. This was the case so people could dance for extended periods of time without having to know the songs well. People were able to pick up the feel and rhythm of the song after a few times through the progression. It is a repeating, ostinato accompaniment, usually in the harmonic pattern I–IV–I64–V, upon which potentially endlessly melodies were improvised. These melodies often consisted of sections of popular pieces of any provenance (folk music, religious music, US jazz, dance music such as Vastrap, etc.) which, like the underlying pattern, could also be repeated at will. Marabi was mostly played on electric organs or pianos, with a percussive accompaniment of cans filled with stones.
South African Jazz: Marabi
Marabi : A SouthAfrican Music Tradition
Recourse:
http://southafrica.co.za/marabi.html
Music By African Americans 