Hidden Years Music Archive

Established by David Marks in 1990, the archive holds a collection of around 175 000 items, which includes sound recordings, photographs, posters, programs, documents, press cuttings, notebooks, and diaries...[1] The Hidden Years is a repository of urban folk tunes, township jazz expressions, country rock music, choir works, maskanda, and various traditional musics.

In 2013 the archive was donated to the Documentation Centre for Music at Stellenbosch University and has since been managed by Dr Lizabé Lambrechts as the principal researcher and project leader.

In South Africa, Marks was soon immersed in the music scenes of Hillbrow, Johannesburg and Durban, producing studio recordings as well as recording live events and performances at the Jabulani Amphitheatre, the Totem at the Palm Beach Hotel in Durban, the Chelsea Theatre, the Ox Box, La Plaza, the New Troubadour, Mangles, and Le Chaim, Dorkay House, Bantu Men's Social Club and the Market Theatre Café.

This means that Marks’ recordings provide insight into the folk clubs, jazz restaurants, and music festivals in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Lesotho during the 1970s and 1980s, he was involved with.

Funding and support for the project has since is donation largely been provided by the Volkswagen Foundation through a research grant, the Africa Open Institute and the Stellenbosch Library and Information Sciences.