Songs in the Key of Monk With Lyric Latin Touches
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: November 23, 2008
Twelve years ago the Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Pérez recorded an album whose title, “Panamonk,” neatly summed up its concept and limitations. It was made up primarily of compositions by Thelonious Monk, delivered with a Latin American inflection. Mr. Pérez’s approach was refreshing in its irreverence: rather than try to be as faithful as possible to Monk’s distinctive rhythms and harmonies, he used Monk’s vision as a jumping-off point for his own individuality as an improviser. But “Panamonk” at times skated dangerously close to glib Monk-goes-Latin gimmickry.
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Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times
Some fun among the lyricism: From left, Ben Street, Danilo Pérez and Adam Cruz performing at the Allen Room.
Mr. Pérez is a smarter and more imaginative musician today than in 1996. His long tenure in the quartet of the relentlessly adventurous saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, who likes to keep his sidemen on their toes, has surely contributed to his artistic growth. Leading a trio at the Allen Room as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s weekend-long Monk celebration, Mr. Pérez revisited some of the “Panamonk” repertory and played a few other Monk compositions as well. In the first of his two sets on Saturday night (he also performed twice on Friday) he was often exhilarating, sometimes moving and rarely glib or gimmicky.
Only a few of the nine numbers, six of them written by Monk, received the full-on Latin treatment. And even on those, despite fiery polyrhythmic support from the bassist Ben Street and the drummer Adam Cruz, Mr. Pérez steered clear of the overheated passion that can infect jazz musicians trying to fit a stereotypical idea of Latin. The essence of his performance was not heat but restrained, assured lyricism.
The slower and more ruminative pieces were among the highlights of the set. In his unaccompanied interpretation of “ ’Round Midnight,” whose emotional intensity has tempted many a good musician to lapse into melodrama, Mr. Pérez was introspective without being maudlin or sentimental. With Mr. Street and Mr. Cruz providing sensitive counterpoint, he was just as effective assaying “Ask Me Now,” a lesser-known but equally beautiful Monk ballad.
If Mr. Pérez rarely aped Monk’s style directly — his playing was far more legato, his lines far more elaborate — he often evoked Monk’s playful spirit. During Mr. Cruz’s solo on “Think of One,” one of the few Monk tunes to receive the no-holds-barred Afro-Cuban treatment, Mr. Pérez got up from the piano bench, walked over to the drum kit and provided spontaneous percussion accompaniment. And he brought the song, and the set, to a joyful conclusion with an overtly Monkian gesture: a dissonant cluster of notes, played loudly and emphatically with his right elbow.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Big-Band Jazz, Personalized, Soloized and Energized
Big-Band Jazz, Personalized, Soloized and Energized
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: November 23, 2008
me of Thelonious Monk’s music is more than 60 years old, but it still has magic properties. It keeps small-group jazz honest: his compositions still contain relevant lessons about melody and harmony, rhythm and open space. Above it all they are songs: you can whistle them.
Richard Perry/The New York Times
The pianist Marcus Roberts on Friday night, part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s weekend-long tribute to Thelonious Monk.
But his music is also playful and rugged enough to withstand any revisionism. You can rough it up, break it down, broaden or narrow it. In jazz nobody else’s music sounds as equally right played by one monophonic instrument or filtered through a big band.
Jazz at Lincoln Center held a Thelonious Monk festival over the weekend, and its biggest event was a program of large-ensemble music at Rose Theater, with the 16-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the pianist Marcus Roberts. In the past the organization and its house band have presented and played Monk’s music up and down. The orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, has particularly personalized the notion of big-band Monk. Its concerts in the past 15 years have included some of the large-ensemble Monk orchestrations written by Monk and Hall Overton in 1959 and 1963, but also new commissions from its own members, magnifying small-group Monk tunes.
The concert on Friday — with irritating, recited biographical intrusions by the actor Courtney B. Vance — drew on the orchestra’s own arrangements. They came in all stripes. The trombonist Vincent Gardner’s take on “Light Blue” used Gil Evans timbres — piccolos, muted trumpets — as well as a dramatically slow tempo, a solo-piano chorus and a finale that sounded like an orchestration of an improvised solo. (That trick — orchestrating a notated improvisation — was true to Monk: you can hear it on “Little Rootie Tootie,” from the recording of Monk’s 10-piece band at Town Hall in 1959. A preconcert audiovisual lecture by the historian Sam Stephenson, on the documentation of the rehearsals for that concert, demonstrated how Monk and Overton came to the idea.)
Other arrangements stressed rhythm first. Both “Bye-Ya,” arranged by the bassist Carlos Henriquez, and “Criss Cross,” arranged by the drummer Ali Jackson, used a 17th member: the percussionist Marc Quiñones. Playing congas, Mr. Quiñones built clave rhythms in conjunction with Mr. Jackson’s timbales.
Mr. Marsalis loves playing with orchestral effects — he has a cinematic imagination — and his arrangement of “Evidence” showed it. Each of the theme’s strangely spaced notes came dressed in different colors, using the full range of the band, no single part of it for two consecutive notes. The approach suggested a living being, some big beast moving a toe, then an eyebrow, then a neck muscle, then a tail.
In two songs whose melodies come in sprays of notes, the arrangers played up that effect throughout. “Skippy” was arranged by Ted Nash, who played his own alto-saxophone solo, full of frenetic hummingbird motions; in “Four in One,” Mr. Marsalis got the melody’s rippling spirit into his trumpet solo, making hungry, tearing phrases.
Through these diverse variations Mr. Roberts was a constant, applying similar tactics to most of these pieces. He used specifics from Monk’s keyboard technique — dissonant chords artfully banged like early funk, sparky downward runs at the close of an eight-bar segment. But his solos contained his own focused energy, through repetition and sweet blues phrases. As he subtly toyed with the audience, building tension without raising his volume or speed, he repeatedly prompted cheers even before his solos had ended.
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: November 23, 2008
me of Thelonious Monk’s music is more than 60 years old, but it still has magic properties. It keeps small-group jazz honest: his compositions still contain relevant lessons about melody and harmony, rhythm and open space. Above it all they are songs: you can whistle them.
Richard Perry/The New York Times
The pianist Marcus Roberts on Friday night, part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s weekend-long tribute to Thelonious Monk.
But his music is also playful and rugged enough to withstand any revisionism. You can rough it up, break it down, broaden or narrow it. In jazz nobody else’s music sounds as equally right played by one monophonic instrument or filtered through a big band.
Jazz at Lincoln Center held a Thelonious Monk festival over the weekend, and its biggest event was a program of large-ensemble music at Rose Theater, with the 16-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the pianist Marcus Roberts. In the past the organization and its house band have presented and played Monk’s music up and down. The orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, has particularly personalized the notion of big-band Monk. Its concerts in the past 15 years have included some of the large-ensemble Monk orchestrations written by Monk and Hall Overton in 1959 and 1963, but also new commissions from its own members, magnifying small-group Monk tunes.
The concert on Friday — with irritating, recited biographical intrusions by the actor Courtney B. Vance — drew on the orchestra’s own arrangements. They came in all stripes. The trombonist Vincent Gardner’s take on “Light Blue” used Gil Evans timbres — piccolos, muted trumpets — as well as a dramatically slow tempo, a solo-piano chorus and a finale that sounded like an orchestration of an improvised solo. (That trick — orchestrating a notated improvisation — was true to Monk: you can hear it on “Little Rootie Tootie,” from the recording of Monk’s 10-piece band at Town Hall in 1959. A preconcert audiovisual lecture by the historian Sam Stephenson, on the documentation of the rehearsals for that concert, demonstrated how Monk and Overton came to the idea.)
Other arrangements stressed rhythm first. Both “Bye-Ya,” arranged by the bassist Carlos Henriquez, and “Criss Cross,” arranged by the drummer Ali Jackson, used a 17th member: the percussionist Marc Quiñones. Playing congas, Mr. Quiñones built clave rhythms in conjunction with Mr. Jackson’s timbales.
Mr. Marsalis loves playing with orchestral effects — he has a cinematic imagination — and his arrangement of “Evidence” showed it. Each of the theme’s strangely spaced notes came dressed in different colors, using the full range of the band, no single part of it for two consecutive notes. The approach suggested a living being, some big beast moving a toe, then an eyebrow, then a neck muscle, then a tail.
In two songs whose melodies come in sprays of notes, the arrangers played up that effect throughout. “Skippy” was arranged by Ted Nash, who played his own alto-saxophone solo, full of frenetic hummingbird motions; in “Four in One,” Mr. Marsalis got the melody’s rippling spirit into his trumpet solo, making hungry, tearing phrases.
Through these diverse variations Mr. Roberts was a constant, applying similar tactics to most of these pieces. He used specifics from Monk’s keyboard technique — dissonant chords artfully banged like early funk, sparky downward runs at the close of an eight-bar segment. But his solos contained his own focused energy, through repetition and sweet blues phrases. As he subtly toyed with the audience, building tension without raising his volume or speed, he repeatedly prompted cheers even before his solos had ended.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Channel Thirteen PBS had an interesting report on online religion
Channel Thirteen PBS had an interesting report on online religion.
Click here: Episode no. 1212 ~ COVER . Online Religion Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Although most churchgoers still prefer religion the old-fashioned way, an increasing number, especially those under 30, are exploring religion online. A study in 2001 by the Pew Research Center found that one-in-four adults use the Internet for religious and spiritual purposes. That was seven years ago. Today, the number is probably considerably higher.
Click here: Episode no. 1212 ~ COVER . Online Religion Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Although most churchgoers still prefer religion the old-fashioned way, an increasing number, especially those under 30, are exploring religion online. A study in 2001 by the Pew Research Center found that one-in-four adults use the Internet for religious and spiritual purposes. That was seven years ago. Today, the number is probably considerably higher.
Angola: Musician Simmons Massini Happy With New Generation Musicians
Angola: Musician Simmons Massini Happy With New Generation Musicians
Angola Press Agency (Luanda)
19 November 2008Posted to the web 19 November 2008
Luanda
The Angolan music producer Simmons Massini expressed last Tuesday in Luanda his satisfaction at the emergence, in recent years, of new talented Angolan musicians.
According to him, from this moment on, this new wave of singers should be accompanied and supported, so that we can have artists of the level of famous musicians like Filipe Mukenga, Paulo Flores and Rui Mingas.
According to the producer, the fact that the new singers are committed to using more and more the Angolan rhythms constitutes a basis to achieve a successful career at international level.
Simmons Massini said that records piracy has been a heavy factor for the weak support artists get from business people, which makes it difficult for new musicians to achieve the stardom, even being very talented.
On the other hand, the producer stated that the lack of support from entrepreneurs caused the appearance of many home studios as alternative, which has been an incentive to piracy, having into account the distribution methods of the music recorded in those places, which normally end up going to the black market.
The musician also confirmed the release of his first gospel CD at the end of this month entitled "Poder do Alto" (Power from Above).
For this, Simmons Massini invited the artists Dodó Miranda, Afrikkanitha, Puto Prata, Totó, Edmázia and Cândido brothers, Walter and Nicol Ananás, to sing songs in styles like kizomba, rap and dance.
The singer intends to release for the first time in the history of the Angolan CD market, 40,000 copies throughout the country.
The music work will comprise 11 tracks and all of them have messages related to God and love.
Simmons Massini started his career in the 1980s in infant music festivals promoted by the National Radio of Angola (RNA), when he started to learn to play guitar under the guidance of the Angolan musician Teddy
Angola Press Agency (Luanda)
19 November 2008Posted to the web 19 November 2008
Luanda
The Angolan music producer Simmons Massini expressed last Tuesday in Luanda his satisfaction at the emergence, in recent years, of new talented Angolan musicians.
According to him, from this moment on, this new wave of singers should be accompanied and supported, so that we can have artists of the level of famous musicians like Filipe Mukenga, Paulo Flores and Rui Mingas.
According to the producer, the fact that the new singers are committed to using more and more the Angolan rhythms constitutes a basis to achieve a successful career at international level.
Simmons Massini said that records piracy has been a heavy factor for the weak support artists get from business people, which makes it difficult for new musicians to achieve the stardom, even being very talented.
On the other hand, the producer stated that the lack of support from entrepreneurs caused the appearance of many home studios as alternative, which has been an incentive to piracy, having into account the distribution methods of the music recorded in those places, which normally end up going to the black market.
The musician also confirmed the release of his first gospel CD at the end of this month entitled "Poder do Alto" (Power from Above).
For this, Simmons Massini invited the artists Dodó Miranda, Afrikkanitha, Puto Prata, Totó, Edmázia and Cândido brothers, Walter and Nicol Ananás, to sing songs in styles like kizomba, rap and dance.
The singer intends to release for the first time in the history of the Angolan CD market, 40,000 copies throughout the country.
The music work will comprise 11 tracks and all of them have messages related to God and love.
Simmons Massini started his career in the 1980s in infant music festivals promoted by the National Radio of Angola (RNA), when he started to learn to play guitar under the guidance of the Angolan musician Teddy
Nigeria: Move to Ban Public Music Underway
Nigeria: Move to Ban Public Music Underway
Leadership (Abuja)
11 November 2008Posted to the web 17 November 2008
Bamun Nii-Veror
The Chief Environmental Health Officer, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mallam Tijjani Ado has disclosed moves by the council to set up a task force that would clampdown on vendors of music label, Restaurants and others who play music aloud in the public.
Ado who said such music constitutes nuisance to residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), also noted that such act do not conform with the laws of the FCT apart from the health hazard it constitute.
The health officer who frowned at the situation in which about two or more operators of such businesses tune their music so loud that one does not know which music to listen to, is enough reason to caution them to bring it down to their own hearing and that of their immediate listeners.
He said the task force would commence work within the week, but was quick to explain that an advanced notice would be served to all those who operate such businesses before they finally swing into action.
Areas to be affected according to him, include motorparks, Nyanya, Karu, Garki, Wuse and most of the restaurants in town especially those patronised by fun seekers.
In view of this, Mallam Ado called on residents to desist from such act or face the full wrath of the law
Leadership (Abuja)
11 November 2008Posted to the web 17 November 2008
Bamun Nii-Veror
The Chief Environmental Health Officer, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mallam Tijjani Ado has disclosed moves by the council to set up a task force that would clampdown on vendors of music label, Restaurants and others who play music aloud in the public.
Ado who said such music constitutes nuisance to residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), also noted that such act do not conform with the laws of the FCT apart from the health hazard it constitute.
The health officer who frowned at the situation in which about two or more operators of such businesses tune their music so loud that one does not know which music to listen to, is enough reason to caution them to bring it down to their own hearing and that of their immediate listeners.
He said the task force would commence work within the week, but was quick to explain that an advanced notice would be served to all those who operate such businesses before they finally swing into action.
Areas to be affected according to him, include motorparks, Nyanya, Karu, Garki, Wuse and most of the restaurants in town especially those patronised by fun seekers.
In view of this, Mallam Ado called on residents to desist from such act or face the full wrath of the law
Zimbabwe: Collapse of Music Market Forces Players to Look Abroad
Zimbabwe: Collapse of Music Market Forces Players to Look Abroad
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)
20 November 2008Posted to the web 21 November 2008
THE declining sales of music have forced music producers to look to the foreign market to boost revenue and encourage aspiring musicians to look to music as a career, says a representative of a new recording studio.
Speaking at the launch of the Thulani Studios, co director of the studio, Bengt Post said the new studios would target festivals in Africa and appealed to donors to support the initiative that will look at all aspects of live performance including concept development, set design, costumer design, lighting design, stage direction and choreography.
"The purpose of the programme is to improve the performance of talented and promising musicians to a level where they can 'compete' internationally, i.e. perform and sell their albums abroad," said Bengt.
"Given the collapse of the local market, we must become an export industry -- there is no other way in the short to medium term. Our first point of focus in this regard is music festivals in Africa.
The launch was attended by a colourful mix of guests -- the National Arts Council, the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Culture Fund, fellow musicians, young and not so young, DJs, music journalists and members of the international community.
The new studios are focusing on launching their first two albums towards the end of the year -- Kuzangoma by Willom Tight and Famba Pore Pore by Adam Chisvo, produced with the financial assistance of Africalia, a Belgian NGO that supports cultural initiatives in Africa. The project is collaboration with Producciones Serrano, a Spanish Production company.
But the managers of Thulani Studios- Steve Sparx and Bengt- are not entirely new to the music arena. Four years ago, the group brought together eight of Zimbabwe's most creative musicians to collaborate on the production of an album to form the group "The Collaboration" whose end product was the album Hupenyu Kumusha. The group performed at the Sauti Za Busara Festival in Zanzibar. Their group's hit song, Urombo, was included on an album by one of South Africa's most successful groups, Revolution, and has featured on the musical channel Channel O for over two years.
The new breed in the music scene comes at a time when the music industry is teetering on the jaws of collapse as the productive sector of the economy seems to be getting little rewards. The music business in Zimbabwe is in very dire straits, and music being a luxury item, it is in even rougher waters than many businesses.
"Steve Sparx (co-director of Thulani Studios) spoke to a Director at the Zimbabwe Music Corporation who said that CD sales have declined to a point where they have pretty much come to a screeching halt. "No CD sales in Zimbabwe," said Begt
"In a poor country like ours, music is a luxury item, and who can afford such frivolous spending in Zimbabwe today? Here we are faced with a sad irony, one of many that confront us today. Zimbabwe has a very rich musical tradition that is respected all over the continent and beyond," said Sparx.
In Zimbabwe today, only a handful of musicians manage to make a decent living from their trade. Only a handful of musicians are able to afford to pay to record their music
Monday, November 17, 2008
Music the blood of African church life
Music the blood of African church life - Thursday, July 24, 2008
Congolese women singing in their own styles Photographer: Stanley W. Green PHOTO(S) AVAILABLE
When a people develops its own hymns with both vernacular words and music, it is good evidence that Christianity has truly taken root.
—Vida Chenoweth and Darlene Bee from “On Ethnic Music” in Practical Anthropology
ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) — Mission workers strive to reach across cultural divides to communicate the gospel, but Christian music from one culture imposed upon another can become an impediment. However, when music is created within a culture, the seeds of Christ have taken root.
“If people feel like they have to learn someone else’s language or they have to sing somebody else’s music in order to worship, all you’ve done is created an unnecessary cultural barrier for people to become followers of Jesus,” said James Krabill, senior executive for global ministries at Mennonite Mission Network.
Krabill was a co-author of Roberta King’s (associate professor of communication and ethnomusicology at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.) new book Music in the Life of the African Church. Other authors on the team were Jean Ngoya Kidula, associate professor of music at the University of Georgia, and Thomas A. Oduro, senior lecturer and principal at Good News Theological College and Seminary, Accra, Ghana.
“The role of music in Africa and among Africans is like the role of blood to the human body,” said Oduro. “There is no life in Africa without music.”
Krabill spent 14 years living and teaching in the Ivory Coast with his wife, Jeanette. For 3½ years, Krabill collected over 500 original compositions by members of the Harrist church among the Dida people—his first exploration in the field of ethnomusicology*.
Krabill worked with local church leaders to transcribe the hymns in the Dida language before translating them to analyze the lyrical content and theology. His work was some of the earliest Western efforts to explore the music of this indigenous African Christian church.
Especially in oral societies, music is a vehicle for communicating biblical truth, personal faith issues and church history, explained Krabill.
“What people sing in church becomes at least as or more important than what is preached,” said Krabill. “[Music] is what they carry back to their courtyards and houses.”
For a long time, mission workers have used music to communicate the gospel.
However, there is a crucial distinction between the approach to music during earlier, colonial-style missions and a modern, culturally-sensitive approach being taken by many mission workers today.
The former linked Christianity to Western culture by using traditional European or North American hymns and styles of music. This creates a dilemma for new African Christians.
“Using only Western music does not communicate to the personality of the African,” said Oduro. “Singing from a book, reading music notations and using a foreign language inhibits the African form of expression.”
Krabill said, “The mission of a gospel communicator is to learn enough about the culture to communicate effectively. This means knowing the language and knowing what the culture values so you can connect. Music becomes an important part of that.”
The field of ethnomusicology provides a critique for the colonial approach to mission. Music becomes a tool for Africans to fully express their faith in culturally-appropriate ways.
In one village, for example, residents had a plethora of praise songs to honor their chief. As they became followers of Christ, the community began to adapt the songs and traditions to praise their new leader: God.
At each worship service (worship is not reserved for Sundays) the entire congregation meets at the house of the head preacher to sing and dance him to church. After worship, they accompany him home again.
“It’s a way of saying ‘we’re going into God’s house to go hear the word of God and this is our messenger from God,’” said Krabill.
The recessional can last three hours and may be longer than the actual worship service.
It is something that North American Christians would never do—most drive to church on Sundays—but becomes an important form of worship for this African church, explained Krabill.
According to Music in the Life of the African Church, in 1900 there were 10 million Christians in Africa, only 9 percent of the population. In 2000, there were 360 million Christians, roughly half of the continent’s inhabitants.
“The growth of Christianity in Africa … is unprecedented,” said Oduro. “The greatest impetus of [this growth] is the use of African music, rhythms, music instruments and lyrics. Music has revolutionized the face of Christianity in Africa.”
As the church continues to grow in Africa and other parts of the world, Krabill’s work is a reminder of the importance of contextualizing the gospel.
“As new churches develop, the tendency is to bring in Western stuff,” said Krabill. “Ethnomusicology provides you a critique of that. We work with the leadership to encourage worship forms that make sense for them within their own culture.”
In Music in the Life of the African Church, Kidula wrote, “Different organizations often promote the types [of music] they think are most appropriate for worship. Because God cannot be contained by human limits, his creation cannot begin to understand or circumscribe the boundaries of the sounds that best speak of, or to, him.”
*Music in the Life of the African Church defines ethnomusicology as "a musicology that includes the study of music in culture and music as culture in all world contexts."
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Mourners Honor 'Mama Africa' Makeba
Mourners Honor 'Mama Africa' Makeba
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Nov. 15) - A trumpet wailed and poetry soared Saturday as South Africans remembered "Mama Africa," Miriam Makeba, for her music and her commitment to human rights.
The memorial service after Makeba's death Monday at the age of 76 followed two days of national mourning, with flags at half staff and books of condolences at the presidency and parliament — honors due a woman seen as an ambassador for the best values of her country, her continent and the world.
South African singer, composer, humanitarian and activist Miriam Makeba passed away after a concert in Italy on Nov. 10.
Makeba's celebrity and grace made her a powerful voice against apartheid, and she later championed women's and children's rights and other causes. She died after collapsing during a concert in Italy in honor of six immigrants from Ghana who were shot to death in September in an attack blamed on organized crime.
Mourners began arriving Saturday hours before the public memorial service began at a Johannesburg stadium.
Zindzi Mfundisi, a 20-year-old waitress and aspiring singer, was first in line. Mfundisi said she once met Makeba before a concert in South Africa. Her heroine encouraged her to stay in school.
"I know her as a mother, as a caring mother," Mfundisi said. "I love her humanity."
Moferefere Mofokeng brought his wife and two children to the service, rising early for a drive of several hours from the eastern town of Ermelo.
"This is my icon," said the 48-year-old engineer, his 5-year-old son Lebo looking up at him solemnly. "I have to be here with my family."
His 12-year-old daughter Cindy called Makeba "an inspiration."
The service drew a South African mosaic — young and old, white and black. Some wore sober black suits and church hats. Others wore vibrant traditional robes that recalled Makeba's own Afro chic — as well as the poet Langston Hughes's call to remember the dead with "one, last trumpet note of sun."
South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who was once married to Makeba, performed at the memorial. It was billed as a solo performance of her song "Welele," but the audience of about 1,500 joined in, clapping softly to the dirgelike rhythm set by Masekela.
Poet Maishe Maponya told an audience that included former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Makeba's grandchildren her "lips touched our hearts with hymns of beauty." Pallo Jordan, a former anti-apartheid activist who is now South Africa's minister of culture, said Makeba "deployed her music as a weapon in the struggle."
"She kept her eyes on the prize," Jordan said. "And that prize was a free South Africa in a free Africa in a better Africa in a better world."
The white government toppled in 1994 revoked Makeba's passport when she was traveling abroad to promote her appearance in the 1959 anti-apartheid documentary "Come Back, Africa." In 1963, she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott of South Africa. She returned to her homeland only after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990.
Smith Bopape, a 58-year-old Johannesburg resident who was among the first to arrive for the memorial service, said he would remember Makeba for a song she first sang in the 1970s, "A Promise," which spoke of her longing to go home, and for justice.
"And she did in the end" come home," Bopape said. "Although it took quite lengthy period."
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Nov. 15) - A trumpet wailed and poetry soared Saturday as South Africans remembered "Mama Africa," Miriam Makeba, for her music and her commitment to human rights.
The memorial service after Makeba's death Monday at the age of 76 followed two days of national mourning, with flags at half staff and books of condolences at the presidency and parliament — honors due a woman seen as an ambassador for the best values of her country, her continent and the world.
South African singer, composer, humanitarian and activist Miriam Makeba passed away after a concert in Italy on Nov. 10.
Makeba's celebrity and grace made her a powerful voice against apartheid, and she later championed women's and children's rights and other causes. She died after collapsing during a concert in Italy in honor of six immigrants from Ghana who were shot to death in September in an attack blamed on organized crime.
Mourners began arriving Saturday hours before the public memorial service began at a Johannesburg stadium.
Zindzi Mfundisi, a 20-year-old waitress and aspiring singer, was first in line. Mfundisi said she once met Makeba before a concert in South Africa. Her heroine encouraged her to stay in school.
"I know her as a mother, as a caring mother," Mfundisi said. "I love her humanity."
Moferefere Mofokeng brought his wife and two children to the service, rising early for a drive of several hours from the eastern town of Ermelo.
"This is my icon," said the 48-year-old engineer, his 5-year-old son Lebo looking up at him solemnly. "I have to be here with my family."
His 12-year-old daughter Cindy called Makeba "an inspiration."
The service drew a South African mosaic — young and old, white and black. Some wore sober black suits and church hats. Others wore vibrant traditional robes that recalled Makeba's own Afro chic — as well as the poet Langston Hughes's call to remember the dead with "one, last trumpet note of sun."
South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who was once married to Makeba, performed at the memorial. It was billed as a solo performance of her song "Welele," but the audience of about 1,500 joined in, clapping softly to the dirgelike rhythm set by Masekela.
Poet Maishe Maponya told an audience that included former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Makeba's grandchildren her "lips touched our hearts with hymns of beauty." Pallo Jordan, a former anti-apartheid activist who is now South Africa's minister of culture, said Makeba "deployed her music as a weapon in the struggle."
"She kept her eyes on the prize," Jordan said. "And that prize was a free South Africa in a free Africa in a better Africa in a better world."
The white government toppled in 1994 revoked Makeba's passport when she was traveling abroad to promote her appearance in the 1959 anti-apartheid documentary "Come Back, Africa." In 1963, she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott of South Africa. She returned to her homeland only after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990.
Smith Bopape, a 58-year-old Johannesburg resident who was among the first to arrive for the memorial service, said he would remember Makeba for a song she first sang in the 1970s, "A Promise," which spoke of her longing to go home, and for justice.
"And she did in the end" come home," Bopape said. "Although it took quite lengthy period."
Rosetta Reitz, Champion of Jazz Women, Dies at 84
Rosetta Reitz, Champion of Jazz Women, Dies at 84
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: November 14, 2008
Rosetta Reitz, an ardent feminist who scavenged through the early history of jazz and the blues to resurrect the music of long-forgotten women and to create a record label dedicated to them, died on Nov. 1 in Manhattan. She was 84.
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Jill Lynne, 1977
Rosetta Reitz
The cause was cardiopulmonary problems, her daughter Rebecca Reitz said.
Ms. Reitz (pronounced rights) came by her interest in jazz through her husband and male friends, but as the feminist movement gathered steam in the 1960s, she noticed something was missing: the music’s women. So she started collecting old 78s of performers like the trumpeter Valaida Snow, the pianist-singer Georgia White and a bevy of blues singers who had faded from memory.
At the same time, she unearthed lost songs by more famous artists like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and Ma Rainey.
“In that decade of the 1920s, when jazz was really being formulated and changing from an entertainment music to an art form,” Ms. Reitz said in an interview with The New York Times in 1980, “these women were extraordinarily important and instrumental in accomplishing that.”
She continued: “Louis Armstrong was a sideman on records in the ’20s with singers like Sippie Wallace, Eva Taylor, Hociel Thomas, Virginia Liston and Margaret Johnson. These women’s records were made as their records. But when they come out now, they’re reissued as Louis Armstrong records, when actually he was not that important on them.”
These women “had the power,” she told The Christian Science Monitor in 1984. “They hired the musicians and the chorus line, a lot of them wrote the music themselves, and they produced their own shows. They were more than just singers; they were symbols of success.”
Music was at first just one element in a busy life. Ms. Reitz was at different times a stockbroker, a bookstore proprietor and the owner of a greeting card business. She was a food columnist for The Village Voice, a professor, a classified-advertising manager and author of a book on mushrooms. She was a founding member of Older Women’s Liberation. She reared three daughters as a single parent.
Ms. Reitz also wrote “Menopause: A Positive Approach” (1977), considered one of the first books to look at menopause from the viewpoint of women and not doctors. She listened to her recordings of women while she wrote the book, many of them celebrating the strength of women rather than treating them as victims.
“I was so alone and needed to be nurtured, and I found I was getting it from them,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.
Ms. Reitz started Rosetta Records in 1979
with $10,000 she had borrowed from friends. Her routine was to scout out lost music, usually through record collectors. She then supervised the remastering of records that were often severely damaged; researched and wrote detailed liner notes; and designed graphics and found period photographs for the album covers. She personally wrapped each order and took it to the post office for shipment. (Around a dozen stores later carried the Rosetta label.)
Over the years Ms. Reitz went from vinyl recordings to tapes to CDs. She refused to give sales figures, but she did tell The Los Angeles Times that the four titles in her “independent women’s blues” series of compilations — including “Mean Mothers” — sold around 20,000 copies each. Some albums centered on themes like railroads or prisons.
Much of the music she recorded was in the public domain, but Ms. Reitz said she had devoted time and energy to tracking down the rights to some songs and to paying artists royalties when she could. Her label had not issued a recording in at least 13 years, but previous releases are sometimes sold on the Internet. And a number of mainstream labels have also reissued albums of the artists Ms. Reitz admired.
Rosetta Goldman was born in Utica, N.Y., on Sept. 28, 1924. She attended the University of Wisconsin for three years, moved to Manhattan and got a job at the Gotham Book Mart. She negotiated a loan to buy her own bookstore, the 4 Seasons, in Greenwich Village, where literary figures like Ralph Ellison were celebrated.
For years Ms. Reitz lobbied for a postage stamp honoring Bessie Smith, which was issued in 1994. She produced concerts by longtime female blues singers for the Newport Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
She married Robert Reitz when she was 23, and they divorced in the late 1960s. Besides her daughter Rebecca, of Manhattan, Ms. Reitz is survived by two other daughters, Robin Reitz of Tucson, and Rainbow Reitz of Manhattan; and a granddaughter.
Ms. Reitz did not always finish what she started. She had planned to make 26 albums, she said, but completed only 17. She never finished a book on women in jazz. And even her success with the Rosetta label had left her with a conviction that more work still had to be done.
“My hope and dream,” she said, “is that there won’t be a need for a women’s record company.”
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: November 14, 2008
Rosetta Reitz, an ardent feminist who scavenged through the early history of jazz and the blues to resurrect the music of long-forgotten women and to create a record label dedicated to them, died on Nov. 1 in Manhattan. She was 84.
Skip to next paragraph
Jill Lynne, 1977
Rosetta Reitz
The cause was cardiopulmonary problems, her daughter Rebecca Reitz said.
Ms. Reitz (pronounced rights) came by her interest in jazz through her husband and male friends, but as the feminist movement gathered steam in the 1960s, she noticed something was missing: the music’s women. So she started collecting old 78s of performers like the trumpeter Valaida Snow, the pianist-singer Georgia White and a bevy of blues singers who had faded from memory.
At the same time, she unearthed lost songs by more famous artists like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and Ma Rainey.
“In that decade of the 1920s, when jazz was really being formulated and changing from an entertainment music to an art form,” Ms. Reitz said in an interview with The New York Times in 1980, “these women were extraordinarily important and instrumental in accomplishing that.”
She continued: “Louis Armstrong was a sideman on records in the ’20s with singers like Sippie Wallace, Eva Taylor, Hociel Thomas, Virginia Liston and Margaret Johnson. These women’s records were made as their records. But when they come out now, they’re reissued as Louis Armstrong records, when actually he was not that important on them.”
These women “had the power,” she told The Christian Science Monitor in 1984. “They hired the musicians and the chorus line, a lot of them wrote the music themselves, and they produced their own shows. They were more than just singers; they were symbols of success.”
Music was at first just one element in a busy life. Ms. Reitz was at different times a stockbroker, a bookstore proprietor and the owner of a greeting card business. She was a food columnist for The Village Voice, a professor, a classified-advertising manager and author of a book on mushrooms. She was a founding member of Older Women’s Liberation. She reared three daughters as a single parent.
Ms. Reitz also wrote “Menopause: A Positive Approach” (1977), considered one of the first books to look at menopause from the viewpoint of women and not doctors. She listened to her recordings of women while she wrote the book, many of them celebrating the strength of women rather than treating them as victims.
“I was so alone and needed to be nurtured, and I found I was getting it from them,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.
Ms. Reitz started Rosetta Records in 1979
with $10,000 she had borrowed from friends. Her routine was to scout out lost music, usually through record collectors. She then supervised the remastering of records that were often severely damaged; researched and wrote detailed liner notes; and designed graphics and found period photographs for the album covers. She personally wrapped each order and took it to the post office for shipment. (Around a dozen stores later carried the Rosetta label.)
Over the years Ms. Reitz went from vinyl recordings to tapes to CDs. She refused to give sales figures, but she did tell The Los Angeles Times that the four titles in her “independent women’s blues” series of compilations — including “Mean Mothers” — sold around 20,000 copies each. Some albums centered on themes like railroads or prisons.
Much of the music she recorded was in the public domain, but Ms. Reitz said she had devoted time and energy to tracking down the rights to some songs and to paying artists royalties when she could. Her label had not issued a recording in at least 13 years, but previous releases are sometimes sold on the Internet. And a number of mainstream labels have also reissued albums of the artists Ms. Reitz admired.
Rosetta Goldman was born in Utica, N.Y., on Sept. 28, 1924. She attended the University of Wisconsin for three years, moved to Manhattan and got a job at the Gotham Book Mart. She negotiated a loan to buy her own bookstore, the 4 Seasons, in Greenwich Village, where literary figures like Ralph Ellison were celebrated.
For years Ms. Reitz lobbied for a postage stamp honoring Bessie Smith, which was issued in 1994. She produced concerts by longtime female blues singers for the Newport Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
She married Robert Reitz when she was 23, and they divorced in the late 1960s. Besides her daughter Rebecca, of Manhattan, Ms. Reitz is survived by two other daughters, Robin Reitz of Tucson, and Rainbow Reitz of Manhattan; and a granddaughter.
Ms. Reitz did not always finish what she started. She had planned to make 26 albums, she said, but completed only 17. She never finished a book on women in jazz. And even her success with the Rosetta label had left her with a conviction that more work still had to be done.
“My hope and dream,” she said, “is that there won’t be a need for a women’s record company.”
Friday, November 14, 2008
Kenya: Nairobi Orchestra in 60th Anniversary Gala Concert
Kenya: Nairobi Orchestra in 60th Anniversary Gala Concert
East African Business Week (Kampala)
9 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Brian Coutinho
Nairobi Orchestra has organized 60th Anniversary Gala Concert come Saturday 15th November at Braeburn Theatre, Nairobi. The concert will see guest conductor, Damian Penfold and guest soloist, Ivan Kiwuwa. Visiting conductor Damian Penfold has conducted two Christmas concerts here, in 2004 and 2006 and he makes a very welcome return. He has a lot of experience with amateur and professional musicians and was a finalist in the highly prestigious International Sibelius Competition for young conductors.
He conducted a programme of Vaughan Williams' music in London in September and, since this year is also the 50th anniversary of that composer's death we are, at Damian's suggestion, including Vaughan Williams' lyrical Norfolk Rhapsody. Perfomers will incude Nicolai of Merry Wives of Windsor Overture, Schumann the Piano Concerto, Grixti, an Australian in Kenya and others. Ivan Kiwuwa a visiting soloist is a Ugandan pianist, who delighted audiences when he gave an NMS recital at the Kenya National Theatre two years ago.
Graduate, postgraduate and now Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Ivan is the winner of many prizes and scholarships, including the Martin Musical Scholarship, the Sevenoaks Festival Young Musician of the Year and the Royal Overseas League's Philip Crawshaw Memorial Prize
East African Business Week (Kampala)
9 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Brian Coutinho
Nairobi Orchestra has organized 60th Anniversary Gala Concert come Saturday 15th November at Braeburn Theatre, Nairobi. The concert will see guest conductor, Damian Penfold and guest soloist, Ivan Kiwuwa. Visiting conductor Damian Penfold has conducted two Christmas concerts here, in 2004 and 2006 and he makes a very welcome return. He has a lot of experience with amateur and professional musicians and was a finalist in the highly prestigious International Sibelius Competition for young conductors.
He conducted a programme of Vaughan Williams' music in London in September and, since this year is also the 50th anniversary of that composer's death we are, at Damian's suggestion, including Vaughan Williams' lyrical Norfolk Rhapsody. Perfomers will incude Nicolai of Merry Wives of Windsor Overture, Schumann the Piano Concerto, Grixti, an Australian in Kenya and others. Ivan Kiwuwa a visiting soloist is a Ugandan pianist, who delighted audiences when he gave an NMS recital at the Kenya National Theatre two years ago.
Graduate, postgraduate and now Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Ivan is the winner of many prizes and scholarships, including the Martin Musical Scholarship, the Sevenoaks Festival Young Musician of the Year and the Royal Overseas League's Philip Crawshaw Memorial Prize
"Mama Afrika" Miriam Makeba
"Mama Afrika" was not only a singer but a humanitarian and an activist. This photographic tribute to her memory records a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in March 2008, eight months before her death.
Congo-Kinshasa: South African UN Goodwill Ambassador Meets Rape Survivors
UN News Service (New York)
13 March 2008Posted to the web 13 March 2008
Women who have survived sexual violence endure a "triple tragedy" - physical, psychological and social - in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South African singer and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Goodwill Ambassador Miriam Makeba has said.
Ms. Makeba, on a four-day visit to the capital Kinshasa, is touring small farming projects which seek to help rape survivors feed their families and boost their self-reliance. The women taking part in the scheme have received seeds, tools and agricultural training from FAO.
"Women guarantee the survival of 80 per cent of the households in DRC. Yet despite their crucial role for the well-being of the family, they are frequently victims to rape and sexual violence," she said, adding that the systematic rape of women in recent years is the "most horrifying feature of the complex emergency" in the vast Central African nation.
In the volatile North Kivu province alone, 27,000 cases of sexual violence were recorded in 2006, the singer, who was appointed FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, noted.
She also pointed out that despite the DRC's "vast potential for economic growth," 70 per cent of the population faces food insecurity, malnutrition rates are rising and approximately 3.5 million people have lost their lives in the past two decades to violence, famine and disease.
In concert with other UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local authorities, FAO's Emergency Coordination and Rehabilitation Unit has helped 500,000 households, or over two million people, and intends to increase their assistance to aid some 800,000 households this year.
The agency's projects, prioritizing vulnerable groups such as internally displaced persons (IDPs), malnourished children and ex-combatants, have provided farming and fishing equipment, seeds and disease-free plants and road repairs to bolster market access.
"I would like my visit to this country to be an opportunity to renew and strengthen our commitment and ensure that innocent victims suffering from hunger have access to the necessary resources to cultivate their hope for a better life," said Ms. Makeba, recipient of the 1986 Dag Hammarskjöld Prize for Peace.
While in the DRC, she also plans to visit a project for families impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as meet with high-ranking Government officials and representative of UN agencies and NGOs
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sang the Music of Her Roots
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Adiel IsmailCape Town
Singer, song writer, political activist and actress Miriam Zenzi Makeba, or "Mama Africa" as she was popularly known, was born in Johannesburg on March 4 1932.
She made her debut as a vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in the 1950s. After leaving South Africa to star in the Todd Matshikiza musical, King Kong, she attracted international attention with her vocal ability and released many famous hits such as "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika" while abroad.
When she attempted to return to South Africa after her mother's death, Miriam was refused entry. She lost her passport and after she became known as an anti apartheid activist abroad, her music was banned. She stayed in exile for 31 years, returning only after Nelson Mandela was released and persuaded her to come back.
8
Makeba captured the hearts of many South Africans as some of her songs dealt with the political plight of blacks oppressed by the apartheid regime.
In her autobiography, "Makeba: My Story," she wrote: "I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became the voice and image of Africa and the people."
Amongst her top accolades is a joint Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. She was voted 38th of the "Top 100 Great South Africans" and was given the "International Award for Social Engagement" by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
As "Mama Africa's" music continues to reach both the heights and depths of her listeners' emotions, she will always be remembered as an instrument with the ability not only to speak out but to sing out against all social vices
Congo-Kinshasa: South African UN Goodwill Ambassador Meets Rape Survivors
UN News Service (New York)
13 March 2008Posted to the web 13 March 2008
Women who have survived sexual violence endure a "triple tragedy" - physical, psychological and social - in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South African singer and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Goodwill Ambassador Miriam Makeba has said.
Ms. Makeba, on a four-day visit to the capital Kinshasa, is touring small farming projects which seek to help rape survivors feed their families and boost their self-reliance. The women taking part in the scheme have received seeds, tools and agricultural training from FAO.
"Women guarantee the survival of 80 per cent of the households in DRC. Yet despite their crucial role for the well-being of the family, they are frequently victims to rape and sexual violence," she said, adding that the systematic rape of women in recent years is the "most horrifying feature of the complex emergency" in the vast Central African nation.
In the volatile North Kivu province alone, 27,000 cases of sexual violence were recorded in 2006, the singer, who was appointed FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, noted.
She also pointed out that despite the DRC's "vast potential for economic growth," 70 per cent of the population faces food insecurity, malnutrition rates are rising and approximately 3.5 million people have lost their lives in the past two decades to violence, famine and disease.
In concert with other UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local authorities, FAO's Emergency Coordination and Rehabilitation Unit has helped 500,000 households, or over two million people, and intends to increase their assistance to aid some 800,000 households this year.
The agency's projects, prioritizing vulnerable groups such as internally displaced persons (IDPs), malnourished children and ex-combatants, have provided farming and fishing equipment, seeds and disease-free plants and road repairs to bolster market access.
"I would like my visit to this country to be an opportunity to renew and strengthen our commitment and ensure that innocent victims suffering from hunger have access to the necessary resources to cultivate their hope for a better life," said Ms. Makeba, recipient of the 1986 Dag Hammarskjöld Prize for Peace.
While in the DRC, she also plans to visit a project for families impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as meet with high-ranking Government officials and representative of UN agencies and NGOs
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sang the Music of Her Roots
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Adiel IsmailCape Town
Singer, song writer, political activist and actress Miriam Zenzi Makeba, or "Mama Africa" as she was popularly known, was born in Johannesburg on March 4 1932.
She made her debut as a vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in the 1950s. After leaving South Africa to star in the Todd Matshikiza musical, King Kong, she attracted international attention with her vocal ability and released many famous hits such as "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika" while abroad.
When she attempted to return to South Africa after her mother's death, Miriam was refused entry. She lost her passport and after she became known as an anti apartheid activist abroad, her music was banned. She stayed in exile for 31 years, returning only after Nelson Mandela was released and persuaded her to come back.
8
Makeba captured the hearts of many South Africans as some of her songs dealt with the political plight of blacks oppressed by the apartheid regime.
In her autobiography, "Makeba: My Story," she wrote: "I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became the voice and image of Africa and the people."
Amongst her top accolades is a joint Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. She was voted 38th of the "Top 100 Great South Africans" and was given the "International Award for Social Engagement" by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
As "Mama Africa's" music continues to reach both the heights and depths of her listeners' emotions, she will always be remembered as an instrument with the ability not only to speak out but to sing out against all social vices
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Adopting New Healthy “Hot” Water Habits
http://circa50-liberated-boomer-communi1.blogspot.com/2008/11/virtual-picket-and-strike-action.html
http://circa50-liberated-boomer-communi1.blogspot.com/2008/11/heart-attacks-and-drinking-warm-water.html
http://circa50-liberated-boomer-communi1.blogspot.com/2008/11/heart-attacks-and-drinking-warm-water.html
Adopting New “Hot” Water Habits
Epson salt will flush toxins and heavy metals from the body. Taken internally, Epson Salt acts as a detoxifying agent for colon cleansing. The magnesium sulfate is absorbed through the skin, such as in a bath, it draws toxins from the body, soothese the nerves, reduces swelling, relaxes muscles, is a natural emollient and exfoliator.
Epson salt will flush toxins and heavy metals from the body. Taken internally, Epson Salt acts as a detoxifying agent for colon cleansing. The magnesium sulfate is absorbed through the skin, such as in a bath, it draws toxins from the body, soothese the nerves, reduces swelling, relaxes muscles, is a natural emollient and exfoliator.
Following are several recipes:
1 cup epsom salt, 1 handful sea salt, 2 tablespoons bath oil;
Equal parts epsom salt, baking powder and ginger powder. The ginger opens up pores and promotes sweating (thereby ridding the body of toxins) and the epsom salt has purifying properties
1 cup epsom salt, 1 handful sea salt, 2 tablespoons bath oil;
Equal parts epsom salt, baking powder and ginger powder. The ginger opens up pores and promotes sweating (thereby ridding the body of toxins) and the epsom salt has purifying properties
Simply soak in warm water and 2 cups of epsom salt.
If available, add some melted cocoa butter for extra moisturizing -- but watch out; it will make the tub very slippery.
Rejuvenating Detoxifying Bath: Use about 2 quarts 3% hydrogen peroxide to a tub of warm water. Soak at least 1/2 hour, adding hot water as needed to maintain a comfortable water temperature.
Rejuvenating Detoxifying Bath: Add 6 ounces of 35% hydrogen peroxide to a tub of water. You may increase up to 2 cups. Soak at least 1/2 hour.Alternate Bath: Add 1/2 cup 35% hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 cup sea salt, 1/2 cup baking soda or Epson salts to water and soak.
RECIPE FOR A DETOX BATHDaily full bath2 Cups Epson Salt (or Sea Salt)2 Cups Hydrogen Peroxide (3% solution).Soak for 20 Minutes
Virtual Picket and Strike action against the healing Line
This season may require us to “Picket” and Strike action the healing Line. The healing Line Strike action (“Picket”), often simply called a healing Line strike, is a refusal to patronize the healing caused by poor eating habits.
This season may require us to save the Healing Line for the miraculous.
Picket the healing line by:
This season may require us to save the Healing Line for the miraculous.
Picket the healing line by:
1. Adopting spiritual habits that support adopting healthy habits
2. Adopting healthy healing daily habits
3. Fellowshipping with more family and friends who live holy, wholly, and healthy
4. Limiting the “ham sandwich” and choose to eat and live healthy
Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water
Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water
This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about Heart Attacks The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and can lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack... A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting . Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line . You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.
....... you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send to a friend. It could save a life. So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.
Look And Live Richard D'Abreu Jr. Rave Reviews Download $0.99 Rate-Comment-Review
Click here: Amazon.com: Look And Live: MP3 Downloads: Richard D'Abreu Jr.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
. "Look and Live" is a delicious music delicacy for us mere mortals, November 6, 2008
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Philip Bingham (Montclair) - See all my reviews "Look and Live" is not a coincidence...though the markets have traded down, "Look and Live" has spiraled back-up to rank in the top ten personal gospel-jazz songs for hard times in 2008-2009. "Look and Live" is a delicious music delicacy for us mere mortals, usually too precious for human consumption. "Look and Live" takes Take 6 and Manhattan Transfer Vocalies and morphs them to another level. The Saxophone offers a smoothe innovative shift to/from emotional gospel shouts to jazz riffs. "Look and Live" makes my heart dance, causes my feet to tap positive emotions in Morse code, and refreshes my soul. PB
Comment Permalink Why no voting buttons? We don't let customers vote on their own reviews, so the voting buttons appear only when you look at reviews submitted by others.
Talk of the Town , November 10, 2008
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D. Manning (Hempstead,NY) - See all my reviews Move over world get Ready!!!!!!!!!!get Ready!!!!!!!!!!for a new sound in the christian music. Saxophone sound offer a smoothe innoviative to our everyday spiritual lift each of us in the morning. I truly enjoy the sound. Im looking forward to the entire album for Mr D'Abreu. God blessing and guide you to your album coming.
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!!!, November 7, 2008
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Moonchild "Moonchild" (EUR) - See all my reviewsI LOVE this! What a great production and sound. I look fw to hearing more.
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Click here: Amazon.com: Look And Live: MP3 Downloads: Richard D'Abreu Jr.
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
. "Look and Live" is a delicious music delicacy for us mere mortals, November 6, 2008
By
Philip Bingham (Montclair) - See all my reviews "Look and Live" is not a coincidence...though the markets have traded down, "Look and Live" has spiraled back-up to rank in the top ten personal gospel-jazz songs for hard times in 2008-2009. "Look and Live" is a delicious music delicacy for us mere mortals, usually too precious for human consumption. "Look and Live" takes Take 6 and Manhattan Transfer Vocalies and morphs them to another level. The Saxophone offers a smoothe innovative shift to/from emotional gospel shouts to jazz riffs. "Look and Live" makes my heart dance, causes my feet to tap positive emotions in Morse code, and refreshes my soul. PB
Comment Permalink Why no voting buttons? We don't let customers vote on their own reviews, so the voting buttons appear only when you look at reviews submitted by others.
Talk of the Town , November 10, 2008
By
D. Manning (Hempstead,NY) - See all my reviews Move over world get Ready!!!!!!!!!!get Ready!!!!!!!!!!for a new sound in the christian music. Saxophone sound offer a smoothe innoviative to our everyday spiritual lift each of us in the morning. I truly enjoy the sound. Im looking forward to the entire album for Mr D'Abreu. God blessing and guide you to your album coming.
Comment Permalink Was this review helpful to you?
!!!, November 7, 2008
By
Moonchild "Moonchild" (EUR) - See all my reviewsI LOVE this! What a great production and sound. I look fw to hearing more.
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Eli Wilson’s new book, “Equipping The Church Choir for Ministry”
Eli Wilson’s new book, “Equipping The Church Choir for Ministry” hasfinally arrived. You can order your copy today. The books are $12.00 eachplus $3.00 shipping. Our address is:Eli Wilson MinistriesP.O. Box 680712Orlando, Florida 32868-0712
Eli Wilson Ministries Presents A New Church Music
Resource Book
Resource Book
“Equipping The Church Choir for Ministry”
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Mail To The Following Address:
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(407)703-4359
http://www.eliwilson.com/
Email: eli@eliwilson.com
Order Form
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City ______________________ State____________ Zip _________
3. Contact Phone #: ___________________________
4. Email Address: ______________________________
“Equipping The Church Choir for Ministry” – Number of Copies ______
Mail To The Following Address:
Eli Wilson Ministries
P.O. Box 680712
Orlando, Florida 32868-0712
(407)703-4359
http://www.eliwilson.com/
Email: eli@eliwilson.com
Robert Kennedy Things are moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years.
“Things are moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years. There is no question about it. In the next 40 years (in about 30 to 40 years), a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has … prejudice exists and probably will continue to … but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo,” Kennedy said May 27, 1968, approximately one week before he was assassinated.
Piano Works by Those Who Escaped the Nazis
Piano Works by Those Who Escaped the Nazis
By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: November 11, 2008
Over the last 20 years conductors like James Conlon and John Mauceri and ensembles like the Hawthorne String Quartet have made a specialty of works by Jewish composers whose careers were derailed during the Nazi era. They focused at first on composers who were killed, among them Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein, but lately they have included composers who survived by fleeing their homelands, and non-Jewish German composers who resisted the regime.
The Royal College of Music, in Toronto, has joined in this exploration, and made an estimable recording of music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in 2006. Now its faculty ensemble, Artists of the Royal Conservatory, or ARC ensemble, is presenting “Music in Exile: Émigré Composers of the 1930s,” an ambitious, five-day overview at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The series, directed by Simon Wynberg, focuses mostly on the composers who escaped to Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.
The opening concert, on Sunday, coincided with the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a night of Nazi rioting in which hundreds of synagogues were burned, thousands of homes and businesses vandalized, and about 30,000 men and boys (Jews, not rioters) arrested. Before the performance Ernest W. Michel, a trustee of the museum, spoke about his memories of Kristallnacht (he was 15), and Mr. Conlon, the honorary chairman of ARC, spoke about the importance of performing the forgotten music of the era.
The first program was to have included works by Walter Braunfels, who was half Jewish, and Adolf Busch, Click here: YouTube - Bachs Chaconne played by Adolf Busch 1/3 who was not Jewish but considered the Nazis contemptible, refused their order to replace Jewish musicians in his string quartet and eventually left Germany. (He was also Rudolf Serkin’s father-in-law.) Alas, a death in the family of an ensemble player forced ARC to replace those pieces with piano quintets by Franz Reizenstein and Weinberg that also appear on later programs.
Both these rarities can stand two hearings in close succession, and the Weinberg Piano Quintet (Op. 18) is a real find. Weinberg fled Poland for the Soviet Union in 1939. He became friendly with Shostakovich, who wrote to Stalin on his behalf when he was arrested during the Soviet Union’s anti-Semitic persecutions in the early 1950s.
The quintet, composed in 1944, is an intense but not particularly troubled work: its rich, Brahmsian string writing is consistently vigorous and sometimes steamy, with singing solo lines that travel among the instruments, a vibrant dance figure in its finale and surprising structural touches. Shostakovich’s influence is slight, but you hear it in the accent and shape of the piano line.
The Reizenstein Quintet in D (Op. 23), from 1948, is also a stone’s throw from late Brahms. It begins and ends with the barest hint of modernist acidity but is mostly given to lush textures and sumptuous themes. The ARC musicians performed both scores with passion, polish and vitality. And Mr. Wynberg provides an extraordinary amount of information about the era and the music in the beautifully produced 104-page program book.
“Music in Exile: Émigré Composers of the 1930s” runs through Thursday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 18 First Place, at West Street and Battery Place, Lower Manhattan; (646) 437-4202, mjhnyc.org.
By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: November 11, 2008
Over the last 20 years conductors like James Conlon and John Mauceri and ensembles like the Hawthorne String Quartet have made a specialty of works by Jewish composers whose careers were derailed during the Nazi era. They focused at first on composers who were killed, among them Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein, but lately they have included composers who survived by fleeing their homelands, and non-Jewish German composers who resisted the regime.
The Royal College of Music, in Toronto, has joined in this exploration, and made an estimable recording of music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in 2006. Now its faculty ensemble, Artists of the Royal Conservatory, or ARC ensemble, is presenting “Music in Exile: Émigré Composers of the 1930s,” an ambitious, five-day overview at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The series, directed by Simon Wynberg, focuses mostly on the composers who escaped to Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.
The opening concert, on Sunday, coincided with the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a night of Nazi rioting in which hundreds of synagogues were burned, thousands of homes and businesses vandalized, and about 30,000 men and boys (Jews, not rioters) arrested. Before the performance Ernest W. Michel, a trustee of the museum, spoke about his memories of Kristallnacht (he was 15), and Mr. Conlon, the honorary chairman of ARC, spoke about the importance of performing the forgotten music of the era.
The first program was to have included works by Walter Braunfels, who was half Jewish, and Adolf Busch, Click here: YouTube - Bachs Chaconne played by Adolf Busch 1/3 who was not Jewish but considered the Nazis contemptible, refused their order to replace Jewish musicians in his string quartet and eventually left Germany. (He was also Rudolf Serkin’s father-in-law.) Alas, a death in the family of an ensemble player forced ARC to replace those pieces with piano quintets by Franz Reizenstein and Weinberg that also appear on later programs.
Both these rarities can stand two hearings in close succession, and the Weinberg Piano Quintet (Op. 18) is a real find. Weinberg fled Poland for the Soviet Union in 1939. He became friendly with Shostakovich, who wrote to Stalin on his behalf when he was arrested during the Soviet Union’s anti-Semitic persecutions in the early 1950s.
The quintet, composed in 1944, is an intense but not particularly troubled work: its rich, Brahmsian string writing is consistently vigorous and sometimes steamy, with singing solo lines that travel among the instruments, a vibrant dance figure in its finale and surprising structural touches. Shostakovich’s influence is slight, but you hear it in the accent and shape of the piano line.
The Reizenstein Quintet in D (Op. 23), from 1948, is also a stone’s throw from late Brahms. It begins and ends with the barest hint of modernist acidity but is mostly given to lush textures and sumptuous themes. The ARC musicians performed both scores with passion, polish and vitality. And Mr. Wynberg provides an extraordinary amount of information about the era and the music in the beautifully produced 104-page program book.
“Music in Exile: Émigré Composers of the 1930s” runs through Thursday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 18 First Place, at West Street and Battery Place, Lower Manhattan; (646) 437-4202, mjhnyc.org.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Miriam Makeba “Mama Africa” Taking Africa With Her to the World
Taking Africa With Her to the World
Published: November 10, 2008
To be the voice of a nation speaking to the wider world is a tough mission for any performer. To be the voice of an entire continent is exponentially more difficult. Both were mantles that the South African singer Miriam Makeba took on willingly and forcefully. Despite her lifelong claim that she was not a political singer, she became “Mama Africa” with an activist’s tenacity and a musician’s ear. She died Sunday, at 76, after a concert in Italy.
Related
Miriam Makeba, Singer, Dies at 76 (November 11, 2008)
Times Topics: Miriam Makeba
'Pata Pata' by Miriam Makeba, from the 2004 Heads Up album, Reflections
Salvatore Laporta/Associated Press
Miriam Makeba performing barefoot at a concert in Castel Volturno, in southern Italy, on Sunday night, just before she died.
Treating her listeners as one global community, Ms. Makeba sang in any language she chose, from her own Xhosa to the East African lingua franca Swahili to Portuguese to Yiddish. She also took sides: against South African apartheid and for a worldwide movement against racism, to the point of derailing her career when she married the black power advocate Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s. (They were divorced in the mid-1970s.) Even during three decades of life as an exile and expatriate — the South African government revoked her passport in 1960 — she made it clear that South Africa was her home and her bedrock as an artist.
Her voice, more properly voices, were unstoppable. Always cosmopolitan, Ms. Makeba knew her Billie Holiday as well as old Xhosa melodies like “The Click Song,” with its percussive syllables, which became one of her international hits. She could sound light, lilting and girlish; she could be flirtatious, bluesy or utterly exuberant. Her voice also held a layer of rawer, sharper exhortation: the tone of village songs and spirit invocations, the traditions that were her birthright — songs she revisited on her 1988 album “Sangoma” (Warner Brothers). Her huge repertory didn’t feature strident protest songs but in love songs and lullabies, party songs and calls for unity there was an indomitable will to survive: a joyful tenacity that could translate as both deep cultural memory and immediate defiance.
She must have been an exotic apparition in the 1960s, upbeat and already a star in South Africa, wowing Europe and then arriving in the United States with support from Harry Belafonte. She had already, bravely, sung in an anti-apartheid documentary, “Come Back, Africa.” In exile she was still an ambassador, showing America and the world an Africa full of vibrant, irresistible sounds: the loping mbube grooves that Paul Simon would rediscover decades later, the flow of African words, the grain of her voice.
Videos on YouTube from 1966 show Ms. Makeba, with her musicians in jackets and ties, performing in an elegant long dress that also happens to have a leopard-skin pattern: supper-club Africana that’s at home on any continent. Her music was different but not forbidding, especially with her own charisma to introduce it. Before anyone was tossing around terms like “world music,” she was creating it, making her heritage portable while preserving its essence.
She was never a purist, but always proud of her roots.
Ms. Makeba arrived during America’s civil-rights struggles and performed at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s marches. A visible reminder that discrimination stretched beyond the United States, she denounced apartheid in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1963. It’s impossible to guess what she may have been thinking when she sang her 1967 “Pata Pata,” with its bits of English narration — “ ‘Pata Pata’ is the name of a dance we do down Johannesburg way” — in the full knowledge that she herself would not be welcome back in Johannesburg until a regime change.
Prohibited from returning to South Africa, she settled instead in Guinea, in West Africa, where she participated in that country’s government-assisted movement toward musical “authenticité” — merging traditional styles with new instruments — and let her repertory stretch further. For a while she also joined Guinea’s United Nations delegation.
Ms. Makeba didn’t have the career of a pop singer, thinking about hits and trends and markets. She followed conscience and history instead, becoming a symbol of integrity and pan-Africanism — lending her imprimatur, for instance, by performing on Mr. Simon’s 1987 “Graceland” tour, which carried South African music worldwide while implicitly pointing to the apartheid that still prevailed at home. Through five decades of making music, down to her final studio album, “Reflections,” in 2004 and concerts till the day she died, she sang with a voice that was unmistakably African, and just as unmistakably fearless.
Published: November 10, 2008
To be the voice of a nation speaking to the wider world is a tough mission for any performer. To be the voice of an entire continent is exponentially more difficult. Both were mantles that the South African singer Miriam Makeba took on willingly and forcefully. Despite her lifelong claim that she was not a political singer, she became “Mama Africa” with an activist’s tenacity and a musician’s ear. She died Sunday, at 76, after a concert in Italy.
Related
Miriam Makeba, Singer, Dies at 76 (November 11, 2008)
Times Topics: Miriam Makeba
'Pata Pata' by Miriam Makeba, from the 2004 Heads Up album, Reflections
Salvatore Laporta/Associated Press
Miriam Makeba performing barefoot at a concert in Castel Volturno, in southern Italy, on Sunday night, just before she died.
Treating her listeners as one global community, Ms. Makeba sang in any language she chose, from her own Xhosa to the East African lingua franca Swahili to Portuguese to Yiddish. She also took sides: against South African apartheid and for a worldwide movement against racism, to the point of derailing her career when she married the black power advocate Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s. (They were divorced in the mid-1970s.) Even during three decades of life as an exile and expatriate — the South African government revoked her passport in 1960 — she made it clear that South Africa was her home and her bedrock as an artist.
Her voice, more properly voices, were unstoppable. Always cosmopolitan, Ms. Makeba knew her Billie Holiday as well as old Xhosa melodies like “The Click Song,” with its percussive syllables, which became one of her international hits. She could sound light, lilting and girlish; she could be flirtatious, bluesy or utterly exuberant. Her voice also held a layer of rawer, sharper exhortation: the tone of village songs and spirit invocations, the traditions that were her birthright — songs she revisited on her 1988 album “Sangoma” (Warner Brothers). Her huge repertory didn’t feature strident protest songs but in love songs and lullabies, party songs and calls for unity there was an indomitable will to survive: a joyful tenacity that could translate as both deep cultural memory and immediate defiance.
She must have been an exotic apparition in the 1960s, upbeat and already a star in South Africa, wowing Europe and then arriving in the United States with support from Harry Belafonte. She had already, bravely, sung in an anti-apartheid documentary, “Come Back, Africa.” In exile she was still an ambassador, showing America and the world an Africa full of vibrant, irresistible sounds: the loping mbube grooves that Paul Simon would rediscover decades later, the flow of African words, the grain of her voice.
Videos on YouTube from 1966 show Ms. Makeba, with her musicians in jackets and ties, performing in an elegant long dress that also happens to have a leopard-skin pattern: supper-club Africana that’s at home on any continent. Her music was different but not forbidding, especially with her own charisma to introduce it. Before anyone was tossing around terms like “world music,” she was creating it, making her heritage portable while preserving its essence.
She was never a purist, but always proud of her roots.
Ms. Makeba arrived during America’s civil-rights struggles and performed at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s marches. A visible reminder that discrimination stretched beyond the United States, she denounced apartheid in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1963. It’s impossible to guess what she may have been thinking when she sang her 1967 “Pata Pata,” with its bits of English narration — “ ‘Pata Pata’ is the name of a dance we do down Johannesburg way” — in the full knowledge that she herself would not be welcome back in Johannesburg until a regime change.
Prohibited from returning to South Africa, she settled instead in Guinea, in West Africa, where she participated in that country’s government-assisted movement toward musical “authenticité” — merging traditional styles with new instruments — and let her repertory stretch further. For a while she also joined Guinea’s United Nations delegation.
Ms. Makeba didn’t have the career of a pop singer, thinking about hits and trends and markets. She followed conscience and history instead, becoming a symbol of integrity and pan-Africanism — lending her imprimatur, for instance, by performing on Mr. Simon’s 1987 “Graceland” tour, which carried South African music worldwide while implicitly pointing to the apartheid that still prevailed at home. Through five decades of making music, down to her final studio album, “Reflections,” in 2004 and concerts till the day she died, she sang with a voice that was unmistakably African, and just as unmistakably fearless.
Monday, November 10, 2008
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sings to the Last
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sings to the Last
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Miriam Makeba, the South African singing star whose career took off in the 1950s and who famously appeared at the United Nations to condemn apartheid, has died suddenly after a concert in Italy. She was 76.
Makeba, widely known as Mama Afrika, collapsed on Sunday as she was leaving the stage in the town of Castel Volturno, near Naples, according to a statement issued on Monday by South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. "She received paramedic assistance and was rushed to hospital where she unfortunately passed way," Dlamini Zuma said.
News agencies reported that she appeared at a concert to support an Italian journalist being threatened by the local mafia. In September, six African immigrants were killed in the town when gunmen from the mafia sprayed a group of immigrants with gunfire in an alleged drug-dealing dispute.
Dlamini Zuma paid tribute to Makeba as "one of the greatest songstresses of our time... Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid colonialism through the art of song."
Makeba has been described as Africa's first superstar. She first rose to fame professionally with the Manhattan Brothers in the early 1950s, and subsequently travelled abroad to perform the lead female role in the musical, King Kong. She was promoted by Harry Belafonte in the United States, becoming best known to general audiences for her hits "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" (Qongqothwane) and "Malaika."
She was at one stage married to Stokely Carmichael and lived for some years in Guinea. She was stripped of her South African citizenship after becoming an anti-apartheid icon and returned home only after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.
In recent years, she has been a "goodwill ambassador" for South Africa and for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In March this year, she highlighted the plight of woman victims of sexual violence during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nigeria: Celebrities in Retirement Makeba, Still Mama Africa
Daily Champion (Lagos)
COLUMN5 February 2007Posted to the web 5 February 2007
Victor NzeLagos
She told the world that the March 31 to April 1, 2006 seventh Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa, was to be her last stage appearance before settling into a much desired life in retirement. But that was not to be.
The Jazz festival came and went and she never retired, because on April 29, 2006, she made an unprecedented appearance at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where she practically stole the show from such other veterans like Onyeka Onwenu.
That AMAA appearance on a Nigerian stage was to be first time since 28 years, 7 months ago she performed at the 2nd Festival of Black Arts, otherwise called Festac 77 in Lagos.
Such has been the style of the indefatigable songstress, fondly called Mama Africa, who so dominated the African music scence and was so popular here even among those who barely understood her South African Xhosa lyrics.
Indeed, if the African music were to have a hall of fame, this woman of songs would occupy undoubtedly the most prominent position in it, at least to underscore her position and status as the most popular voice and name out of Africa.
With a music career that spans over six decades and or which time she put out nearly a dozen albums excluding singles, Miriam Makeba strides the African music terrain with such familiarity that could give off the false impression about her true country of origin.
Born on March 4, 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 'the Empress of African Song' has for many become synonymous with South African music, just as she put African music on the world map in the 60s.Makeba began her professional career in
1950, when she joined Johannesburg group, the Cuban Brothers. She came to national prominence during the mid-50s as a member of local leading touring group, the Manhattan Brothers. She performed widely with her outfit in South Africa, Rhodesia and the Congo until 1957, when she was recruited as a star attraction in the touring package show African Jazz and Variety.
She remained with the troupe for two years, again touring South Africa and neighbouring countries, before, leaving to join the cast of the "township musical" King Kong, which also featured such future international stars as Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa.
The opportunity came following her starring role in American film-maker Lionel Rogosin's documentary; Come Back Africa, shot in South Africa. When the Italian government invited Makeba to attend the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival in spring 1959, she privately decided not to return home.
Shortly afterwards, furious at the international uproar created by the film's powerful expose of Apartheid, her South African passport was withdrawn. In London after the Venice Festival, Makeba met Harry Belafonte, who offered to help her gain an entry Visa and work permit to the United States of America (USA) along with the usual guest appearances on television and jazz clubs.
As a consequence of this exposure, Makeba became a nationally feted performer within a few months of arriving in the USA, combining her musical activities with outspoken denuciations of apartheid. In 1963, after an impassioned testimony before the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid, all her records were banned in South Africa.
Married for a few years to fellow South African emigre Masekela, in 1968, Makeba divorced him in order to marry the Black Panther activist, Stokeley Carmichael-a liaison that severely damaged her following among older white American record buyers. Promoters were no longer interested, and tours and record contracts were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea in West Africa. He was to divorce him later.
Makeba returned to South Africa, 16 years ago in 1990 at the end of apartheid after spending 30 years in exile.
In a way it could be said that personal strokes of fate afflicted her all those years in exile: The break-up of her marriages with Carmichael-which was her third marriage already, that also included the one with jazz icon Hugh Masekela, coupled with the tragic death of her daughter Bongi, who like her mother, Mariam, was a fantastic singer and a gifted songwriter on top of it.
However, despite the bitter memories of all these, Makeba kept on singing, along with her granddaughter Zenzi Lee in her background choir and a great-grandson in her entourage. She also kept on appearing in movies, as in the 2002 anti-apartheid documentary, entitled: Amandla!.
Recently, she was also involved in her own charity project for abused young women in South Africa and supporting campaigns against hard drugs and AIDS.
Practically, retired from active music, as far as album making is concerned, Makeba now restricts her appearances to very special command performances like that seventh Cape Town Jazz Festival which featured the likes of Manu Dibango and Caiphus Semenya, both of whom are well decorated jazzists on the international scene from Africa.
Her special appearance at the AMAA show in Yenagoa was under the 'special' invitation of the governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
These days, Makeba spends much of her time in London where she resides. Although, she also spends some time in South Africa, her birthplace.
At 75, (in March), the Mama Africa of the entertainment industry keeps going.
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sang the Music of Her Roots
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Adiel IsmailCape Town
Singer, song writer, political activist and actress Miriam Zenzi Makeba, or "Mama Africa" as she was popularly known, was born in Johannesburg on March 4 1932.
She made her debut as a vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in the 1950s. After leaving South Africa to star in the Todd Matshikiza musical, King Kong, she attracted international attention with her vocal ability and released many famous hits such as "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika" while abroad.
When she attempted to return to South Africa after her mother's death, Miriam was refused entry. She lost her passport and after she became known as an anti apartheid activist abroad, her music was banned. She stayed in exile for 31 years, returning only after Nelson Mandela was released and persuaded her to come back.
Makeba captured the hearts of many South Africans as some of her songs dealt with the political plight of blacks oppressed by the apartheid regime.
In her autobiography, "Makeba: My Story," she wrote: "I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became the voice and image of Africa and the people."
Amongst her top accolades is a joint Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. She was voted 38th of the "Top 100 Great South Africans" and was given the "International Award for Social Engagement" by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
As "Mama Africa's" music continues to reach both the heights and depths of her listeners' emotions, she will always be remembered as an instrument with the ability not only to speak out but to sing out against all social vices.
.
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Miriam Makeba, the South African singing star whose career took off in the 1950s and who famously appeared at the United Nations to condemn apartheid, has died suddenly after a concert in Italy. She was 76.
Makeba, widely known as Mama Afrika, collapsed on Sunday as she was leaving the stage in the town of Castel Volturno, near Naples, according to a statement issued on Monday by South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. "She received paramedic assistance and was rushed to hospital where she unfortunately passed way," Dlamini Zuma said.
News agencies reported that she appeared at a concert to support an Italian journalist being threatened by the local mafia. In September, six African immigrants were killed in the town when gunmen from the mafia sprayed a group of immigrants with gunfire in an alleged drug-dealing dispute.
Dlamini Zuma paid tribute to Makeba as "one of the greatest songstresses of our time... Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid colonialism through the art of song."
Makeba has been described as Africa's first superstar. She first rose to fame professionally with the Manhattan Brothers in the early 1950s, and subsequently travelled abroad to perform the lead female role in the musical, King Kong. She was promoted by Harry Belafonte in the United States, becoming best known to general audiences for her hits "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" (Qongqothwane) and "Malaika."
She was at one stage married to Stokely Carmichael and lived for some years in Guinea. She was stripped of her South African citizenship after becoming an anti-apartheid icon and returned home only after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.
In recent years, she has been a "goodwill ambassador" for South Africa and for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In March this year, she highlighted the plight of woman victims of sexual violence during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nigeria: Celebrities in Retirement Makeba, Still Mama Africa
Daily Champion (Lagos)
COLUMN5 February 2007Posted to the web 5 February 2007
Victor NzeLagos
She told the world that the March 31 to April 1, 2006 seventh Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa, was to be her last stage appearance before settling into a much desired life in retirement. But that was not to be.
The Jazz festival came and went and she never retired, because on April 29, 2006, she made an unprecedented appearance at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where she practically stole the show from such other veterans like Onyeka Onwenu.
That AMAA appearance on a Nigerian stage was to be first time since 28 years, 7 months ago she performed at the 2nd Festival of Black Arts, otherwise called Festac 77 in Lagos.
Such has been the style of the indefatigable songstress, fondly called Mama Africa, who so dominated the African music scence and was so popular here even among those who barely understood her South African Xhosa lyrics.
Indeed, if the African music were to have a hall of fame, this woman of songs would occupy undoubtedly the most prominent position in it, at least to underscore her position and status as the most popular voice and name out of Africa.
With a music career that spans over six decades and or which time she put out nearly a dozen albums excluding singles, Miriam Makeba strides the African music terrain with such familiarity that could give off the false impression about her true country of origin.
Born on March 4, 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 'the Empress of African Song' has for many become synonymous with South African music, just as she put African music on the world map in the 60s.Makeba began her professional career in
1950, when she joined Johannesburg group, the Cuban Brothers. She came to national prominence during the mid-50s as a member of local leading touring group, the Manhattan Brothers. She performed widely with her outfit in South Africa, Rhodesia and the Congo until 1957, when she was recruited as a star attraction in the touring package show African Jazz and Variety.
She remained with the troupe for two years, again touring South Africa and neighbouring countries, before, leaving to join the cast of the "township musical" King Kong, which also featured such future international stars as Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa.
The opportunity came following her starring role in American film-maker Lionel Rogosin's documentary; Come Back Africa, shot in South Africa. When the Italian government invited Makeba to attend the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival in spring 1959, she privately decided not to return home.
Shortly afterwards, furious at the international uproar created by the film's powerful expose of Apartheid, her South African passport was withdrawn. In London after the Venice Festival, Makeba met Harry Belafonte, who offered to help her gain an entry Visa and work permit to the United States of America (USA) along with the usual guest appearances on television and jazz clubs.
As a consequence of this exposure, Makeba became a nationally feted performer within a few months of arriving in the USA, combining her musical activities with outspoken denuciations of apartheid. In 1963, after an impassioned testimony before the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid, all her records were banned in South Africa.
Married for a few years to fellow South African emigre Masekela, in 1968, Makeba divorced him in order to marry the Black Panther activist, Stokeley Carmichael-a liaison that severely damaged her following among older white American record buyers. Promoters were no longer interested, and tours and record contracts were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea in West Africa. He was to divorce him later.
Makeba returned to South Africa, 16 years ago in 1990 at the end of apartheid after spending 30 years in exile.
In a way it could be said that personal strokes of fate afflicted her all those years in exile: The break-up of her marriages with Carmichael-which was her third marriage already, that also included the one with jazz icon Hugh Masekela, coupled with the tragic death of her daughter Bongi, who like her mother, Mariam, was a fantastic singer and a gifted songwriter on top of it.
However, despite the bitter memories of all these, Makeba kept on singing, along with her granddaughter Zenzi Lee in her background choir and a great-grandson in her entourage. She also kept on appearing in movies, as in the 2002 anti-apartheid documentary, entitled: Amandla!.
Recently, she was also involved in her own charity project for abused young women in South Africa and supporting campaigns against hard drugs and AIDS.
Practically, retired from active music, as far as album making is concerned, Makeba now restricts her appearances to very special command performances like that seventh Cape Town Jazz Festival which featured the likes of Manu Dibango and Caiphus Semenya, both of whom are well decorated jazzists on the international scene from Africa.
Her special appearance at the AMAA show in Yenagoa was under the 'special' invitation of the governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
These days, Makeba spends much of her time in London where she resides. Although, she also spends some time in South Africa, her birthplace.
At 75, (in March), the Mama Africa of the entertainment industry keeps going.
South Africa: Miriam Makeba Sang the Music of Her Roots
allAfrica.com
10 November 2008Posted to the web 10 November 2008
Adiel IsmailCape Town
Singer, song writer, political activist and actress Miriam Zenzi Makeba, or "Mama Africa" as she was popularly known, was born in Johannesburg on March 4 1932.
She made her debut as a vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in the 1950s. After leaving South Africa to star in the Todd Matshikiza musical, King Kong, she attracted international attention with her vocal ability and released many famous hits such as "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika" while abroad.
When she attempted to return to South Africa after her mother's death, Miriam was refused entry. She lost her passport and after she became known as an anti apartheid activist abroad, her music was banned. She stayed in exile for 31 years, returning only after Nelson Mandela was released and persuaded her to come back.
Makeba captured the hearts of many South Africans as some of her songs dealt with the political plight of blacks oppressed by the apartheid regime.
In her autobiography, "Makeba: My Story," she wrote: "I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became the voice and image of Africa and the people."
Amongst her top accolades is a joint Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. She was voted 38th of the "Top 100 Great South Africans" and was given the "International Award for Social Engagement" by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
As "Mama Africa's" music continues to reach both the heights and depths of her listeners' emotions, she will always be remembered as an instrument with the ability not only to speak out but to sing out against all social vices.
.
Elsie Washington is in a Nursing Home in Manhattan
I saw James Peterson (Bethany CM&A) last week at the funeral of my aunt Lurline Brown. James Peterson told me that Elsie Washington was in a Nursing Home in Manhattan. Elsie is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and a reoccurrence of cancer. I visited Elsie last week. Although Elsie is struggling..... Elsie recognized me. We reminisced about our years at Bethany. Our visit ended with Elsie Ghana song Seniwa de de de and singing several choruses of her Bethany favorite solo So Send I You. Click here: FortiFi @ : "So Send I You" - Meade Margaret Clarkson Needless to say, It was quite an emotional moment for both of us......
Elsie was a missionary from our group that went to Ghana.
Elsie taught the Ghana song Seniwa de de de
Elsie was the first employer of the Minisink Summer Youth day camp, New York City Mission Society, at Bethany.
Elsie was part of a bethany trio made up of Dolores (Elsies' cousin), Pat Cruz and Elsie
"So Send I You" - Meade Margaret Clarkson
"So Send I You" - revisited Written by David Meade Margaret Clarkson revised her own famous words, after contact with missions first-hand...
Margaret Clarkson wrote the more-famous and well-known words to "So Send I You" in 1954. Apparently, it expressed her idea of what missionary work would be like, having had no experience herself. But, by 1963, she had a more Biblical and mature view of the Lord of of Mission work. Her perspective changed considerably. So re-wrote the lyrics to "So Send I You".
Unfortunately, most hymnals only include and/or we only sing the original words. It would be better to sing the later lyrics. See the texts below:
So Send I YouMargaret Clarkson, 1954So send I you -- to labor unrewarded,To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing --So send I you, to toil for Me alone.
So send I you -- to bind the bruised and broken,O'er wand'ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,To bear the burdens of a world a-weary --So send I you, to suffer for My sake.
So send I you -- to loneliness and longing,With heart a-hung'ring for the loved and known,Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one --So send I you, to know My love alone.
So send I you -- to leave your life's ambition,To die to dear desire, self-will resign,To labor long, and love where men revile you --So send I you, to lose your life in Mine.
So send I you -- to hearts made hard by hatred,To eyes made blind because they will not see,To spend, tho it be blood, to spend and spare not --So send I you, to taste of Calvary.
"As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you."
Margaret Clarkson, 1963So send I you -- by grace made strong to triumphO'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death and sin,My name to bear and in that name to conquer --So send I you, My victory to win.
So send I you - to take to souls in bondageThe Word of Truth that sets the captive freeTo break the bonds of sin, to loose death's fetters --So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.
So send I you -- My strength to know in weakness,My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,To prove My pow'r, My grace, My promised presence --So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you -- to bear My cross with patience,And then one day with joy to lay it down,To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant --Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!"
"As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you."
A lonely and scared young teacher wrote it as she contemplated her isolation—a loneliness that pervaded her heart and soul. Margaret Clarkson experienced loneliness of every kind—mental, cultural, and spiritual—as she began teaching at a logging camp in northern Ontario, Canada she wrote these words of pain and suffering. However years later she would see the “one-sidedness” of this hymn and compose a newer version—one that reflected her growth and rest in Christ.
So send I you—by grace made strong; To triumph o’er hosts of hell, O’er darkness, death and sin; My name to bear, and in that name to conquer So send I you, my victory to win
Margaret Clarkson, whose rarely-used first name is Edith, was born in 1915 into, as Margaret herself described, “a loveless and unhappy marriage” which broke up when she was twelve. The memories of her childhood were of tension, fear, insecurity, and isolation. Margaret was born in Melville, Saskatchewan where she lived until her parents, Frederick and Ethel, and the family moved to Toronto when she was around age four. Throughout her life, she was plagued by pain; initially from migraines, accompanied by convulsive vomiting, and then arthritis—two ailments that accompanied her continually. In Destined for Glory, she related sadly that her mother told her that her first words were “my head hurts.” At age three Margaret, or Margie as her friends knew her, contracted juvenile arthritis and became bed bound. She recalled the pain as well as the bald spot worn on the back of her head from lying in bed so long.
Margaret Clarkson wrote the more-famous and well-known words to "So Send I You" in 1954. Apparently, it expressed her idea of what missionary work would be like, having had no experience herself. But, by 1963, she had a more Biblical and mature view of the Lord of of Mission work. Her perspective changed considerably. So re-wrote the lyrics to "So Send I You".
Unfortunately, most hymnals only include and/or we only sing the original words. It would be better to sing the later lyrics. See the texts below:
So Send I YouMargaret Clarkson, 1954So send I you -- to labor unrewarded,To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing --So send I you, to toil for Me alone.
So send I you -- to bind the bruised and broken,O'er wand'ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,To bear the burdens of a world a-weary --So send I you, to suffer for My sake.
So send I you -- to loneliness and longing,With heart a-hung'ring for the loved and known,Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one --So send I you, to know My love alone.
So send I you -- to leave your life's ambition,To die to dear desire, self-will resign,To labor long, and love where men revile you --So send I you, to lose your life in Mine.
So send I you -- to hearts made hard by hatred,To eyes made blind because they will not see,To spend, tho it be blood, to spend and spare not --So send I you, to taste of Calvary.
"As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you."
Margaret Clarkson, 1963So send I you -- by grace made strong to triumphO'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death and sin,My name to bear and in that name to conquer --So send I you, My victory to win.
So send I you - to take to souls in bondageThe Word of Truth that sets the captive freeTo break the bonds of sin, to loose death's fetters --So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.
So send I you -- My strength to know in weakness,My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,To prove My pow'r, My grace, My promised presence --So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you -- to bear My cross with patience,And then one day with joy to lay it down,To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant --Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!"
"As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you."
A lonely and scared young teacher wrote it as she contemplated her isolation—a loneliness that pervaded her heart and soul. Margaret Clarkson experienced loneliness of every kind—mental, cultural, and spiritual—as she began teaching at a logging camp in northern Ontario, Canada she wrote these words of pain and suffering. However years later she would see the “one-sidedness” of this hymn and compose a newer version—one that reflected her growth and rest in Christ.
So send I you—by grace made strong; To triumph o’er hosts of hell, O’er darkness, death and sin; My name to bear, and in that name to conquer So send I you, my victory to win
Margaret Clarkson, whose rarely-used first name is Edith, was born in 1915 into, as Margaret herself described, “a loveless and unhappy marriage” which broke up when she was twelve. The memories of her childhood were of tension, fear, insecurity, and isolation. Margaret was born in Melville, Saskatchewan where she lived until her parents, Frederick and Ethel, and the family moved to Toronto when she was around age four. Throughout her life, she was plagued by pain; initially from migraines, accompanied by convulsive vomiting, and then arthritis—two ailments that accompanied her continually. In Destined for Glory, she related sadly that her mother told her that her first words were “my head hurts.” At age three Margaret, or Margie as her friends knew her, contracted juvenile arthritis and became bed bound. She recalled the pain as well as the bald spot worn on the back of her head from lying in bed so long.
Basie Theater Renovation Turns Back the Clock 82 Years
Basie Theater Renovation Turns Back the Clock 82 Years
Laura Pedrick for The New York Times
NEW LUSTER Renovation of the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank has restored much of its original splendor.
By COLEEN DEE BERRY
Published: November 7, 2008
RED BANK
FOR years, performers like Bruce Springsteen, George Carlin and Whoopi Goldberg took the stage at the aging Count Basie Theater amid decaying plaster and leaking ceilings. Repairmen stood on call to fix any seat that suddenly gave way.
“We used to tell the performers that the audience here was great; the house itself, not so good,” said Numa Saisselin, the chief executive of the 82-year-old theater. “Now we no longer have to make excuses. For all those who kept the faith and kept coming back here, we finally have a house worthy of their performances.”
The paint is dry, new carpet has been installed and the scaffolding has come down at the newly renovated theater, on Monmouth Street. The reopening show, a rock and soul revue on Oct. 30, sold out, and tickets for a Nov. 8 performance by Tony Bennett have also.
Red Bank residents were invited to an open house at the 1,500-seat theater a day before the first show for an advance peek at the renovation work. Lori Kislin, a Red Bank native, said she spent every Saturday of her childhood watching movies at the theater. “They did a wonderful job,” she said. “The new dome is just gorgeous.”
Just before the reopening, the theater received word that it had been recommended by a state review board for listing on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
The goal of the $7.8 million renovation project was to restore the theater’s interior to its 1926 grandeur.
Many people volunteered time, work or money. One was Mr. Springsteen, who has a long association with the Count Basie, and whose wife, Patty Scialfa, sits on the theater foundation’s board of directors. (The couple has homes in nearby Rumson and Colts Neck.) In May, Mr. Springsteen and his band, including Ms. Scialfa, performed a benefit concert at the theater, raising $3 million. Mr. Springsteen was introduced onstage by the NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who grew up in Middletown.
Lee S. Babitt, president of Gibraltar Construction Corporation, who acted as general construction manager, donated the cost of his company’s services. “We could have never done this without Lee,” said Rusty Young, chief executive of the theater foundation. “He not only completed this on time in three and a half months, he saved us $800,000.”
Mr. Babitt had never been to the Basie until he volunteered for the project. “Once here, you can tell how much this place means to the community,” he said. “It’s a much-loved theater.”
First known as the Carlton, the theater was the last project of Joseph Oschwald, a prominent builder who lived in Little Silver and Newark. Although the theater had a stage, it was built primarily as a movie house, according to Oschwald’s granddaughter Barbara Wingerter, a Red Bank resident. “You can tell it was a movie house because the dressing rooms are so small,” she said.
In 1973 an anonymous donor saved the building from demolition, and in 1984, the theater, then known as the Monmouth Arts Center, was rechristened for the jazz great Count Basie, born in Red Bank in 1904. It is run by a nonprofit corporation.
Tradesmen scraped away old paint to come up with the original palette of golds, maroons and greens. “We don’t know exactly what color every little thing was painted,” Mr. Saisselin said. “But we do know this is the range of colors they used.”
Now dragons cavort over grillwork and carpeting, and exotic faces peer down from decorative columns. A new patron’s lounge was added.
Originally painted copper, the starburst dome, with its circular mural of fluffy white clouds in an azure sky, dominates the first floor of the theater. “The atmospheric mural is not original, but it works,” Mr. Saisselin said. “That’s our 2008 stamp on the building.”
Miriam Makeba, Singer, Dies at 76
Miriam Makeba, Singer, Dies at 76
By ALAN COWELL
Published: November 10, 2008
LONDON — Miriam Makeba, a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom among millions in her own country though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against, died overnight after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday. She was 76.
Miriam Makeba performed in a concert on Sunday night in southern Italy shortly before she died early Monday.
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The cause of death was cardiac arrest, according to Vincenza Di Saia, a physician at the private Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno near Naples in southern Italy, where she was brought by ambulance. The time of death was listed in hospital records as midnight, the doctor said.
Ms. Makeba collapsed as she was leaving the stage, the South African authorities said. She had been singing at a concert in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death threats after writing about organized crime.
Widely known as “Mama Africa,” she had been a prominent exiled opponent of apartheid since the South African authorities revoked her passport in 1960 and refused to allow her to return after she traveled abroad. She was prevented from attending her mother’s funeral after touring in the United States.
Although Ms. Makeba had been weakened by osteoarthritis, her death stunned many in South Africa, where she stood as an enduring emblem of the travails of black people under the apartheid system of racial segregation that ended with the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the country’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Mandela said the death “of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation.”
He continued: “Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”
“She was South Africa’s first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours,” Mr. Mandela’s was one of many tributes from South African leaders.
“One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing,” Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement. “Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song.”
For 31 years, Ms. Makeba lived in exile, variously in the United States, France, Guinea and Belgium. South Africa’s state broadcasters banned her music after she spoke out against apartheid at the United Nations. “I never understood why I couldn’t come home,” Ms. Makeba said upon her return at an emotional homecoming in Johannesburg in 1990 as the apartheid system began to crumble, according to The Associated Press. “I never committed any crime.”
Music was a central part of the struggle against apartheid. The South African authorities of the era exercised strict censorship of many forms of expression, while many foreign entertainers discouraged performances in South Africa in an attempt to isolate the white authorities and show their opposition to apartheid.
From exile she acted as a constant reminder of the events in her homeland as the white authorities struggled to contain or pre-empt unrest among the black majority.
Ms. Makeba wrote in 1987: “I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realizing.”
She was married several times and her husbands included the American black activist Stokely Carmichael, with whom she lived in Guinea, and the jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who also spent many years in exile.
In the United States she became a star, touring with Harry Belafonte in the 1960s and winning a Grammy award with him in 1965. Such was her following and fame that she sang in 1962 at the birthday party of President John F. Kennedy. She also performed with Paul Simon on his Graceland concert in Zimbabwe in 1987.
But she fell afoul of the U.S. music industry because of her marriage to Mr. Carmichael and her decision to live in Guinea.
In one of her last interviews, in May 2008 with the British music critic Robin Denselow, she said she found her concerts in the United States being cancelled. “It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn’t care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life,” she said.
Ms. Makeba was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, the daughter of a Swazi mother and a father from the Xhosa people who live mainly in the eastern Cape region of South Africa. She became known to South Africans in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg in the 1950s.
According to Agence France-Presse, she was often short of money and could not afford to buy a coffin when her only daughter in 1985. She buried her alone, barring a handful of journalists from covering the funeral.
She was particularly renowned for her performances of songs such as what was known as the Click Song — named for a clicking sound in her native tongue — or “Qongoqothwane,” and Pata Pata, meaning Touch Touch in Xhosa. Her style of singing was widely interpreted as a blend of black township rhythms, jazz and folk music.
In her interview in 2008, Ms. Makeba said: “I’m not a political singer. I don’t know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us.”
In a tribute, Jacob Zuma, head of the ruling African National Congress, said the party “dips its banner in tribute to an African heroine, Miriam Zenzile Makeba, a freedom fighter and outstanding African cultural figure.”
“Miriam Makeba used her voice, not merely to entertain, but to give a voice to the millions of oppressed South Africans under the yoke of apartheid,” Mr. Zuma said.
Celia W. Dugger contributed reporting from Johannesburg and Rachel Donadio from Rome.
By ALAN COWELL
Published: November 10, 2008
LONDON — Miriam Makeba, a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom among millions in her own country though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against, died overnight after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday. She was 76.
Miriam Makeba performed in a concert on Sunday night in southern Italy shortly before she died early Monday.
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Share your thoughts.
The cause of death was cardiac arrest, according to Vincenza Di Saia, a physician at the private Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno near Naples in southern Italy, where she was brought by ambulance. The time of death was listed in hospital records as midnight, the doctor said.
Ms. Makeba collapsed as she was leaving the stage, the South African authorities said. She had been singing at a concert in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death threats after writing about organized crime.
Widely known as “Mama Africa,” she had been a prominent exiled opponent of apartheid since the South African authorities revoked her passport in 1960 and refused to allow her to return after she traveled abroad. She was prevented from attending her mother’s funeral after touring in the United States.
Although Ms. Makeba had been weakened by osteoarthritis, her death stunned many in South Africa, where she stood as an enduring emblem of the travails of black people under the apartheid system of racial segregation that ended with the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the country’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Mandela said the death “of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation.”
He continued: “Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”
“She was South Africa’s first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours,” Mr. Mandela’s was one of many tributes from South African leaders.
“One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing,” Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement. “Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song.”
For 31 years, Ms. Makeba lived in exile, variously in the United States, France, Guinea and Belgium. South Africa’s state broadcasters banned her music after she spoke out against apartheid at the United Nations. “I never understood why I couldn’t come home,” Ms. Makeba said upon her return at an emotional homecoming in Johannesburg in 1990 as the apartheid system began to crumble, according to The Associated Press. “I never committed any crime.”
Music was a central part of the struggle against apartheid. The South African authorities of the era exercised strict censorship of many forms of expression, while many foreign entertainers discouraged performances in South Africa in an attempt to isolate the white authorities and show their opposition to apartheid.
From exile she acted as a constant reminder of the events in her homeland as the white authorities struggled to contain or pre-empt unrest among the black majority.
Ms. Makeba wrote in 1987: “I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realizing.”
She was married several times and her husbands included the American black activist Stokely Carmichael, with whom she lived in Guinea, and the jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who also spent many years in exile.
In the United States she became a star, touring with Harry Belafonte in the 1960s and winning a Grammy award with him in 1965. Such was her following and fame that she sang in 1962 at the birthday party of President John F. Kennedy. She also performed with Paul Simon on his Graceland concert in Zimbabwe in 1987.
But she fell afoul of the U.S. music industry because of her marriage to Mr. Carmichael and her decision to live in Guinea.
In one of her last interviews, in May 2008 with the British music critic Robin Denselow, she said she found her concerts in the United States being cancelled. “It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn’t care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life,” she said.
Ms. Makeba was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, the daughter of a Swazi mother and a father from the Xhosa people who live mainly in the eastern Cape region of South Africa. She became known to South Africans in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg in the 1950s.
According to Agence France-Presse, she was often short of money and could not afford to buy a coffin when her only daughter in 1985. She buried her alone, barring a handful of journalists from covering the funeral.
She was particularly renowned for her performances of songs such as what was known as the Click Song — named for a clicking sound in her native tongue — or “Qongoqothwane,” and Pata Pata, meaning Touch Touch in Xhosa. Her style of singing was widely interpreted as a blend of black township rhythms, jazz and folk music.
In her interview in 2008, Ms. Makeba said: “I’m not a political singer. I don’t know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us.”
In a tribute, Jacob Zuma, head of the ruling African National Congress, said the party “dips its banner in tribute to an African heroine, Miriam Zenzile Makeba, a freedom fighter and outstanding African cultural figure.”
“Miriam Makeba used her voice, not merely to entertain, but to give a voice to the millions of oppressed South Africans under the yoke of apartheid,” Mr. Zuma said.
Celia W. Dugger contributed reporting from Johannesburg and Rachel Donadio from Rome.
South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.
South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.
She had just taken part in a concert near the southern town of Caserta and died of a heart attack.
Makeba, known as "Mama Africa", spent more than 30 years in exile after lending her support to the anti-apartheid struggle.
She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!
Passport revoked
Makeba, was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932 and was a leading symbol in the struggle against apartheid.
MIRIAM MAKEBA
1932: Born Johannesburg, South Africa
1959: Stars in the jazz opera King Kong and anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, met Harry Belafonte
1960: Barred from South Africa
1963: Testifies against apartheid at the United Nations
1966: Becomes the first African woman to win a Grammy award
1968: Marries Black Panther Stokely Carmichael and moves to Guinea
1985: Moves to Brussels after her child Bongi dies in childbirth
1990: Returns to South Africa after personal request from Nelson Mandela
2005: Begins a "farewell tour" of the world that lasts three years
2008: Dies in Caserta, Italy following a concert, aged 76
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Mandela's tribute to Makeba
Her singing career started in the 1950s as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs.
She came to international attention in 1959 during a tour of the United States with South African group the Manhattan Brothers.
She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990.
Makeba was the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965.
Charlie Gillett, who presents the BBC World of Music programme, says there is nobody to compare to her, as she was popular in West Africa - after living in exile in Guinea - and East Africa for recording a version of the Swahili song Malaika, as well as her home in South Africa.
She was African music's first world star blending different styles long before the phrase "world music" was coined.
After her divorce from fellow South African musician Hugh Masekela she married American civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.
It was while living in exile in the US that she released her most famous songs, Pata Pata and the Click Song.
"You sing about those things that surround you," she said. "Our surrounding has always been that of suffering from apartheid and the racism that exists in our country. So our music has to be affected by all that."
It was because of this dedication to her home continent that Miriam Makeba became known as Mama Africa.
Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 - 9 November 2008[1]) was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, also known as Mama Afrika.
Click here: YouTube - Miriam Makeba - The Click Song 1966
Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.
Makeba first toured with an amateur group. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.
In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-Apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. She went to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.
She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against Apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [2] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[3]
Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In the fall of 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.
In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[4] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category[5]. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. [3]
Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.[6]
She died in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy, in the evening of 9 November 2008, of a heart attack, shortly after taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation.[7][8][9] In his condolence message, former South African president Nelson Mandela said it was “fitting that Makeba died doing what she did best - singing.”
Singer Miriam Makeba dies
Makeba became popular with her song 'Pata pata' [EPA]
Miriam Makeba, the world-renowned South African singer, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing on stage during her last performance.
Makeba was taken ill to a hosptial early Monday morning near the southern Italian town of Naples.
"I'm not yet absolutely certain of the causes of her passing, but she has had arthritis, severe arthritis, for some time," her publicist told an Italian radio station, however other reports said she passed away after sufferring a heart attack.
Makeba was best known to her fans as 'Mama Africa' as she became the distinguished voice of Africa and a symbol of the fight against apartheid in her home country.
"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," said Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.
Born in a shantytown outside of Johannesburg on March 4 1932, Makeba first received international attention as a featured vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954. She toured the US until 1959.
The following year, when she wanted to return home to bury her mother, the apartheid state revoked her citizenship and also banned her music.
As a result, she spent 31 years in exile, living in the US and later in Guinea before becoming the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award, which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965.
'Pata, Pata'
Two years later her fame sky-rocketed with the recording of the all-time hit "Pata Pata". From that point, Makeba stood out for her distinctive clicking sounds, which she used to punctuate songs in her native Xhosa language.
She hit an all-time low in 1985 when Bongi, her only daughter, died at the age of 36 from complications from a miscarriage.
Makeba did not have money to buy a coffin for Bongi so she buried her alone barring a handful of journalists covering the funeral.
But she picked herself up again, as she did many times before, surviving failed marriages and illness.
'Homeland'
She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison.
However, it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her.
She then released "Homeland" which contains a song describing her joy to be back home after the many years in exile.
"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising," she said in her biography.
She had just taken part in a concert near the southern town of Caserta and died of a heart attack.
Makeba, known as "Mama Africa", spent more than 30 years in exile after lending her support to the anti-apartheid struggle.
She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!
Passport revoked
Makeba, was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932 and was a leading symbol in the struggle against apartheid.
MIRIAM MAKEBA
1932: Born Johannesburg, South Africa
1959: Stars in the jazz opera King Kong and anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, met Harry Belafonte
1960: Barred from South Africa
1963: Testifies against apartheid at the United Nations
1966: Becomes the first African woman to win a Grammy award
1968: Marries Black Panther Stokely Carmichael and moves to Guinea
1985: Moves to Brussels after her child Bongi dies in childbirth
1990: Returns to South Africa after personal request from Nelson Mandela
2005: Begins a "farewell tour" of the world that lasts three years
2008: Dies in Caserta, Italy following a concert, aged 76
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Mandela's tribute to Makeba
Her singing career started in the 1950s as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs.
She came to international attention in 1959 during a tour of the United States with South African group the Manhattan Brothers.
She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990.
Makeba was the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965.
Charlie Gillett, who presents the BBC World of Music programme, says there is nobody to compare to her, as she was popular in West Africa - after living in exile in Guinea - and East Africa for recording a version of the Swahili song Malaika, as well as her home in South Africa.
She was African music's first world star blending different styles long before the phrase "world music" was coined.
After her divorce from fellow South African musician Hugh Masekela she married American civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.
It was while living in exile in the US that she released her most famous songs, Pata Pata and the Click Song.
"You sing about those things that surround you," she said. "Our surrounding has always been that of suffering from apartheid and the racism that exists in our country. So our music has to be affected by all that."
It was because of this dedication to her home continent that Miriam Makeba became known as Mama Africa.
Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 - 9 November 2008[1]) was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, also known as Mama Afrika.
Click here: YouTube - Miriam Makeba - The Click Song 1966
Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.
Makeba first toured with an amateur group. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.
In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-Apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. She went to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid.
She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against Apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [2] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[3]
Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In the fall of 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, entitled "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.
In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[4] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category[5]. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. [3]
Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.[6]
She died in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy, in the evening of 9 November 2008, of a heart attack, shortly after taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation.[7][8][9] In his condolence message, former South African president Nelson Mandela said it was “fitting that Makeba died doing what she did best - singing.”
Singer Miriam Makeba dies
Makeba became popular with her song 'Pata pata' [EPA]
Miriam Makeba, the world-renowned South African singer, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing on stage during her last performance.
Makeba was taken ill to a hosptial early Monday morning near the southern Italian town of Naples.
"I'm not yet absolutely certain of the causes of her passing, but she has had arthritis, severe arthritis, for some time," her publicist told an Italian radio station, however other reports said she passed away after sufferring a heart attack.
Makeba was best known to her fans as 'Mama Africa' as she became the distinguished voice of Africa and a symbol of the fight against apartheid in her home country.
"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," said Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.
Born in a shantytown outside of Johannesburg on March 4 1932, Makeba first received international attention as a featured vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954. She toured the US until 1959.
The following year, when she wanted to return home to bury her mother, the apartheid state revoked her citizenship and also banned her music.
As a result, she spent 31 years in exile, living in the US and later in Guinea before becoming the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award, which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965.
'Pata, Pata'
Two years later her fame sky-rocketed with the recording of the all-time hit "Pata Pata". From that point, Makeba stood out for her distinctive clicking sounds, which she used to punctuate songs in her native Xhosa language.
She hit an all-time low in 1985 when Bongi, her only daughter, died at the age of 36 from complications from a miscarriage.
Makeba did not have money to buy a coffin for Bongi so she buried her alone barring a handful of journalists covering the funeral.
But she picked herself up again, as she did many times before, surviving failed marriages and illness.
'Homeland'
She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison.
However, it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her.
She then released "Homeland" which contains a song describing her joy to be back home after the many years in exile.
"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising," she said in her biography.
Baptist hymnody largely settles for two out of three in Trinity
By Ken Camp, Managing Editor, Baptist Standard
Published: October 30, 2008
Hymns sung in most Baptist churches historically have been “More About Jesus” than about either God the Father or the Holy Spirit, several church music experts agree.
“From a Baptist perspective, I don’t think the hymnody has ever been Trinitarian,” said Clell Wright, director of choral activities and Logsdon professor of church music at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
Baptist worship has been shaped to a large degree by the revivalist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, he noted.
“By nature, the focus is on Jesus and his redeeming work,” Wright said.
Consequently, when it comes to Baptist understanding of the Godhead as reflected in congregational song, “Our Trinity is more two-point-something rather than three,” said Terry York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor University’s School of Music and Truett Theological Seminary in Waco.
“One way to gauge that is by looking at the index in the back of the hymnal under ‘Holy
Spirit.’ Looking at the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, for instance, there’s not much there. And I was on the committee that put that one together, for crying out loud.”
A quick glance at the recently released 2008 Baptist Hymnal reveals similar results, noted Lee Hinson, coordinator of church music studies at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla.
“It has not changed much,” Hinson said. “We struggle with singing Trinitarian doctrine. There are several categories of things we free-churchers don’t do well in worship. … Dealing with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of them.”
York agreed, noting lack of emphasis on the Holy Spirit may reveal—in part—lack of clarity among Baptists about the Spirit’s role and about the doctrine of the Trinity in general.
“Baptist churches divide themselves in worship according to which Person of the Trinity gets the most emphasis,” he noted. Baptists who say they want to “worship the Father in the beauty of holiness” generally favor more formal, liturgical worship. Baptist who want to “praise Jesus for who he is and what he has done” may tend toward a more revivalist and evangelistic worship style. Baptists who say they want “the Spirit to come down and bless us” often follow a less structured worship format.
“Generally, we are less than balanced,” York commented. “Few churches stand in the middle.”
Observers differ about whether the rising popularity of praise and worship music translates into increased attention directed toward the Holy Spirit.
Wright sees a shift toward greater “recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit” in praise music.
“So much of it in the last 15 to 20 years seems very pietistic, with a strong emphasis on personal worship,” he noted.
That emphasis represents a departure from the evangelistic and revivalist tradition that has marked Baptist worship, he noted.
“Our Baptist heritage of music in the gospel tradition has defined who we are for a couple of hundred years,” Wright noted.
Hinson sees a greater emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptist worship, but he believes it is restricted to the youngest worship leaders.
“Millennials (roughly defined as the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s) want their worship to be free,” he said. Lyrics that stress the Holy Spirit exist, “but they’re not sung where the Boomers are in charge. They’re in the Wednesday night services where students lead worship.”
York, on the other hand, sees praise and worship lyrics focused primarily on Jesus, but worship leaders stressing the role of the Holy Spirit in leading them.
“They attribute being caught up in worship to the work of the Holy Spirit, who helps lead in the worship of Jesus,” he said.
By Ken Camp, Managing Editor, Baptist Standard
Published: October 30, 2008
Hymns sung in most Baptist churches historically have been “More About Jesus” than about either God the Father or the Holy Spirit, several church music experts agree.
“From a Baptist perspective, I don’t think the hymnody has ever been Trinitarian,” said Clell Wright, director of choral activities and Logsdon professor of church music at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
Baptist worship has been shaped to a large degree by the revivalist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, he noted.
“By nature, the focus is on Jesus and his redeeming work,” Wright said.
Consequently, when it comes to Baptist understanding of the Godhead as reflected in congregational song, “Our Trinity is more two-point-something rather than three,” said Terry York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor University’s School of Music and Truett Theological Seminary in Waco.
“One way to gauge that is by looking at the index in the back of the hymnal under ‘Holy
Spirit.’ Looking at the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, for instance, there’s not much there. And I was on the committee that put that one together, for crying out loud.”
A quick glance at the recently released 2008 Baptist Hymnal reveals similar results, noted Lee Hinson, coordinator of church music studies at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla.
“It has not changed much,” Hinson said. “We struggle with singing Trinitarian doctrine. There are several categories of things we free-churchers don’t do well in worship. … Dealing with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of them.”
York agreed, noting lack of emphasis on the Holy Spirit may reveal—in part—lack of clarity among Baptists about the Spirit’s role and about the doctrine of the Trinity in general.
“Baptist churches divide themselves in worship according to which Person of the Trinity gets the most emphasis,” he noted. Baptists who say they want to “worship the Father in the beauty of holiness” generally favor more formal, liturgical worship. Baptist who want to “praise Jesus for who he is and what he has done” may tend toward a more revivalist and evangelistic worship style. Baptists who say they want “the Spirit to come down and bless us” often follow a less structured worship format.
“Generally, we are less than balanced,” York commented. “Few churches stand in the middle.”
Observers differ about whether the rising popularity of praise and worship music translates into increased attention directed toward the Holy Spirit.
Wright sees a shift toward greater “recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit” in praise music.
“So much of it in the last 15 to 20 years seems very pietistic, with a strong emphasis on personal worship,” he noted.
That emphasis represents a departure from the evangelistic and revivalist tradition that has marked Baptist worship, he noted.
“Our Baptist heritage of music in the gospel tradition has defined who we are for a couple of hundred years,” Wright noted.
Hinson sees a greater emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptist worship, but he believes it is restricted to the youngest worship leaders.
“Millennials (roughly defined as the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s) want their worship to be free,” he said. Lyrics that stress the Holy Spirit exist, “but they’re not sung where the Boomers are in charge. They’re in the Wednesday night services where students lead worship.”
York, on the other hand, sees praise and worship lyrics focused primarily on Jesus, but worship leaders stressing the role of the Holy Spirit in leading them.
“They attribute being caught up in worship to the work of the Holy Spirit, who helps lead in the worship of Jesus,” he said.
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