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One more for IBARW - Miriam Makeba yay! post
(It's still Sunday! Kinda!)
I first came across Miriam Makeba's music while looking up Youtube clips of Paul Simon's performances with different artists on his Graceland tour (I later bought the DVD and I do recommend it). Makeba's voice is gorgeous and she has a very charismatic onstage presence -- I stopped when I hit this clip, kept playing it back and then went and looked up all of the clips I could find of her on Youtube. And then started buying her music.
The more that I learned about her, the more I admired her. She was born in South Africa, but lost her citizenship for speaking out, with protests and with music, against apartheid. An expatriot from her own country, she moved to the U.S. in the 1960s and initially made a splash in the folk/pop scene, but was treated shamefully after she married a Black Panther; she was blacklisted, her record deals cancelled. She and her husband left for Africa and Europe, where she continued to record music, tour and speak out against injustice in her homeland. Eventually, with the official end of apartheid in South Africa, she was able to return to South Africa, and recorded a new album, "Homeland", in 2000.
In her 70s now, she is still touring, still beautiful and charismatic; in the recent clips that I've been able to find of her, her love and enthusiasm for what she's doing -- music, performance, activism -- still shows in every song and every interview. I'm well aware that it's far too much to hope she'll ever stop by Alaska, but she's one of a handful of musicians that I would really love to be able to see in concert someday, if possible.
A few songs for your listening pleasure (and if you like these, please buy them - I usually prefer the live versions of her songs to the studio versions, and you can find some of both on iTunes, and at least a few of her albums can be found at most online stores including Amazon.com):
Mbube (Makeba's rendition of the song sometimes called "Wimoweh" in the U.S. because of Pete Seeger's mistranslation of the lyrics)
Pata Pata (a Xhosa dance song, this is her most famous song, probably my favorite, and my favorite version of the various ones I have -- though I think I like this one on Youtube just a little better ... mostly because she dances with her granddaughter! So cute!)
Under African Skies performed with Paul Simon
I first came across Miriam Makeba's music while looking up Youtube clips of Paul Simon's performances with different artists on his Graceland tour (I later bought the DVD and I do recommend it). Makeba's voice is gorgeous and she has a very charismatic onstage presence -- I stopped when I hit this clip, kept playing it back and then went and looked up all of the clips I could find of her on Youtube. And then started buying her music.
The more that I learned about her, the more I admired her. She was born in South Africa, but lost her citizenship for speaking out, with protests and with music, against apartheid. An expatriot from her own country, she moved to the U.S. in the 1960s and initially made a splash in the folk/pop scene, but was treated shamefully after she married a Black Panther; she was blacklisted, her record deals cancelled. She and her husband left for Africa and Europe, where she continued to record music, tour and speak out against injustice in her homeland. Eventually, with the official end of apartheid in South Africa, she was able to return to South Africa, and recorded a new album, "Homeland", in 2000.
In her 70s now, she is still touring, still beautiful and charismatic; in the recent clips that I've been able to find of her, her love and enthusiasm for what she's doing -- music, performance, activism -- still shows in every song and every interview. I'm well aware that it's far too much to hope she'll ever stop by Alaska, but she's one of a handful of musicians that I would really love to be able to see in concert someday, if possible.
A few songs for your listening pleasure (and if you like these, please buy them - I usually prefer the live versions of her songs to the studio versions, and you can find some of both on iTunes, and at least a few of her albums can be found at most online stores including Amazon.com):
Mbube (Makeba's rendition of the song sometimes called "Wimoweh" in the U.S. because of Pete Seeger's mistranslation of the lyrics)
Pata Pata (a Xhosa dance song, this is her most famous song, probably my favorite, and my favorite version of the various ones I have -- though I think I like this one on Youtube just a little better ... mostly because she dances with her granddaughter! So cute!)
Under African Skies performed with Paul Simon
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