Sathima Benjamin :: Music (Cape Town Goema Orchestra)

Shaken by the Soweto Uprising in 1976, jazz singer and composer Sathima Bea Benjamin left South Africa in 1977 with her then-husband Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and settled in New York City for 34 years. She returned to the city of her childhood in 2011, making Cape Town her home once again and continuing to perform until her death at the age of 76 in August 2013. She appears here on 8 December 2012 in the first of a pair of performances with the Cape Town Goema Orchestra. Written by Benjamin, the spiritual ballad "Music" was recorded for her canonical African Songbird album in 1976 and revisited for LoveLight on Benjamin's own Ekapa label in 1987. The composition was arranged for orchestra by conductor George Werner.

Goema Orchestra :: South Atlantic Suite & Guest Composers

The December 2012 edition of the Cape Town Goema Orchestra showcases an expanded version of McKenzie’s “South Atlantic Suite” (which premièred in September 2012) as well as new orchestral works by Ana Strugar, Maxim Starcke, Reza Khota and Keenan Ahrends. December’s line-up also sees the exciting addition of jazz legend Sathima Bea Benjamin.

With paternal roots on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, Sathima Benjamin is a fitting guest at the orchestra’s Saturday evening performances (7.30 for 8pm on 8 and 15 December at the SABC Studios Auditorium in Sea Point). Benjamin, who returned to Cape Town in 2011 after 34 years in New York, will perform her poignant compositions “Africa” and “Music” (arranged for the orchestra by George Werner). Both of these titles appear on Benjamin’s African Songbird LP of 1976, which is being prepared for reissue in 2013 by Matsuli Music.

Goema Orchestra :: Agent of Connectivity

For this month’s pair of Cape Town Goema Orchestra performances, I presented an update on Mama Goema and drew attention to the broader activities of the goema "movement.” I touched on the theme of connectivity and the idea of forging an global sound for the 21st century. We acknowledged special guests Bongiwe Lusizi of Mthwakazi, who saw the show on 8 September, as well as jazz-giant Sathima Benjamin, who attended the 15 September performance. This is how it went:

My involvement with the Cape Town Goema Orchestra began in 2010 with Goema Symphony No. 1, the “happening” that features in the film Mama Goema, which premiered in Cape Town last year. I’m pleased to report that the film was voted best documentary feature at the Tri Continental Film Festival in 2011 and has, to the merit of those in and behind the scenes, reached audiences in Portugal, Colombia, Canada, Switzerland and Scotland.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been asked countless times what the film is about. I used to brush these enquiries off by saying that it’s about Cape Town music. If I’m feeling mischievous, I might say it’s about a shape-shifter from Pleiades who comes to Earth as a punk rocker, reinvents himself as a jazz cat and then decides to be a composer of symphonies. If I have time, I say it about goema and spend the next three hours unravelling what the film does more efficiently in 55 minutes.

Nowadays, I'd propose that the film about connectivity and that goema is what connectivity sounds like. We used up all the “ubuntu” during the Madiba Years and we had a good time but now we’re into this stuff that grows in Cape Town. And it’s addictive. But it’s good for you. And what is Cape Town if not an agent of connectivity on the planet. It’s no coincidence that East meets West in Africa in Cape Town. And no coincidence that what started as Goema Symphony No. 1 in 2010 became Table Bay Concerto in 2011 in is now adrift with the South Atlantic Suite on route to Mali, Serbia and the Eastern Cape tonight, consciously evoking a goema of the 21st century. You can always detect that familiar homecoming sound but tonight’s programme marks goema’s most challenging, expansive and inclusive move ever.

And so, as we look at where we are now, we see Kyle Shepherd connecting with Japan, Ernestine Deane connecting with Germany, Hilton Schilder re-connecting our youth with the music of the bow. We see Achmat Sabera on a South African postage stamp and a Sabera “gummy” on every single continent on the planet. A Goema Roadshow, featuring Hilton Schilder and Achmat Sabera, visited 10 schools from Newlands to Mitchell’s Plain over the last three weeks reminding over 600 learners what Cape Town connectivity sounds like. We also celebrate the third season of the Goema Orchestra with an EP dropped into cyberspace in the hopes that it will reach the hearts via the ears of listeners around the planet.

Photo © Steve Gordon

Cape Town Goema Orchestra :: Table Bay Concerto

“This showcase of Cape music will do Capetonians proud,” says composer Mac McKenzie. “The Table Bay Concerto in G-Major is a chronological account of Table Bay as I imagine it, my impression of its evolution from the time just before the arrival of European settlers through the era of colonialism up to the present. I’ve borrowed from various forms such as European hymnody, classical and street music (which I sometimes call tsotsi music) and assimilated them into goema, the heartbeat of the minstrel carnival.”

“The 20-piece Cape Town Goema Orchestra is a synergy of diverse performers from highly experienced classical, jazz and traditional instrumentalists to young church and street musicians, all connected to the rich culture and soundscape of our city. It’s a truly unifying force in our country that celebrates and takes our music forward with vision and passion.”

A "bootleg" concert video was produced by Profoundly South African for the Cape Town Composers' Workshop archive and documents the world première of the the Table Bay Concerto on 26 November 2011. Also featured here is the work of guest composers Mandla Mlangeni and Derek Gripper. Stream the following playlist above:

1. D-Major Goema (G.S. McKenzie)
2. Inventory (M. Mlangeni)
3. Copenhagen (D. Gripper)
4. The Table Bay Concerto in G-Major (G.S. McKenzie)
5. Healing Destination ft. Kaatjie Davids (G.S. McKenzie)

Cape Town Goema Orchestra :: Saturday 28 August 2010

From punk through penthouse to the university, Mac McKenzie has always pushed the boundaries of Goema, the rhythmic groove at the heart of Cape Town's carnival culture. During the 80s, he injected defiance into the idiom with The Geniunes, creating lightning-speed Rock arrangements and the resistance anthem "Struggle." In 2002, Mac guided Goema into a more refined arena with The Goema Captains of Cape Town, cloaking the Cape vibe in Cool Jazz. Now Mac’s back with an orchestra to boot! Steering Goema into Classical territory, Mac McKenzie has assembled The Cape Town Goema Orchestra to showcase a composition entitled "Goema Symphony No. 1."