Showing posts with label sathima benjamin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sathima benjamin. Show all posts

Friday 30 January 2015

Sathima Benjamin :: Africa (Hilton Schilder Trio)



Sathima Bea Benjamin performing "Africa" with the Hilton Schilder Trio on 1 May 2013. Benjamin's appearances in Cape Town in mid-2013 culminated in a string of celebratory events in July that marked the South African launch of the reissue of her 1976 album African Songbird and included a performance at Tagore's Jazz Bar and a screening of the film Sathima's Windsong at the Labia Cinema. Her magnus opus "Africa" was recorded for African Songbird following her return to South Africa after a long period abroad. The Soweto Uprising of 1976 precipitated a second period of exile in which she lived in New York City for 34 years. She returned to the city of her childhood in 2011, making Cape Town her home once again until her death at the age of 76 on 23 August 2013.

Thursday 15 January 2015

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.

Monday 1 July 2013

Cape Town Celebrates Sathima :: 13, 14 & 16 July 2013

South Africa’s inimitable jazz vocalist and composer Sathima Benjamin returned to Cape Town in 2011 following 34 years in New York. Benjamin and former husband Abdullah Ibrahim moved to the United States with their two children in the wake of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. Their relocation effectively became exile as the apartheid government revoked their citizenship for participating in cultural work for the liberation movement. This month, Cape Town celebrates Sathima Benjamin’s homecoming with series of events that include a live performance, a film screening and lots of great music.

Saturday 13 July 2013 :: African Songbird Relaunched
Recorded in the year preceding her departure from South Africa in 1977, African Songbird was Sathima Benjamin’s debut release and a canvas for her own compositions. Unavailable for over three and a half decades, June 2013 saw the release of Matsuli Music’s reissue of the landmark Afro-jazz long-player on vinyl, CD digipak and digital-download formats. To mark the occasion of the album’s relaunch, Sathima Benjamin & The Hilton Schilder Trio will perform at Tagore’s Jazz Bar on the evening of Saturday 13 July. The performance will be streamed online via Pan African Space Station Radio.

Sunday 14 July 2013 :: Sathima’s Windsong Film Screening
This 2010 film-portrait of jazz vocalist Sathima Benjamin traces her musical journey from Cape Town to New York City via an astonishing morning in a Parisian recording studio with Duke Ellington in 1963. A reflection on displacement, exile, longing and belonging, Sathima’s Windsong premiered at Cape Town’s Encounters International Documentary Film Festival in 2010 (Runner-Up Audience Award). This one-off 6.15pm screening at the Labia-on-Orange on Sunday 14 July sees filmmaker Daniel Yon and Sathima Benjamin in attendance for Q&A.

Tuesday 16 July 2013 :: Future Nostalgia Spins Afro-Jazz Classics
Cape Town’s vinyl enthusiast collective Future Nostalgia dedicates a night to classic South African jazz from African Songbird to Underground in Africa on Tuesday 16 July. Recordings from the As-Shams label are sure to abound as Matsuli Music’s Matt Temple takes a guest slot on the decks. Future Nostalgia gatherings are held every Tuesday at the Mahogany Room from 8pm.



Sathima Benjamin & The Hilton Schilder Trio
O’Driscolls, Cape Town (May 2013) | Photos © Calum MacNaughton

Wednesday 5 December 2012

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.