tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/spiritual-jazz-26496/articlesspiritual jazz – The Conversation2017-12-18T14:05:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/887312017-12-18T14:05:22Z2017-12-18T14:05:22ZThe 1960s jazz tribute to Malcolm X that profoundly expressed the black condition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199404/original/file-20171215-17857-zyuxt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leon Thomas - from his debut album 'Spirits Known and Unknown'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Discogs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>By the late 1950s foremost musicians like <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/charlie-parker-mn0000211758">Charlie Parker</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/charles-mingus-mn0000009680">Charles Mingus</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-coltrane-mn0000175553">John Coltrane</a> explicitly introduced politics in their jazz, as the civil rights movement started gaining momentum in the US. Musician and author Gilad Atzmon explained it in <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2004/11/20/politics-and-jazz/">a 2005 essay</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black Americans were calling for freedom, and jazz expressed it better than mere words.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This trend continued and intensified over the following decades, especially in <a href="http://www.jazzinamerica.org/LessonPlan/5/7/234">free</a> and <a href="https://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/">spiritual</a> jazz. These sub-genres represented an angrier battle for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1354532?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">political freedom</a>.</p>
<h2>Profoundly beautiful</h2>
<p>In 1969 avant garde jazz vocalist <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/leon-thomas-mn0000201515">Leon Thomas</a>, with spiritual jazz giant <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pharoah-sanders-mn0000330601">Pharoah Sanders</a>, composed “Malcolm’s gone”. It’s a profoundly beautiful tribute to American civil rights activist and revolutionary, <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195">Malcolm X</a>, who was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/21/malcolm-x-assassination-records-nypd-investigation">assassinated</a> in 1965.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leon Thomas’s ‘Malcolm’s gone’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The song appears on Thomas’s debut solo album, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/spirits-known-and-unknown-mw0000464624">“Spirits Known and Unknown”</a>.
It features Sanders (on tenor sax) and other free jazz luminaries like <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/cecil-mcbee-mn0000739015">Cecil McBee</a> (bass), <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lonnie-liston-smith-mn0000228058">Lonnie Liston Smith</a> (keyboards) and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-haynes-mn0000290464">Roy Haynes</a> (drums).</p>
<p>Thomas is often a forgotten figure in popular music. He’s best known for his <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-leon-thomas-1097568.html">unique jazz vocal style</a> that is characterised by the experimental use of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00nfVc4FPI">yodelling</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0175vPMU7o">scatting</a>, along with his own beautiful natural voice. </p>
<p>The singer, who died in 1999, is mostly remembered for his contributions to the recordings of jazz and rock heavyweights such as <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/randy-weston-mn0000396908">Randy Weston</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rahsaan-roland-kirk-mn0000864257">Rahsaan Roland Kirk</a>, <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/oliver-nelson-mn0000398615">Oliver Nelson</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/carlos-santana-mn0000175196">Carlos Santana</a>. That is despite the gravity of Thomas’s own solo work and his contribution to jazz, especially in the area of vocalisation.</p>
<h2>Seconds of silence</h2>
<p>Thomas’s opening line, to the mostly instrumental “Malcolm’s gone”, is simply the utterance “Malik El-Shabazz”, X’s assumed <a href="http://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html">Muslim name</a> at the time of his death. It’s then followed by a few seconds of silence before the band starts playing a deeply melancholic melody. The melody is the sonic equivalent of the emotions that one feels upon hearing of the passing of a loved one. </p>
<p>Thomas rejoins the melody about two minutes later with the line:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I know he’s gone… but he’s not forgotten. </p>
<p>I know he died just to set me free… yes Malcolm’s gone, but he’s not forgotten, he died just to save me, give me back dignity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thomas then explodes into a yodel. His gloomy wail is set to a striking cacophony of beautifully layered rhythms and melodies. The song then transcends into what resembles a spiritual jazz version of a Pentecostal funeral service. It ends with the ululating congregation honouring the late Malcolm X by clapping in unison.</p>
<p>The song invokes the imagery of masses of mourning people at a funeral. At the same time it creates an atmosphere of jubilation reminiscent of a congregation experiencing glossolalia and spirit possession collectively.</p>
<p>Sonically it draws on various black spiritual traditions to express, in sound, the emotion of losing a well loved and respected member of the Ummah, or the Muslim community. The lyrics clearly draw parallels between X and Jesus Christ, which some may regard as the ultimate tribute, or perhaps a very strong political statement given the sociopolitical climate of the USA during that period.</p>
<h2>A volatile period</h2>
<p>The late 1960s, the period when Thomas released the song, was a very volatile period for African Americans. It marked the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-zinn-education-project/what-happened-to-the-civi_b_10457322.html">end</a> of the relatively nonviolent American <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/crm.htm">civil rights era</a>, and the beginnings of the militant <a href="https://socialistworker.org/2011/10/25/black-power-era">Black Power</a> movement. </p>
<p>Many black people at the time felt that the passive resistance of the civil rights era was no longer a viable option in their quest for equality. Cue an ideological shift toward the black nationalist, Pan-Africanist and socialist ideologies offered by the Black Power movements, hellbent on protecting themselves by all means necessary against an oppressive state.</p>
<p>It was also when many influential and leading figures were either silenced, imprisoned or assassinated. The situation was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/54316">Vietnam War</a> and the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/668387">Nixon-era conservative politics</a>.</p>
<p>“Malcolm’s gone” is not only a song that pays tribute to one of the most influential black freedom fighters to walk this planet (which in itself is a revolutionary act). It’s a song that dares to liken him to the very same deity that racist nationalist white America prayed to at night, Jesus Christ. This was a very provocative act given America’s Christian foundations, and the fact that Malcolm X, a black Muslim, was perceived to be an enemy of the state.</p>
<p>With minimal lyrics and a robust otherworldly feel the song is able to capture the pain and optimism of black America in a time of great adversity. At the same time it consolidates ideas of civil rights pacifism (through the imagery of Christ) and Black power militancy (in the form of crashing instruments and wailing). It is a profound expression of the black condition of the time, and a deeply dignified tribute to a fallen soldier.</p>
<p><em>Protest music has made a serious comeback over the past five years. This article is the second in a series featuring Songs of Protest from across the world, genres and generations.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The protest song “Malcolm’s gone” not only pays tribute to one of the most influential black leaders, but provocatively likens him, as a Muslim and so-called enemy of the state, to Jesus Christ.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725182017-03-05T10:36:37Z2017-03-05T10:36:37ZAfrofuturistic, cosmic jazz comes to the Motherland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159131/original/image-20170302-14714-18pc15p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saxophonist Kamasi Washington will be performing at the 2017 Cape Town International Jazz Festival.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The golden era days of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/style/jazz-rap-ma0000012180">jazz-rap</a> occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hip-hop artists of the time sampled jazz and funk records to create their sound. </p>
<p>Unlike then, we are now entering an age where jazz and funk artists are redefining the boundaries and the sound of hip-hop. The <a href="http://www.capetownjazzfest.com/">Cape Town International jazz festival</a> has tapped into this new age. A number of these musical trailblazers are coming to the African motherland soon, where their musical prowess will be showcased at the annual festival.</p>
<p>Some context on these musicians: They do this delineation by fusing genres like <a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9724-astral-traveling-the-ecstasy-of-spiritual-jazz/">spiritual/cosmic jazz</a>, <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/1822964/p-funk-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/">Pfunk</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/west-coast-rap-ma0000002932">West Coast hip-hop</a> with ideologies of <a href="http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6001/Black-Consciousness.html">black consciousness</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/entry/your-far-out-guide-to-afrofuturism-and-black-magic_us_5711403fe4b0060ccda34a37">Afrofuturism</a> and <a href="http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=blackstudfacproc">syncretic black spirituality</a>.</p>
<p>We also see more of an emphasis on collaboration between hip-hop artists and contemporary jazz musos. Not only well versed in the golden era hip-hop, these jazz musicians also know their way around the jazz of yesteryear. This interaction sees more interplay between traditional hip-hop sampling methods and a jazz-based composition, improvisation and performance aesthetic in hip-hop. A prime example of this development can be found in songs like Kendrick Lamar’s “For Free? (Interlude)”, “<a href="https://worldgalaxyrecords.bandcamp.com/track/astral-progressions-feat-kurupt">Astral Progressions</a>” by contemporary jazz trumpeter <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/josef-leimberg-mn0001717508/biography">Josef Leimberg</a> featuring rapper Kurupt and the works of artists like the Canadian jazz band, <a href="http://badbadnotgood.com/">Badbadnotgood</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘For Free?’ by Kendrick Lamar from his album, To Pimp a Butterfly.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Unlike in the golden jazz-rap era, jazz is no longer a mere sonic muse or pallet for beat makers. It’s now at the forefront of hip-hop production and is directly influencing the trajectory of the genre. For jazz this period marks a new era of fusion that’s heavily influenced by the open minded innovators of the fusion movement of the 1970s such as <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/herbie-hancock-mn0000957296">Herbie Hancock</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/miles-davis-mn0000423829">Miles Davis</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/weather-report-mn0000243527">Weather Report</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tony-williams-mn0000791318">Tony Williams</a>. These musical revolutionaries were able to change the shape of jazz and other genres simultaneously through the redefinition and fusion of styles.</p>
<p>Something really magical is taking place at the moment. The last few years have seen a gradual increase of black artists who are really – as opposed to just aesthetically – tuned into the circuit-jamming frequencies and epoch-making ideas of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-clinton-mn0000533117/biography">George Clinton</a>), <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sun-ra-mn0000924232/biography">Sun Ra</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/2pac-mn0000921895/biography">Tupac Shakur</a>, <a href="http://malcolmx.com/biography/">Malcolm X</a> and everything in between and beyond.</p>
<p>As a scholar of Afrofuturism, a DJ and record collector I am extremely grateful that the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has booked some of these gifted young artists that have built this movement over the last few years.</p>
<p>I’m particularly excited to witness, in my own city, the stellar art of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/laura-mvula-mn0003052732/biography">Laura Mvula</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/taylor-mcferrin-mn0001881073/biography">Taylor McFerrin</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marcus-gilmore-mn0000935640/credits">Marcus Gilmore</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kamasi-washington-mn0000772447">Kamasi Washington</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/digable-planets-mn0000826762">Digable Planets</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Laura Mvula</strong></p>
<p>I can best describe Birmingham native Mvula’s music as ethereal, spaced out vocal jazz with gospel and African choral roots. She sounds unique, exploring themes of blackness, spirituality and space in an elegant manner. </p>
<p>Her style is minimal, clean and elegant with a particular knack for making full use of emptiness and space. Listening to her music makes me feel like I’ve been teleported to church in outer space. Worth noting is that her African surname is of no significance to her music – it’s simply her Zambian husband’s surname.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Laura Mvula’s musical feel is well illustrated in this song ‘That’s alright’.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>Digable Planets</strong></p>
<p>The title of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/digable-planets-mn0000826762">Digable Planets</a>’ 1993 jazz-heavy debut release “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/reachin-a-new-refutation-of-time-and-space-mw0000616174">Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)</a>” is an apt and clear indicator of the musical direction they were taking during that period. This particular album served as my first introduction to jazzy hip-hop and the idea of “space, jazz and blackness”. Their second release “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/blowout-comb-mw0000119422">Blowout Comb</a>”, which is super Afrocentric and created around themes of Black Nationalism, black urban culture, jazz and entomology, took me further down the rabbit hole of Afrofuturism .</p>
<p>For me the group exemplifies my comparison between the golden era of hip-hop, the advent of late 90s <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/neo-soul-ma0000004426">neo-soul</a> and the here-and-now, as they were one of the first groups to explore Afrofuturism, space, time travel, blackness and urban culture through the idioms of jazz and hip-hop. They definitely set the tone for this kind of expression and continued to do so even after their protracted hiatus which occurred between 1995 and their reunion tour of 2016.</p>
<p>During that period group member Ishmael Butler went on to establish another highly influential Afrofuturistic outfit, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/shabazz-palaces-mw0002138257">Shabazz Palaces</a>, and Cee Knowledge created and recorded with the spaced out hip-hop/jazz band <a href="http://cosmicfunkorchestra.com/">Cee Knowledge and the Cosmic Funk Orchestra</a> while Lady Mecca went on to record her solo hip-hop offering, “<a href="http://prince.org/msg/8/431132">Trip The Light Fantastic</a>”. One simply cannot discuss Afrofuturism and jazz within the bounds of hip-hop without mentioning Digable Planets and their unique legacy.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Digable Planets with their hit ‘Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)’</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>Taylor McFerrin and Marcus Gilmore</strong></p>
<p>The idea that DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/taylor-mcferrin-mn0001881073/biography">Taylor McFerrin</a> is teaming up with jazz drummer <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marcus-gilmore-mn0000935640/credits">Marcus Gilmore</a> is most thrilling because they have never recorded a collaborative album that showcases their collective sound. This collaboration is an argument in favour of the assumption that musicality is innate by way of one’s genes. Both these artists are direct descendants of two of the most prolific artists of our time.</p>
<p>Gilmore, who is the grandson of legendary jazz drummer <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-haynes-mn0000290464">Roy Haynes</a>, recently recorded an album with the jazz fusion giant Chick Corea. Gilmore has also collaborated with foremost Afrofuturist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/flying-lotus-mn0000717419">Flying Lotus</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ravi-coltrane-mn0000401568">Ravi Coltrane</a>. Both are from impeccable jazz stock – the latter the son of jazz gods, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-coltrane-mn0000175553">John</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alice-coltrane-mn0000006143/biography">Alice</a>, and the former their grand nephew.</p>
<p>McFerrin, the son of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-mcferrin-mn0000768367">Bobby</a>, is known for his left-field, futuristic fusion of electronica, jazz, soul and hip hop. He is affiliated to the aforementioned Flying Lotus’s experimental LA-based <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2015/08/26/brainfeeder-flying-lotus-label-interview">Brainfeeder</a> record label, a purveyor of some of the finest Afrofuturistic art of the last decade.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gilmore and McFerrin in concert.</span></figcaption>
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<p><strong>Kamasi Washington</strong></p>
<p>Saxophonist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kamasi-washington-mn0000772447">Washington</a>’s multiple 2015 award winning debut studio album “The Epic” (also released via Brainfeeder) is one of the most important jazz albums of the last five years. It simultaneously garnered the <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-epic/kamasi-washington">respect of critics</a> and jazz purists, as well as audiences who wouldn’t otherwise listen to anything as musically complex.</p>
<p>Released as a triple disk on vinyl, “The Epic” is a worthy investment for any vinyl enthusiast and music lover.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kamasi Washington and his band with ‘Clair de Lune’ from ‘The Epic’.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This phenomenal album, along with Washington’s work as a notable collaborator on a significant number of the most prominent Afrofuturistic, jazz, hip-hop and funk albums of the last five years, makes him an artist of great stature. One finds his name <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/324293-Kamasi-Washington?filter_anv=0&subtype=Writing-Arrangement&type=Credits">printed in the liner notes</a> of recent, groundbreaking albums by Kendrick Lamar, Josef Leimberg, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Miles Mosely and Run the Jewels.</p>
<p>Washington definitely is an important part of the machinery that’s shaping the future sound of jazz, hip-hop and funk, in their individual forms and as a futuristic, experimental fusion projects.</p>
<p>The festival is an exceptional opportunity to engage with artists, who are relevant and progressive, especially in the Motherland. I sincerely hope that South Africa inspires their art and that we can absorb something from whatever they project.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Something really magical is happening at the intersection between jazz and hip-hop at the moment. Many of the artists involved will be playing at Africa’s foremost jazz festival.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702232016-12-12T18:05:01Z2016-12-12T18:05:01ZYes, 2016 was crazy. But the future of art is bright and black<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149656/original/image-20161212-26048-1bxvh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cover of Childish Gambino's album 'Awaken my love'.</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>Review 2016: This has been a year most of humanity would like to forget with war, disasters, racism, sexism and, especially in arts and culture, the deaths of revered icons. But it is also in the arts and culture where people look for and find hope. The Conversation Africa has asked a number of our contributors to give us five books, records, buildings, works of art and so on, in their field that made a difference to them in 2016. Here is Michael Shakib Bhatch’s year in review.</em></p>
<p>In our haste to conclude 2016 (for various obviously bad reasons) we shouldn’t forget to reflect on all the wonderful works of art that inspired and distracted us from the craziness of this period. Below I share some of the grand works that made this year memorable for the right reasons. I limit myself through the lens of Afrofuturism and African studies specifically because this article has a word limit …</p>
<p>To recap quickly: the <a href="http://www.fabrikzeitung.ch/afrofuturism-reloaded-15-theses-in-15-minutes/">still relevant</a> term Afrofuturism was first coined by American cultural critic, <a href="http://markdery.com/">Mark Dery</a>, in his seminal 1994 essay <a href="https://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdf">“Black to the future”</a>.</p>
<p>Dery <a href="https://futuristicallyancient.com/tag/mark-dery/">defined</a> Afrofuturism as a: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture – and more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced – might, for want of a better term, be called “Afro-futurism.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>1. Josef Leimberg – "Astral Progressions”</h2>
<p>In late November I was taken on a sonic journey through <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/west-coast-rap-ma0000002932">West Coast rap</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/the-history-of-spiritual-jazz.html">cosmic spiritual jazz</a> and P-funk by California-based trumpeter and hip hop producer Josef Leimberg. His debut solo album: <a href="https://worldgalaxyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/astral-progressions">“Astral Progressions”</a> has been a staple in the car, home and office ever since. The album explores West Coast <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/g-funk-ma0000011824">G-funk</a> and two major historical components of Afrofuturistic sound art: spiritual cosmic jazz in the vein of artists like <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/pharoah-sanders-mn0000330601">Pharoah Sanders</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alice-coltrane-mn0000006143">Alice Coltrane</a>, and cosmic funk as created by <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/funkadelic-mn0000187581">Parliament-Funkadelic</a>.</p>
<p>Anyone who is a scholar of Afrofuturism will agree that the album really connects the dots (both sonically and stylistically) between then, now and the future. For me the album is part of a movement of deliberately conscious black music that is using ancient soundscapes to explore the future sound of black music. This conscious black music movement is to avant garde jazz musician, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sun-ra-mn0000924232">Sun Ra</a>, and funk master, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-clinton-mn0000533117">George Clinton</a>, what the genre <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/neo-soul-ma0000004426">Neo-Soul</a> is to <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roy-ayers-mn0000345168/biography">Roy Ayers</a> (who successfully straddled bridged jazz, funk and disco in the mid 1970s and early ‘80s), with hip hop sandwiched right in the middle.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149657/original/image-20161212-26074-1mfw3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Josef Leimberg’s debut album Astral Progressions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Childish Gambino - “Awaken, my love”</h2>
<p>Roughly 29 days before the closing of this year actor <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22671-awaken-my-love/">Donald Glover</a> under the guise of his rapper alter ego, Childish Gambino, made waves when he released <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/12/09/504969213/childish-gambinos-new-album-is-a-funky-left-turn">“Awaken, my love”</a>, an album that draws heavily on the works of Funkadelic, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimi-hendrix-mn0000354105">Jimi Hendrix</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sylvester-sly-stone-stewart-mn0000751663">Sly Stone</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/prince-mn0000361393">Prince</a>. While many reviews of the album didn’t find it particularly Afrofuturistic in nature, I did. I feel that while it draws on the same influences as Neo-Soul artist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dangelo-mn0000134600">D'Angelo</a>, its sonic aesthetic leans more toward rapper <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kendrick-lamar-mn0002709646">Kendrick Lamar</a>’s Afrofuturistic album <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/to-pimp-a-butterfly-mw0002835159">“To pimp a butterfly”</a>.</p>
<p>In my humble opinion Gambino (along with like-minded artists such as <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sa-ra-mn0000955123">Sa-Ra</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bilal-mn0000057280">Bilal</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/adrian-younge-mn0001646944">Adrian Younge</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/terrace-martin-mn0002366358">Terrace Martin</a>) is ushering in the stylistic progression of neo-soul to neo-psychedelic space funk (if you could call it that). The crazy thing about this is that the said “progression” is taking place during a sociopolitical period that is often likened to the late 60’s/ early 70’s: when George Clinton and Sly Stone altered soul and funk, and Hendrix altered the blues. I am very chuffed that I can bear witness to the development of this sound, especially within the context of the <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/">#BlackLivesMatter</a> movement and the looming Donald Trump administration.</p>
<h2>3. “Birth of a Nation” - Nate Parker</h2>
<p>Finally, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196450/">a film</a> about one of the most important heroes of black resistance in the USA and beyond, <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/nat-turner">Nat Turner</a>. The movie, which is co-produced and directed by Nate Parker who also plays the leading role is significant in many ways. It is a prime example of the very necessary process of reclaiming and reframing of black history in order to change the trajectory of the future of black people worldwide.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149659/original/image-20161212-26051-1o2gwqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nate Parker, director of ‘Birth of a nation’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The film was shrouded in <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/timeline-of-the-nate-parker-rape-scandal.html">controversy</a> and was received with mixed feelings. Seventeen years ago Parker and a wrestling teammate were accused of raping a female student, while attending Penn State university. Parker was found not guilty. Four years ago the woman who accused him committed suicide.</p>
<p>With the release of “Birth of a Nation” in October and Parker’s raised profile the spotlight turned back on the case.</p>
<p>Despite one’s personal judgements of his character, the project might inspire other young black artists to boldly rewrite and reimagine the often skewed whitewashed historical accounts of black revolutionary action.</p>
<p>Hopefully soon someone might present the world with say, the story of the <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/haitian-revolution-1791-1804">Haitian Revolution</a> (1791-1804) or of revolutionary hero, the late Burkinabe president <a href="http://qz.com/415257/why-burkina-fasos-late-revolutionary-leader-thomas-sankara-still-inspires-young-africans/">Thomas Sankara</a>, who was revered as the “African Che Guevara”. Who knows. Either way, Parker has sown the seed. </p>
<h2>4. “Luke Cage” TV series</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149660/original/image-20161212-26036-dgoa9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster for ‘Luke Cage’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I never was a fan of comics and superheroes but the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322314/">“Luke Cage”</a> series might have changed my mind. The television series caught my attention for the same reasons as “Birth of a Nation” and “Awaken, my love”. Essentially it is an Afrofuturistic blaxploitation series with a brilliant retrospective, and futuristic score created by the great <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/adrian-younge-mn0001646944">Adrian Younge</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/people/390269464/ali-shaheed-muhammad">Ali Shaheed Muhammad</a>. What is not to love about this? </p>
<p>The series brings Afrofuturism and neo-psychedelic space funk to the living rooms of the masses and it is likely to be a strong point of reference for many years to come. I definitely will be watching more of the series in my spare time – you should too.</p>
<h2>5. “Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro – How far we slaves have come”</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.kwela.com/Books/19606">book</a> contains the speeches of two icons, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, who are equally loved, and hated by many. It offers us insight (via the speeches exchanged by these icons upon their first meeting in Cuba in 1991) into Cuba’s role in catalysing the end of apartheid. </p>
<p>It also sheds some light on how these two giants related to each other as revolutionaries. This is essential reading material, especially in the wake of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/fidel-castro-cuba-revolutionary-icon-dies">Castro’s death</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-crisis-could-become-a-monster-if-zuma-is-left-unchecked-68350">current state</a> of the ruling ANC in South Africa. Ironically the book was republished by Kwela Books a few months prior to the passing of Castro who is often referred to as the world’s last revolutionary, this reaffirms my belief that revolutionary ideas do not die when revolutionaries do.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149661/original/image-20161212-26039-no5dqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cover of Shabaka & the Ancestors’ debut album.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In closing I would also like to make special mention of the album <a href="https://shabakaandtheancestors.bandcamp.com/">“Wisdom of the Elders”</a> by Shabaka Hutchings and the Ancestors as a key Afrofuturistic spiritual jazz release to come from South Africa this year (British saxophonist <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/shabaka-hutchings-mn0001092571/biography">Hutchings</a> recorded “Wisdom of the Elders” in Johannesburg in 2015 with some of South Africa’s finest young jazz musicians).
I’m waiting for the album which I ordered in vinyl format for further exploration. Don’t delay the purchase like I did.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Shakib Bhatch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a gloomy year filled, a number of artists with an Afrofuturist perspective gave hope with inspired works of art.Michael Shakib Bhatch, Lecturer of English, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/574482016-04-11T14:17:43Z2016-04-11T14:17:43ZThe marginalised African Songbird who finally became visible again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117853/original/image-20160407-16263-2zt8t6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sathima Bea Benjamin was seldom recognised during her lifetime as a performer. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Bruce Huntley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1948, the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/national-party-np">National Party</a> came to power in South Africa and immediately implemented legislation intended to weaken struggles for social democracy, labour rights and racial equality. These <a href="http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/HIST/Apartheid%20Legislation%20in%20South%20Africa.htm">apartheid laws</a> further codified racial segregation and severely limited rights of black people in the country.</p>
<p>There was no room for “natives”, except as maids, cooks and labourers. In this severely segregated context, something modern and international, like <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/what-is-jazz-good-question-by-jason-west.php">jazz</a>, was considered anathema by the apartheid state. As mass <a href="http://www.countriesquest.com/africa/south_africa/history/resistance_to_apartheid.htm">opposition</a> to the regime grew during the 1950s, jazz served as one of the prevailing <a href="http://musicinafrica.net/jazz-south-africa">soundtracks of struggle</a>.</p>
<p>This social and political cauldron produced some of South Africa’s greatest musical figures, notably <a href="http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=101">Miriam Makeba</a>, <a href="http://www.music.org.za/Artist.asp?ID=96">Hugh Masekela</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chris-mcgregor-mn0000005666/biography">Chris McGregor</a>, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/letta-mbulu-mn0000215321">Letta Mbulu</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/abdullah-ibrahim-and-politics-jazz-south-africa">Abdullah Ibrahim</a>. And it was that same cauldron that provoked them to flee their country.</p>
<h2>Recognition in the American jazz world</h2>
<p>One of those exiles, <a href="http://www.sathimabeabenjamin.com/biography/biography.htm">Sathima Bea Benjamin</a> – a singer and composer, and Ibrahim’s life partner – is rarely mentioned in the pantheon of South African artists. This is despite a half-century in the music business and praise from none other than American jazz great <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/duke-ellington-mn0000120323/biography">Duke Ellington</a>. Nor has she earned full acceptance and recognition in the American jazz world. </p>
<p>Some might glance at her career and chalk it up to bad luck. </p>
<p>In 1959, Benjamin recorded <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sathima-bea-benjamin-singer-championed-by-duke-ellington-8854481.html"><em>My Songs for You</em></a> – what should have been the first jazz LP in the history of South African music. But it was never released. Besides the predictable problem of finding a distributor amid rising racial tensions and state repression, the session just wasn’t up to par.</p>
<p>Four years later, Ellington produced a historic recording session with her for <a href="http://www.bsnpubs.com/warner/reprise/reprisestory.html">Reprise Records</a>. But the label decided she wasn’t commercial enough and shelved the record. It was finally released in 1997 as <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-morning-in-paris-mw0000593116"><em>A Morning in Paris</em></a>. </p>
<p>The few critics who have paid attention to Benjamin regard her as one of the great musical storytellers.</p>
<h2>Scuffle for work</h2>
<p>Benjamin is known for delivering lyrics with the kind of patience and emotion that leaves audiences hanging onto every word. As Jon Pareles, a critic for the <em>New York Times</em>, <a href="http://sojpradio.com/liner-notes/-echoes-of-south-africa-part-1">wrote in 1983</a>, “in song after song, Miss Benjamin could make a word cry out with just a flicker of vibrato”. And yet, from the time she left South Africa in 1962 until close to her <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/arts/music/sathima-bea-benjamin-jazz-singer-and-activist-dies-at-76.html">death</a> on August 20 2013, Benjamin always had to scuffle for work.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117854/original/image-20160407-16282-zb26lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>Benjamin was not “African” enough to be marketable, and too “African” or exotic to be taken seriously as a great jazz vocalist. Under apartheid she was classified as a “coloured”. Racial <a href="http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/race-classification">classification</a> was the foundation of all apartheid laws, placing individuals in one of four groups: “native”, “coloured”, “Asian” or ‘white’.</p>
<p>She once complained in an interview with me on March 5 2004: “People write books and things about jazz singing and they don’t include me. So what is the reason? Sometimes I think it’s because I don’t come from Georgia.”</p>
<p>As a coloured South African whose repertoire excluded <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/developement-music-south-africa-timeline-1600-2004">township music</a> or traditional <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people-south-africa/xhosa">isiXhosa</a> songs, Benjamin has been considered less authentic than, say, Makeba. Although late in her career, she began to sing standards over Cape Town’s unique shuffle rhythms. She fashioned herself as a jazz vocalist and remained squarely in the idiom. Yet Benjamin was as much a product of the struggle to overthrow apartheid as Makeba was. She too composed liberation songs and paeans to her homeland, and worked tirelessly in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/arts/music/sathima-bea-benjamin-jazz-singer-and-activist-dies-at-76.html">support</a> of the African National Congress (<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/african-national-congress-anc">ANC</a>).</p>
<h2>Expression of defiance</h2>
<p>Benjamin and Makeba both became professional singers during apartheid’s formative years, when jazz was hailed as a music of freedom. Jazz in South Africa was an expression of the nation’s defiant present and liberatory future – thoroughly modern, urban, sophisticated and non-racial.</p>
<p>Many of Benjamin’s contemporaries and compatriots, including Makeba, abandoned jazz for township music or indigenous folk songs, or attempted to fuse the genres in an effort to root their music in South African soil. But Benjamin never strayed from her devotion to modern jazz as “the most liberating music on the planet”.</p>
<p>Ironically, that same commitment ensured her marginalisation, as beautiful romantic ballads and torch songs lost their relevance in a highly nationalistic era of urban militancy. And as a coloured South African woman working in a genre too often construed as black – and as white, male and essentially American – Benjamin had to struggle just to be heard.</p>
<h2>No recordings</h2>
<p>In the late 1950s the South African <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/turbulent-1950s-women-defiant-activists">political situation</a> was tense, as confrontations between the state and liberation movements escalated in frequency and ferocity.</p>
<p>As with many politically conscious musicians at the time, Benjamin and Ibrahim’s main priority was to leave South Africa. In January 1962 they began a decade in exile in Europe, southern Africa and the US. During this time Ibrahim made several albums. Benjamin, by contrast, made no recordings except for a single track on one of Ibrahim’s unreleased transcription records. </p>
<p>The combination of solitary study, reflection, motherhood and travel back and forth to southern Africa inspired her to write poetry and compose her own music. In 1974 she composed <em>Music</em> as a tribute to her husband.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mTprM49tLUA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sathima Bea Benjamin’s centrepiece from the 1976 album <em>African Songbird</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She also composed <em>Africa</em>, a homage to the continent and a celebration of her return. The next year she penned <em>African Songbird</em> to honour the memory of Duke Ellington, who had passed away in 1974.</p>
<p>After moving back to South Africa in 1973, Ibrahim and impresario <a href="http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/12/as-shams-south-african-jazz-guide">Rashid Vally</a> co-founded The Sun record label (also known by the Arabic name As-Shams). <a href="http://www.londonjazznews.com/2013/06/lp-review-bea-benjamin-with-dollar.html"><em>African Songbird</em></a>, comprising Benjamin’s three compositions, was recorded at a session that took place in March 1976 at <a href="http://www.pro-systems.co.za/page/news/studio-broadcast-audio/1644943-The-only-way-is-up-for-Downtown-Studios">Gallo Studios</a> in <a href="http://www.joburg.org.za/">Johannesburg</a>. She was backed by an ensemble made up of two drummers, three bass players, the African-American trumpeter <a href="http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/02/01/loc_otherobit01.html">Billy Brooks</a> and the popular South African saxophonist <a href="http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=78">Basil Coetzee</a>, led by Ibrahim on electric piano. Faced with the task of filling an LP with just three songs, the soloists stretched out on <em>Africa</em>, turning it into a 21-minute virtuoso performance.</p>
<p>Ibrahim and Vally wasted no time putting out <em>African Songbird</em>, which hit South African record shops in the local winter of 1976. At 40, Benjamin finally saw the release of her first LP. The landmark recording not only unveiled her talent as a composer but it revealed her deep and abiding interest in the freedom struggle in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Soweto uprising</h2>
<p>Her interest became a full-blown engagement in <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">June 1976</a>, after some 20 000 schoolchildren of Soweto rose up to protest the state’s decision to teach math and social studies in Afrikaans instead of English. The police retaliated against the protesters: between 300 and 500 Africans were killed and more than 2000 were wounded.</p>
<p>A few months later Ibrahim and Benjamin fled South Africa – again. They returned to New York and became politically active on behalf of the African National Congress. </p>
<p>Between 1979 and 2006, Benjamin released a further eight albums. Each of these received rave reviews, and one, <a href="http://home.nestor.minsk.by/jazz/news/2005/10/2503.html"><em>Dedications</em></a>, was nominated for a <a href="http://jazztimes.com/articles/16570-sathima-bea-benjamin-the-echo-returns">Grammy in 1982</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sathima Bea Benjamin’s <em>Dedications</em> was nominated for a Grammy in 1982.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Under apartheid, many black artists and intellectuals turned to either modern jazz or township music (or both) as a way forward, in opposition to the retrograde “native” policies of the regime. It was in this context that former nightclub singers such as Makeba, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/sep/28/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries">Dolly Rathebe</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dorothy-masuka-mn0000196363">Dorothy Masuka</a> embraced township music and created popular protest songs. These singers also symbolised a new, urban, female sexuality, including glamorous photos and profiles of them in <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/drum-magazine"><em>Drum</em> magazine</a>.</p>
<h2>Not African enough</h2>
<p>Essentialist notions of culture had rendered Benjamin illegible — not African enough for some, not American enough for others, and certainly not commercial enough for a market that traffics in familiar, digestible commodities. Perhaps most importantly, Benjamin was not <em>man</em> enough to sustain her own music on her terms – at least not until she launched <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ekapa-records-mn0000551457/credits">Ekapa Records</a>, began booking her own gigs and seized control of all aspects of her career. In other words, in her long struggle for visibility, gender was decisive.</p>
<p>She was initiated into a world where she put up with sexual harassment from musicians on whom she depended for practical skills, gigs, and even transportation. As a female balladeer in an era when South Africa’s modernists sought ways to express the cry of freedom and the cadences of mass resistance, Benjamin’s sensitive love songs were often drowned out.</p>
<p>One poignant story speaks volumes of the depths of her marginalisation.</p>
<p>Although she had spent the better part of a decade working for the African National Congress’s cultural wing and composing paeans to the movement, including <em>Winnie Mandela, Beloved Heroine</em>, Benjamin was not invited to perform at President <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela">Nelson Mandela’s</a> inauguration in 1994. Ibrahim was, however, and in her words she had to “steal” one minute from his five allotted minutes so that she could sing for her new president.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sathima Bea Benjamin’s dedication to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela from the 2006 album, <em>Song Spirit</em>.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Fortunately she has finally earned the kinds of accolades befitting an artist of her stature. In October 2004, South African president <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki">Thabo Mbeki</a> honoured her with the <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7754">Order of Ikhamanga</a> Silver Award in <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/national-orders-recipients-2004">recognition</a> for her “excellent contribution as a jazz artist” as well as for her contribution “to the struggle against apartheid”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sathima Bea Benjamin’s <em>African Songbird</em> was reissued in 2013.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In May 2013 a few months before Benjamin’s death her debut, <em>African Songbird</em>, was lovingly <a href="http://matsuli.blogspot.co.za/">reissued</a> on vinyl, CD and digital download. Described as a spiritual jazz masterpiece, the reissue remedied the fact that this important keystone of South Africa’s jazz heritage was unavailable for decades. It has undoubtedly contributed to making her more visible.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from the book “Africa Speaks, America Answers -
Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times” by Robin DG Kelley.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Kelley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It took ages for one of African jazz’s hidden masterpieces to be reissued. Still today, four decades later, 1976’s ‘African Songbird’ tells volumes about the politics of the time.Robin Kelley, Professor of American History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.