Sylvia Mdunyelwa in Langa township in 2023. Screengrab/YouTube/Scene It August 28, 2023 Sylvia Mdunyelwa, one of South Africa’s great jazz vocalists, kept music traditions alive Gwen Ansell, University of Pretoria Not just a great jazz singer, Sylvia Mdunyelwa was also an activist, educator, broadcaster and actress.
The late Sathima Bea Benjamin, jazz singer and composer, has a track on As-Shams Archive Volume 1. Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images April 27, 2023 South Africa’s hidden jazz history is being restored album by album Gwen Ansell, University of Pretoria The legendary As-Shams jazz label has released the first of several compilation albums recovered from its archive.
Sathima Bea Benjamin was seldom recognised during her lifetime as a performer. Ian Bruce Huntley April 11, 2016 The marginalised African Songbird who finally became visible again Robin Kelley, University of California, Los Angeles 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.