19.01.2014
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Monat 01-03 / 04-06 / 07-09 / 10-12
19.01.2014
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Monat 01-03 / 04-06
/ 07-09 / 10-12
Monat 01-03 2002 (04-06 - 07-09 - 10-12)
9. Februar 2002 Give us colour-blind sounds (by Sam Ngwenya)
23. Februar 2002 Johnny Clegg - The Music & The Dance, at Kirstenbosch http://www.realsa.co.za/concerts/jc_themusic.htmDiespatch Online http://www.dispatch.co.za/2002/02/09/entertainment/music.htm
IT'S an undisputed fact that South Africans, with all our different cultural, traditional and religious backgrounds, can interpret what the next person regards as melody as 100 percent pure noise.
Saving yourself from being lectured again as to what terrorised the country and divided the nation during the past three decades or so, the truth is that blacks and whites do not always have the same musical tastes.
If you disagree, dare me and try organising a get-together function that will be attended by a mixed racial group of middle age citizens and try keeping them on their feet.
But, if you gate-crash at different clubs and take a closer look at the social scene currently making waves in the country you will discover that the youth is setting new trends.
In fact, the music industry in the country as a whole is undergoing a revolution in which artists are breaking the colour bar code.
We all remember a white Zulu boy who turned heads and left the 'above' clutching teeth when he teamed up with Juluka in the 80s.
Johnny Clegg's passion and love for the Zulu culture became a wake-up call to those believing that black culture and music was exclusive.
The songs Scatterlings of Africa and Asimbonanga became anthems for hope and change.
Even though Clegg managed to change mindsets and gain acceptance in the other side of the fence, it was not the same however at the other end.
Clegg might have sang scatamiya or mbhaqanga music that was appealing to blacks but one can only say he crossed the colour bar only as flesh and not by sound.
It was when an ambitious kwaito boy from the Zola township travelled downward to the Cape and teamed with respected music producer Gabbi Le Roux that the walls of stubbornness tumbled.
Mandoza, who was group member for hard-core kwaito group Chiskop, came up with his rough voice and hard-hitting tsotsi taal lyrics while Le Roux mixed that with the bass groove of a rocking guitar
The result, a smash hit that appealed not only to all South African races but to foreigners as well.
Remixed in many places including London, Nkalakatha is still a hit to date and opened massive opportunity for other artists.
The likes of Danny K and TK are singing RnB while mlungus such as The Admiral and Legoa are well-known in the kwaito trenches.
The most accomplished cross-over artist to date though seems to be The first lady Tamara Dey.
Dey hooked up with creative kwaito sidekick Brothers Of Peace and has since made her presence felt by setting dance floors all over alight .
Another artist hoping to set even greater heights is newcomer Jae.
Jae teamed up with a renowned black producer in Alexis Faku and her manager Noel Kok is oozing with confidence.
"We are presenting a product that is appealing in appearance and defining in sound," Kok said.
While Jae's album is faring well in both the black and white radio charts, it remains to be seen if there are any artists who can dare taking such a risk.
The world of Johnny Clegg is one of music and dance that defied and pierced the breastbone of Apartheid South Africa. It’s a seamless fusion of Zulu melodic traditions and English lyrics.
In a celebration of this compelling combination, and after 8 sold out shows in Johannesburg, Johnny Clegg brings his highly acclaimed show, The Music and The Dance to Cape Town. In his review of the show, Josh Adler of PC Music wrote, “There is no question that the show is well rehearsed and designed to enthrall and uplift an audience who have been longing to see him on stage again after a 5 year absence.”
Clegg is poised to perform Johnny Clegg - The Music and The Dance at the Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town on 23 February 2002.
The show features an acoustic ‘unplugged’ set, which will see old favourites given a new acoustic flavour while building to the heart-thumping finale that includes a full ensemble set complete with an array of traditional dance. The show turns full circle to the inspiration for Clegg’s music in the hostels and rooftop shebeens of Johannesburg at a time when even making music was considered a crime.
This exciting concert will give old and new audiences a chance to gear themselves up for the new Clegg experience.
Apart from the recent impromptu performances, fans have keenly felt his long absence from the concert scene in Cape Town.
Be a part of the legacy as Clegg revisits the beauty of Juluka and Savuka, the groups whose passion for music superceded fears of oppression.
Bring your blankets and picnic baskets and catch this memorable event on Saturday, 23 February 2002 at Kirstenbosch Gardens.
Booking now open at Computicket and at Kirstenbosch Gardens. Tickets are R85 excluding service fee, unreserved seating. Gates open at 18h30 with the show starting at 20h00.
Sunday Times, SA http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2002/03/03/arts/cape/anec03.asp
TIMING is everything in music and life.
Four years ago, the Johnny Clegg roadshow rolled into Cape Town, struggled to drum up an audience, and slunk out again, tails between its legs.
When Clegg came back last weekend, he couldn't believe the response.
The one-off show at Kirstenbosch was sold out within two days of booking opening, and on Saturday night a 5 000-strong crowd filled every patch of grass in what has to be the city's best outdoor live performance venue.
Clegg filled the hearts and replenished the souls of people who had lived with the man and his music through the trauma of the 1980s and into the conquering 1990s.
This was a reunion. A generation grown from twentysomethings with burgeoning political views into something reluctantly approaching middle age had come to see an icon of their time.
A moon was peeping through the wispy grey cloud, enlightening the bold outline of the mountain towering above Kirstenbosch and lending an awesome perspective to the brightly lit stage crouched beneath it.
Clegg's show, dubbed The Music and the Dance, was a retrospective of his music as much as a tour of the Zulu musical styles and dance choreography that is far deeper and more complex than the mere gumboot dancing that some presume it to be. In between he scattered most of the popular Juluka/Savuka songs, interspersed with a couple of new tracks and some lesser-known oldies.
siehe: "Making of" und Diskografie
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (2002)
von David Lickley
DVD, Regionalcode 1, NTSC-Format, Farbe, 90 Minuten
Ton: Englisch
SlingShot Entertainment / Ventura Distribution, Februar 2003, 9906-7DVD-Ausgabe von Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees.
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (Large Format) (2002)
- Director: David Lickley
- Encoding: Region 1 (US and Canada only)
- Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound
- Rated: NR
- Studio: Ventura Distribution
- DVD Features:
- Commentary by director David Lickley
- Theatrical trailer(s)
- Behind the scenes
- Jane's message
- The making of the music
- Chimpanzee trivia
- About Science North
- ASIN: B00006LPGB
- Other Formats: VHS
- Amazon.com Sales Rank (DVD): 6,373
Technical Information
Release Information:
Studio: Ventura Distribution
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 2002
DVD Release Date: February 4, 2003
Run Time: 90 minutes
Production Company: ventura
Package Type: Keep CaseDiscographic Information:
DVD Encoding: Region 1
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Available subtitles: EnglishEdition Details:
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound
• Commentary by director David Lickley
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Behind the scenes
• Jane's message
• The making of the music
• Chimpanzee trivia
• About Science North
• ASIN: B00006LPGB
Monat 04-06 2002 (01-03 / 07-09 - 10-12)
Monat 07-09 2002 (01-03 - 04-06 / 10-12)
Juli 2002: Clegg at Sanary (France) Performance from French tour (July 2002) - More Pictures
SOUTH AFRICAN superstar Johnny Clegg is one of the top attractions scheduled this year at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre. Le Zoulou Blanc (the White Zulu), as Clegg is known to many of his fans, will be staging a massive music and dance production at the Civic to coincide with Johannesburg's hosting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
He presents Johnny Clegg - A South African Story for two weeks from August 22. The show tells the tale of Clegg's own life as well as the history of the music and dance forms that have influenced his bands, Juluka and Savuka, over the past 25 years.
Clegg's words and songs will be presented on a big, technicolour screen throughout the two-hour production, which had its premiere at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July. The show is destined to sell out fast, so early reservations are advisable to avoid disappointment. ....
http://www.safrica.info/what_happening/arts_entertainment/civic.htm
http://www.joburg.org.za/july_2002/clegg.stm
23. August 2002 Johnny Clegg comes home
Johnny Clegg- 'An African Story'
Johnny Clegg returns to The Johannesburg Civic Theatre for a complete music and dance experience. The show will run for two weeks from 23 August, coinciding with Johannesburg's hosting of The World Summit on Sustainable Development. Not to be outdone by the biggest United Nations event ever, Johnny's show will be, “A huge audio-visual production,” organisers say. “Throughout his two-hour long performance and narration, Johnny's words and songs will be illustrated in Technicolor on a big screen - a musical and pictorial journey of his life”. The show - Johnny Clegg: A South African Story - is a carefully crafted cultural history of the music and the dance forms that have influenced the music of Juluka and Savuka over the last 25 years. Tickets go on sale on 24 May, ranging from R125 to R275 and are available through Computicket. http://www.worldonline.co.za/musi/musi_center_music_.505424.html
By Katie Mc Nally http://www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za/archive/2002/afterdark.html
Aug 22 - The Nelson Mandela Stage at the Civic Theatre was brought to life this evening as Johnny Clegg presented his pulsating concert 'A Night to Remember'. The concert showcased, through an audio-visual presentation, Johnny's journey into his musical career from 1960, the year in which he first picked up a guitar!
Media personnel and delegates from Highway Africa joined Johnny on a tribute to Sipho Mchunu, the man who first taught Johnny how to play the guitar. Johnny charmed the audience as he addressed and sang to them in both English and Zulu. The vibrant sounds and beat of the drums wowed audiences as they whistled, clapped and sang along to the songs that have placed Johnny on the map as one of the greatest performers in Africa.
Amongst those present was Johannesburg Major Amos Masonde who commented that he "didn't know journalists were human until they came here". He paid tribute to the journalists on the continent saying that they were responsible for making Africa "equals amongst equals". He stressed the importance of conferences such as Highway Africa in the advancement of Africa's development.
Johnny described himself as a "bit of Zulu-tuning, a bit of Western-tuning and a bit half-half". As his acoustic sounds echoed through the theatre in his usual "Maskande tradition" he created the perfect backdrop to the World Summit that sees delegates from all nations uniting together, regardless of colour and culture.
By Bongani Majola http://www.joburg.org.za/aug_2002/clegg.stm
Johnny Clegg's two-hour performance, aptly titled "A South African Story", is a carefully crafted cultural history of the music and the dance forms that have influenced his bands
NEVER before, in this writer's memory, have performers responded to an audience calling "we want more" by going right back on stage and rendering several more tunes to tumultuous applause. But it happened in a special preview of the Johnny Clegg show, organised by the City of Johannesburg, at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
Johnny Clegg's two-hour performance, aptly titled "A South African Story", is a carefully crafted cultural history of the music and the dance forms that have influenced his bands Juluka, which he formed with Sipho Mchunu, and later Savuka over the last 25 years.
The show is a massive audio-visual production, with Clegg's words and songs also illustrated on a Technicolor big screen, making it into a musical and pictorial journey of his life. Part history, part anthropology and lots of his trademark music, the show demonstrates through music the evolution of Maskande traditional music and how it influenced aspects of rhythm and bass guitar.
Along with Mchunu, Clegg performed their popular Juluka hits, including "Impi", "Mfazomdala" and "Zodwa", songs that literally brought Johannesburg city centre to a halt in the 1980s as they embarked on the first ever street show in the country, "Umgwaqo ka Juluka".
The second half of the show brought the audience up and stomping in the aisles as the Johnny Clegg Band sang through to the final steps of the musical journey.
A true South African icon, Johnny Clegg is indeed a rare son of the soil, Le Zulu Blanc as he is affectionately known. His life story is a litany of "first this and that". He is the first white musician to successfully cross over to an otherwise alien culture of black Maskande and Mbaqanga music. And thus, he takes the audience along in song, dance and narration of how a traditional dancing team is constructed and how the rhythm and stamping are assembled by a choreographer to a perfect tune. His narration is particularly entertaining, with funny witticisms from time to time.
He reduced many South Africans to tears as he took the audience on a journey of a white South African discovering Zulu culture and traditions, a journey of learning, as he put it, "how to define yourself through stomping the ground"(ukusina). Probably spurred on by a mixture of anthropological curiosity and a genuine desire to learn the Zulu way of life, he embarked on a journey to the rural mountains of Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, where he discovered not only the Zulu but also himself as a cultural person. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
And that history is difficult to tell without getting sentimental. For it is a moving tale not only of a white urban boy discovering another culture, but also a tale of being accepted and held in high esteem by a black community. The effect is, as his guitarist Xola Nkabinde admits, "Johnny Clegg knows more about Zulu custom than many urban Zulus today". And it shows in his music.
Johnny Clegg : A South African Story runs at the Nelson Mandela Theatre from August 23 to September 8.
The two additional shows are on Friday, 20 September and Saturday, 21 September 21
23. August 2002 Clegg still rocks
Sunday Times, SA http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2002/08/23/lifestyle/gwen.asp
Gwen Gill
A late night last night as the still-energetic-at-50 Johnny Clegg entertained local and visiting media covering the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The almost full Nelson Mandela theatre at the Civic in Braamfontein just north of the Joburg city centre was a mass of dancing bodies as Johnny told the story of his 30-year musical career and his Zulu mentors over the decades.
Hardly a celeb in sight – no wonder John Perlman of SaFM and I cracked the mayoral box. A jovial man our mayor Amos Masondo, who'd booked out the house for the welcome party – I’d privately christened him Amiable Amos before the night was out.
South Africa’s favourite musical son performed all the numbers we know him for, wearing a black and red suit with matching red guitar.
"Skatterlings of Africa" went down brilliantly and fans were up and dancing as soon as he got to the less traditional numbers in the Jaluka and Savuka repertoire.
Great show, and you don’t have to be a summit reporter to appreciate it. A two-and-a-half week run started last night, but I hear it’s already 80% sold out.
25. August 2002 Johnny Clegg hits the wrong note
Sunday Times, SA http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2002/08/25/business/news/news22.asp
By Stuart Graham
AFRICAN Media Entertainment fended off an attempt by a consortium of shareholders, including local pop star Johnny Clegg, to seize control of the company on Friday.
The consortium, led by lawyer and co-founder of the company, David Dison, called a meeting of shareholders with a view to pushing through seven resolutions. All seven resolutions failed.
Three resolutions proposing the appointment to the board of Clegg, Derek Lubner and Stanley Woolfs were defeated.
Four resolutions proposing the removal from the board of chief executive Kevin Coyle and three other directors, Zenwill Lacob, Talib Sadik and Anthony Stein, were also defeated.
Just before the voting, AME offered to admit consortium representatives on the board if they dropped their plans to remove the incumbents. The Clegg-Dison consortium rejected this offer and insisted on proceeding with all seven resolutions.
The closest voting was over the appointment of Clegg, who lost by a margin of 1.6% of votes cast.
Worldwide African Investment Holdings, the biggest single shareholder, opposed the resolutions. Thuli Zuma, chief executive of Worldwide, said he was pleased the matter was behind the company.
Chairman Khaya Nqculu, who is CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation, also endorsed the incumbent management.
Coyle said he was delighted to remain in office. He said his management had reduced AME's debt from R80-million to R33-million.
After the sale of Golden Gloves Promotions, AME will have debt of only R8.5-million. It will then be able to focus on its strategy of growing its exposure to radio, he said.
.............
The 800 guests will be entertained by a roster of South Africa's leading performers, including Johnny Clegg, Gloria Bosman, Vusi Mahlasela, The Soweto String Quartet, Moses Khumalo and his Band, Pops Mohamed, Tu Nokwe with the Amajika Children's Choir, and leading soloists from The South African Ballet Theatre.
............
http://www.joburg.org.za/sep_2002/theatre.stm...............
Then the floor did strange things again. A section rose into the ceiling, and a new platform rose up, with Johnny Clegg and his band ready to rock the guests. It's hard to stay in your chair with that music in your ears. That stage rocked, with dancing, clapping and lots of smiles. Even mayor Masondo and premier Shilowa were spotted dancing.After several songs Clegg invited Gloria Bosman to join him, and they rocked together. Vusi Mahlasela was also on the bill, with his cool, sensuous sound.
And out in the foyer again, the guests still hadn't had enough dancing - Moses Khumalo and his band provided the beat again.
..........
http://www.joburg.org.za/sep_2002/dinner.stm
20.-21. September Johnny Clegg - The South African Story
Johnny
Clegg returns to The Johannesburg Civic Theatre for a complete music and dance
experience.
http://www.realsa.co.za/concerts/JC_SouthAfricanStory.htm
Hot on the heels of his successful run last year playing to sellout crowds,
Johnny will again perform on the stage of The Nelson Mandela Theatre at The
Civic. But this time the show will run for two weeks from August 23rd,
coinciding with Johannesburg’s hosting of The World Summit on Sustainable
Development. Not to be outdone by the biggest United Nations event ever,
Johnny’s show will be a massive audio-visual production. Throughout his
two-hour long performance and narration, Johnny’s words and songs will be
illustrated in Technicolor on a big screen - a musical and pictorial journey
of his life.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about having Johnny back on our stages at this
time,” says Civic Theatre CEO, Bernard Jay. “I’ve been looking for a legend to
be the pied piper for what will be a legendary moment for Johannesburg. Johnny
Clegg is a World Class performer on a World Class stage befitting a World
Class City.”
The show – Johnny Clegg: A South African Story - is a carefully crafted
cultural history of the music and the dance forms that have influenced the
music of Juluka and Savuka over the last 25 years.
Johnny, a South African icon, will start the show with four acoustic,
unplugged songs drawing on the Zulu guitar Maskande tradition. No one familiar
with Juluka and Savuka will fail to recognize the hits. Part history, part
anthropology and lots of music, Johnny demonstrates through the music the
evolution of Maskande and how it influenced aspects of rhythm and bass guitar.
No show of Johnny Clegg’s, however, is complete without ‘Le Zulu Blanc’
performing traditional Zulu dancing and our star delivers by going through key
movements that comprise the tradition of Isishameni dancing. This section of
the show - also incorporating the traditional style of accapella singing - is
lighthearted, funny and entertaining, showing off Johnny’s storytelling
skills.
He takes the audience and shows them how a traditional team is constructed and
how the rhythm and stamping has been assembled by the choreographer. Johnny
gives them an insider’s view of why and how certain choices in rhythmic
interpretation are made.
A historical look at the hidden tradition of cultural mixing that developed in
spite and in resistance to cultural segregation of the ‘50s and ‘60s South
Africa brings the first half of the show to an end.
The second half kicks off energetically as Johnny and the Johnny Clegg Band
run through all the hits of Juluka and Savuka. It brought the audiences up and
stomping in the aisles last time around and it will surely drag them out of
their seats again! If audiences think they can rest after that forty minute
segment, then the arrival of the sixteen traditional Umzansi Zulu dancers soon
sets them straight. The troupe and Johnny sweat up a storm on stage taking the
audience to the final steps of the musical journey.
The show runs from August 23 to September 8 and tickets go on sale Thursday
May 24th. Tickets range from R125 to R275 and are available through
Computicket.
These ticket prices excludes service charges.
Group Ticket Sales – for parties of ten or more at a discount of 10% - are
available only through The Johannesburg Civic Theatre by calling (011) 403
3408.
Johnny,
a South African icon, starts the show drawing on the Zulu guitar Maskande
tradition. No one familiar with Juluka and Savuka will fail to recognize the
hits. Part history, part anthropology and lots of music, Johnny demonstrates
through the music the evolution of Maskande. Monat 10-12 2002 (01-03 - 04-06 - 07-09)
"In September 2002, Johnny Clegg staged a unique audio-visual, auto biographical narrative titled "Johnny Clegg-a South African story." The show was wildly successful and Johnny Clegg and Friends played to 22,000 people over 18 shows at the [Nelson Mandela] theatre. Telling stories about the early development of his interest in Zulu migrant culture together with the songs that came of out of the various periods, Clegg shared personal moments recounting the struggle to maintain his friendships and connection to the migrant labour community during the apartheid years. The stories were accompanied by over head projection of documentary footage of many aspects of Zulu traditional culture that shaped Clegg's brand of cross over music. The music spans the Juluka and Savuka periods and a number of live recordings were made of the performance period. The best of the live performances were selected and appear on this unique recording.
The Band:
Johnny Clegg on guitar and concertina
Andrew Innes on guitar, mandolin, and backing vocals
Concorde Nkabinde on bass guitar and vocals
Barry Vanzyl on drums
Neil Gonzalves on keyboards
Brendon Ross on e-we, sax, backing vocals
Mandisa Dlanga vocals and dancing
Bongani Masuku, Sipho Nxumalo vocals"
As to who is touring with Johnny, based on the New Orleans and other concert photos posted on this site, I think he is touring with:
Andy, Concorde, Mandisa, Barry and sax( Brendon?) and keyboards (Neil?). Can someone verify/correct this?
Also, for what it's worth, an early post mentioned some new arrangements being performed in South Africa last momth and I presume those are the same as what's
on Best of Live/South African Story. The new arrangments are great! I know some will disagree, but songs like Bullets for Bafazane, I Call Your Name and December African Rain are even better than the original arrangments (I hope I'm not getting into trouble here with diehard purists). I'd better sign off.
--Andy 07.06.2004 01:58popmatters.com http://popmatters.com/columns/sassen/021002.shtml
The thrilling thing about existence in a continent that for centuries has been mauled, stigmatised, colonised and fought over by the west, is the crossover culture that's a by-product of it all. Sure, we, as "whities" have been taught self-hatred like any colonising people in the face of the colonised. We, or our forefathers, signed sealed, and legitimised racial hatred and to corroborate it, developed a practice of indoctrination: the very stuff that makes a serious cultural practitioner straddle values and reinvent himself.
Of course, not everyone heir to the South African contradictions does this, which is what makes it so interesting. Take Johnny Clegg for instance. This Jewish boy, born in England, grew up with a tapestry of cultures surrounding him. His experiences gave him the balls to challenge governmental acts prohibiting the integration of culture; he spit in the face of apartheid authority, and learned to stick fight, dance and sing like a Zulu man. It was from him that I filched the name of this column, in fact. "Just Another Day in Africa" originated from one of his lyrics, and in many ways that phrase encapsulates the pot-pourri of cultural realities that South Africanisms represent.
Although he was born in England and grew up in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, and therefore gained a broader understanding of a social framework than most young white South Africans ever could, Clegg could only have developed as he did in our contradictory and complicated culture. Deeply aware of the baggage that being white, Jewish, middle-class and African in a country disjointed by racial conflict entails, Clegg slipped between definitions of behaviour, broke new ground in the music arena, and became a cultural phenomenon.
But his tale is not that simple. From making wire cars with other nine-year-olds on the edge of Lusaka, Zambia, to fleeing from landlords during jamming sessions in the servants' quarters of Killarney, a smart apartment-based suburb of Johannesburg, as a teenager Clegg's career has rich, happy and blood-curdlingly exciting roots. From the age of 14, Clegg developed a secret life that intersected with his growth as a white young boy in Johannesburg. On an errand one evening, he met a Zulu guitarist called Charlie Mzila. At that stage Clegg was fascinated with Celtic folk music which reminded him of his father, who had absconded when Clegg was very young. The Zulu sounds evoked a Celtic 6/8 for Clegg and with the candour of many people in their early teenagerhood, he asked Mzila, 10 years his senior, to show him how he did it. Mzila was bemused and charmed, and so began an important relationship for Clegg, with the music, culture, and people of South Africa.
But the part of this story that tends to remain implicit is the South African climate of the time. A law existed called the "Group Areas Act". This law was about keeping people of different skin hues away from one another in order to prevent integration of any kind (to illustrate: if you were a black woman, you could only be in white suburbia after curfew hours if you were someone's nanny and had papers to prove it.) Clegg used to jam with Charlie in Charlie's servant quarters, which conventionally comprised a room atop middle-class buildings and by implication for a white boy, this was dangerous and illegal. Clegg explains:
The caretaker of the building was a very aggressive young English guy who used to go off to work during the day. I knew I must get out the building by about 4:45 because the caretaker would return and come straight up to see if I was still there. One Saturday, I was in Charlie's quarters . . . I was playing there with him, and the caretaker came in drunk. He was going to call the police, and a fight ensued and Charlie beat him up.This fight for Clegg's integrity was almost like a coming of age gesture. Suddenly he had a role model who represented values for him that surpassed anything he'd been taught or experienced before. It was in these surrounds that Clegg was introduced to the migrant labour cultural community. He discovered shebeens (or informal night clubs — blacks were not officially allowed to sell liquor and by and large did it behind closed doors) and experienced the whole underbelly of Johannesburg: where people would gamble and drink and play music and try to outperform one another.
A rather delicious irony is that Charlie Mzila was a very traditional and unanglicised individual. He couldn't speak English. Music rather poetically became the medium of communication between him and his new young protégé. By the age of 15, Clegg become well-known to the long arm of the law and was arrested on numerous occasions for trespassing and for contravening the Group Areas Act. But by that time, he was one of the Zulu dancers, accepted by these artists, and they defended and supported him during police raids. He'd learned how to infiltrate into a group of black men, thus avoiding the awareness of police watching out for "whities" entering black hostels or compounds. In 1967 Clegg experienced Zulu dance for the first time.
There was a single electric light and there was a concrete sports yard, very big, surrounded by buildings . . . I heard the dance before I saw it . . . I heard an incredible humming sound . . . and I saw these 60or 80 men performing this dance and I had an overwhelming sense that I was the only young white person who was being exposed to this . . . I had a sense that the universe was winking at me, saying, 'There's a very big secret here and it can be yours if you want it.'"Zulu dance was, indeed, a secret that he grabbed with both hands and feet and all of his talents as he broke new ground in the music industry. He formed his first band, Juluka, with Sipho Mchunu in 1976, in direct contravention to the cultural segregation laws of the time, and in the face of constant banning orders and criticism by the media and broadcasting channels. A little more than 25 years later, Clegg is still a showcase for South African possibility. Broadly to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, Clegg, now in his late 40s, a little overweight and slightly balding, presented a show that was prized by Johannesburg’s public.
Part of the show was retrospective and contained a narrative overview of Clegg's development. Structurally, it was chronological, beginning in 1967 when Clegg was 14 and first became aware of Zulu dance. It represents a break in the type of work Clegg has done in the past.
"I'm at a time now when I'm consolidating. I'm gearing myself up to a new career on my own without a backing band. And this is my story, my debut and the release of my debut solo album. So it's all integrated into both a consolidation of what I've been through and an introduction to some of the directions that I will be exploring in the future", he said, sitting at a trendy coffee shop in Johannesburg, days before the opening of the show.His backing band is called the Johnny Clegg Band. It comprises a group of young, versatile, talented men who have been working with Clegg for the last two years. Sipho Mchunu, Clegg's partner in Juluka (Clegg's first and better known band, whose title means "Sweat") and his influence and impetus for many years is not a part of this group, but he features in the show as an important part of the narrative. "It's all the music you want to hear from the Juluka period, but it has a very strong historical context, with the second half a total boogie," Clegg said. Once a Social Anthropology lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Clegg constructed a skeleton narrative for the show without a script, so the show differed each night, playing spontaneously to audience cues.
Clegg was hot and mainstream in the 1980s — with those examples of his music that were allowed through banning orders, that is. He was the first vocal artist to use Nelson Mandela's name in lyrics, but South Africans only got to hear them after the new democracy had come about.
A member of the United Defence Force (UDF) in the 1990s, Clegg worked with trade unions, which were at that time still illegal. He would translate the contradictions in the capitalist system spawned by the government into Zulu, for the average man-in-the-street. He was also instrumental in establishing the South African Musicians Association.
The refreshing thing about of all this, is that Clegg is not the embodiment of a do-goodnik. None of these gestures were made to reflect on a politically correct resume. Clegg refers to himself growing up in this culture as "an innocent abroad" — one swept by the currents of the world who was there to make something of himself. "I was on a personal journey at the same time I was in the context of a country in massive upheaval and change," he said.
But his work was never didactically or narrowly political: Clegg's work interfaced with the politics of the times, rather than kowtowing to it: "I managed to keep a semblance of autonomy in my own creative realm," he said, "I wasn't a slavish follower of the latest political decisions. And I think there was a lot of debate about what I was doing. It was stuff which technically wasn't allowed. Both sides, the government and hard-core politicos challenged me". Indeed, both often sides vociferously announced their pleasure at seeing concerts banned or closed down in the face of decisions bigger than Clegg's bands and affiliations. In 1986, Clegg formed Savuka, a politically focused and oriented-band, as a sibling to Juluka. This band sadly came to closure in 1993 with the assassination of one of its key members, Dudu Zulu, in a taxi war.
Too white, too black, too politically inappropriate. The gestures, by way of song and dance that Clegg made through the turbulent 1980s and 1990s were out of the range of expectation of the average South African. At that stage, culture was recognised as a political weapon. But as he said, "My music wasn't in anybody's ideological framework." And that, partly, is this music's strength.
Clegg told me about the culture of praise names which the Zulu give their people. The praise name has to do with the ability of the people to recognise an individual. The story told in the praise name is never one of obsequious admiration, but a wry, good humoured observation concerning the idiosyncrasies and slippages of an individual that make him special to his friends. Clegg's praise name runs smoothly off his tongue, as though he were a mother-tongue Zulu speaker, giving poetry to a language I don't understand. "Bakuzonda abelungu, bakuzonda eKilarney, bakuzonda okhethika", meaning the whites hate you, they hate you in Killarney, the people of the flatland hate you, and particularly the caretakers hate you. It is this type of narrative that enables one to be a man with dignity in Zulu culture. And it is this type of humour that allows one to take one's own dreams seriously.
Part of South Africa's cultural beauty and sense of wild anachronism has deep roots in the ways in which apartheid made people downplay themselves. Instead of becoming a group of people coloured by bitterness and oppression they became one deepened to the injustices of the world and grown with the ironies that punctuate it. And irony, within the right hands, produces humour. Not ever happy, easy go lucky, side-splitting humour, but the heart-wrenching variety, which lies deep as it confuses and elaborates on the so-called "black and white" definitive issues of our world. Having played to capacity audiences and being called back for two more concerts during September, Clegg's crossover sounds are as mainstream as you get, these days. It is indeed, Just another day in Africa.
15
. November 2002 ??....Singapore decided that the opening of the Esplanade should serve as an opportunity to provide its citizens with a crash course in world culture by inviting, at a cost of S$11.5m, an impressive array of performers, including Jessye Norman, the London Philharmonic and the National Ballet of China in its production of Zhang Yimou's production of Raise the Red Lantern.
But old habits die hard in what critics have called "the nanny state". When the South African musician Johnny Clegg played his infectious blend of Afro-jazz, the ushers tried - unsuccessfully - to stop the audience dancing in the aisles.
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http://search.ft.com/searchArticle?queryText=johnny+clegg&y=4&javascriptEnabled=true&id=021115006215&x=15 Published: Nov 15, 2002
The 1,800-seat concert hall and 2,000-seat theatre have seen some memorable performances. Audiences talk enthusiastically about shows by the Lincoln Center Jazz orchestra, Johnny Clegg and dancers from Batsheva.
http://search.ft.com/searchArticle?queryText=johnny+clegg&y=4&javascriptEnabled=true&id=040108004039&x=15 Published: Jan 08, 2004
Johannesburg was wowed by Johnny Clegg! Durban audiences were gobsmacked by the performance and now it's Cape Town's turn to be mesmerized by Zulu Le Blanc. A SOUTH AFRICAN STORY is proudly brought to you by Kfm 94.5, Cape Town's favourite radio station.
Hot on the heels of his sell-out shows at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Johannesburg and the Opera Theatre in Durban, Johnny finally brings his story to THE BAXTER THEATRE in Cape Town.
The Citizen described A SOUTH AFRICAN STORY as "a warm-hearted, explosive show that'll leave you with a feeling of euphoria and optimism". The Business Day sang Johnny's praises claiming "this new world survivor still shows spirit and a great heart". The Sowetan walked away from the show and reported that Johnny Clegg's show "is an awesome, entertaining story?an enriching, moving and cleansing experience". The Sunday World takes it one step further and explains that this is a tale "of the human spirit triumphing over adversity".
A SOUTH AFRICAN STORY is a massive audio-visual production. Throughout his two-hour long performance and narration, the audience will experience Johnny's words and songs in Technicolor on a big screen - a musical and pictorial journey of his life.
The show - Johnny Clegg: A South African Story - is a carefully crafted cultural history of the music and the dance forms that have influenced the music of Juluka and Savuka over the years. Everyone leaves feeling incredibly proud of being a South African!
Johnny, a South African icon, starts the show drawing on the Zulu guitar Maskande tradition. No one familiar with Juluka and Savuka will fail to recognize the hits. Part history, part anthropology and lots of music, Johnny demonstrates through music the evolution of Maskande. He takes the audience and shows them how a traditional Dance team is constructed and how the choreographer has assembled the rhythm and stamping. Johnny gives an insider's view of why and how certain choices in rhythmic interpretation are made. A historical look at the hidden tradition of cultural mixing that developed in spite and in resistance to cultural segregation of the '50s and '60s South Africa brings the first half of the show to an end.
The second half kicks off energetically as Johnny and the Band run through all the hits of Juluka and Savuka. It got the audiences, including World Summit delegates, Mayors, Celebs and media, up on their feet in Johannesburg! If audiences thought they could rest after that forty-minute segment, then the arrival of the twelve traditional Umzansi Zulu dancers set them straight. The troupe of Zulu dancers take the show to its climax and rounds off this musical journey.
You can catch Johnny Clegg at The Baxter Theatre from the 26th November to the 7th December. Tickets range from R90 to R165 and are available through Computicket http://www.realsa.co.za/concerts/ct_JC_SouthAfricanStory.htm
http://www.kfm.co.za/community/events_promos/johnnyclegg.asp
9. Dezember 2002 SOS Planet Earth - Audio-CD /DVD div. Interpreten
auf Audio-CD mit "Amakhosi" http://www.rockpopnews.de/Platten/Rez/sos.html
auf DVD mit "I call your name", "Cruel crazy beautiful world", "The crossing" and "Scatterlings of Africa" Künstler, Produzenten, Plattenfirmen und Umweltorganisationen haben sich für „SOS Planet Earth“ zusammengeschlossen, mit dessen Verkaufserlös verschiedenen Projeke zur Erhaltung und Entfaltung der Natur unseres Planeten finanziert werden. Die DVD enthält 15 Film-Reportagen über Wasser, Klima und Energie, Gesundheit, Städte, Wirtschaft und Handel, Landwirtschaft, Kultur, Religion, Armut u.v.a. wichtige Themen. Ferner 14 absolute World- und Pop Music-Highlights von internationalen Superstars. So z.B. Toure Kunda, Youssou N’Dour, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Johnny Clegg, Bebel Gilberto, Chris Hinze (mit Worten des Dalai Lama). Weltmusik in Harmonie und Perfektion für Körper und Seele mit im Kopf auftauchenden Bildlandschaften unserer Erde. Spielzeit ca. 180 Min. http://www.k-tel.ch/Archiv/0903/DVD News.htm
http://Artslink.co.za from Liza Jayne Kidwell
Johnny Clegg
If you missed out on the recent Johnny Clegg show at the Baxter Theatre, then you should kick yourself. A South African Story was held at the Baxter from 27 November to 7 December. The lucky people who got their tickets in time will agree with me when I say that the show was a truly magical experience.
Johnny Clegg is blessed in many ways, and we got to meet the people responsible through a series of stirring videos, vibrant songs and high energy dances.
Charlie Mzila taught Johnny to play guitar when he was only 14-years-old. Charlie instilled the passion of Maskande (Zulu) music in Johnny's heart and introduced him to the traditional style of Zulu dancing. Two years later, Sipho Mchunu arrived on Johnny's doorstep with his own guitar. Sipho was a talented songwriter and the two of them created an explosive team that later became Juluka. In 1985, Sipho retired from Juluka after sixteen years, to become a cattle farmer and Johnny formed his second band, Savuka. Savuka went overseas and sold more than a million copies of their first album (Third World Child) around Europe.
Bafazana was not the most musically talented individual, but he became an integral part of Johnny's team by helping set up PA systems on tours and standing guard at concerts. Johnny's fascination in third style Zulu dancing (Umzanzi) intensified and he met Dudu, who taught him the spiritual and cultural aspects of Umzanzi.
The whole evening was a whirlwind of activity as we were treated to traditional dancing and extraordinary music. The backing vocalists had a style for every song, and female vocalist Mandisa Dlanga, really got us cheering when she danced. Concord Nkabinde's thumping bass guitar beat in my chest and we were wowed by a couple of sax solos from Brendan Ross. The star of the stage had to be Sipho. He made playing his guitar look incredibly easy as he moved to the rhythm with a grin on his face. Johnny managed to captivate the audience and bring them to their feet as he alternated between singing, talking, dancing, playing the guitar and the concertina.
Johnny Clegg made his crossing from Western to Zulu culture at a young age and his life has been a definite inspiration to all South Africans. Johnny's world of music, dancing and friendship embodies all things African, making him a legend in our country today.
