African music is amazing because it can be so diverse, vibrant, inspirational and sad all at the same time. Thanks to loan money, the good natured Douglas, who is slowly becoming my chauffeur and of course the creativity and passion of African musicians I have been witness to some great concerts these past two weeks. My first concert was on Friday the 28th of July and I saw “White Zulu” better known as Johnny Clegg who was beautifully accompanied by the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Nelson Mandela Theatre the largest of three theatres at the theaters Johannesburg Civic Theatre. With the theatre has a capacity of 1069 people and all the seats were sold out and the show was great.
It was part of a multi-week show called “One Life” with the above artists and some dancers. There was a dance off between urban hip hoppers and rural traditional Zulu dancers and the music the show was very entertaining. This was the second to last show and the crowd had a good time but was a bit reserved. The Soweto Gospel Choir played a show at Carnegie Hall inNew York South Africa
Johnny Clegg is a very interesting character born in the UK and raised in various countries in southern Africa before ending up in South Africa he and his friends and fellow musicians fought apartheid in their own way by forming mixed race musical groups and Johnny got his nickname the “white Zulu” by not only becoming fluent in the language but also the music and dance of Zulu culture. He was an anthropologist and university professor before focusing fully on music. One of the songs off of his new album is a commentary on corrupt leaders and focuses on a revolutionary leader who is infamous for the hand that many say he has had in the downfall of his country. It was about Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe since Zim got its independence in 1980. There was a large screen that came down above the musicians at various times during the concert to show scenes of Africa from urban to rural with beautiful and startling imagery and scenes of poverty and prosperity together. For this song there were various images fromZimbabwe Zimbabwe
It was part of a multi-week show called “One Life” with the above artists and some dancers. There was a dance off between urban hip hoppers and rural traditional Zulu dancers and the music the show was very entertaining. This was the second to last show and the crowd had a good time but was a bit reserved. The Soweto Gospel Choir played a show at Carnegie Hall in
Johnny Clegg is a very interesting character born in the UK and raised in various countries in southern Africa before ending up in South Africa he and his friends and fellow musicians fought apartheid in their own way by forming mixed race musical groups and Johnny got his nickname the “white Zulu” by not only becoming fluent in the language but also the music and dance of Zulu culture. He was an anthropologist and university professor before focusing fully on music. One of the songs off of his new album is a commentary on corrupt leaders and focuses on a revolutionary leader who is infamous for the hand that many say he has had in the downfall of his country. It was about Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe since Zim got its independence in 1980. There was a large screen that came down above the musicians at various times during the concert to show scenes of Africa from urban to rural with beautiful and startling imagery and scenes of poverty and prosperity together. For this song there were various images from
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