Busi Mhlongo Tribute
I had hoped she would beat breast cancer, but she died June 15, 2010. I loved her joint appearance with Jabu Khanyile, at “Live At The Market Theatre – 30th Anniversary”, June 2006. Jabu Khanyile died shortly after the concert on 12 November, 2006.
I was fortunate to see Jabu Khanyile at the Grahamstown Arts Festival in 1997. I had never seen Busi Mhlongo perform, but she was born in the same town as I was, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Three video clips are below – first the emotional song with Jabu, the second a more cheerful Izinziswa and the last an electronic production by a then eighteen year old Culoe De Song (see notes at end).
Thank you for sharing your talent with the rest of the world, Busi Mhlongo. I wish that you had been able to beat the cancer.
Links
“Mhlongo transformed the Maskanda guitar music of migrant Zulu mine workers into an instrument of peace. Her music, Zuma said, had defied categorisation and emphasised the universality of the human race.”
Notes
The last video was of a production by a youngster from South Africa. “Culoe De Song is only eighteen years old and he is already an international ambassador for South Africa’s ever popular house music scene.”
“Squeezed out at the end of a whirlwind year, A Giant Leap delivers on its title by significantly advancing the African-electronic template that saw Culoe plucked out of the Red Bull Music Academy in the first place, delivering on previous promise while hinting at future progression. Whereas tunes on the earlier two EPs year relied largely on shifting layers of tribal drums, A Giant Leap adds an impressive array of vocalists into this mix CD of original productions, including the renowned Mail singer Salif Keita. Across the LP’s front half, the rhythms barely change. Together with sustained, ethereal chords, the drums provide a driving pulse for a gorgeously orchestrated tide of overlapping vocal lines, a mixture of chants and calls whose joyous, ecstatic energy fall somewhere between a church choir performance and a party under the stars.“