Xica Da Silva- Miriam Makeba

Following a three decade long exile, Miriam Makeba’s return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as The Empress Of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the 1960s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music. Makeba’s life has been consistently marked by struggle. As the daughter of a sangoma, a mystical traditional healer of the Xhosa tribe, she spent six months of her birth year in jail with her mother. Gifted with a dynamic vocal tone, Makeba recorded her debut single, “Lakutshona Llange,” as a member of the Manhattan Brothers in 1953. Although she left to form an all-female group named the Skylarks in 1958, she reunited with members of the Manhattan Brothers when she accepted the lead female role in a musical version of King Kong, which told the tragic tale of Black African boxer, Ezekiel “King Kong” Dlamani, in 1959. The same year, she began an 18 month tour of South Africa with Alf Herbert’s musical extravaganza, African Jazz And Variety, and made an appearance in a documentary film, Come Back Africa. These successes led to invitations to perform in Europe and the United States. Makeba was embraced by the African-American community. “Pata Pata,” Makeba’s signature tune was …

www.patricerushen.com From the 1982 Straight From The Heart Rushen was born in Los Angeles, California on September 30, 1954, the eldest of two daughters born to her father and the former Ruth Harris. She demonstrated her musical potential at a young age; she was regarded as a child prodigy. In her teens, she won the prestigious 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival. She earned her degree in music from the University of Southern California. As a mature woman, she became a jazz master and top musical director. Due to her musical talents, Rushen has made many ground-breaking achievements. She became the first woman to serve as head composer director for the Grammy Awards and the Emmy Awards, the first woman to serve as musical director for the NAACP Image Awards broadcast, an honor she held for twelve consecutive years. Rushen has been the only woman to be a musical director/composer for the People’s Choice Awards, HBO’s Comic Relief and the only woman musical director/conductor/arranger for a late-night television talk show, The Midnight Hour which aired on CBS. In addition, Rushen was named musical director/composer for Newsweek’s first American Achievement Awards, broadcast on CBS from the Kennedy Center and she served as the musical director for Janet Jackson’s World Tour, “janet.” In 2008, Rushen accepted a professorship at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, in Boston. The course is Patrice Rushen: The Value of Music Education. She also continues to play keyboard and has …
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