Musical legends...

Thinking back over all the SA musical greats who have passed away over the last few years and with them, taken their gifts of live sounds and atmosphere... 

...it makes me realise that I have never truly listened to the likes of Miriam Makeba, Brenda Fassie or Lucky Dube – but indeed at this juncture in time where recorded sound is all I shall ever experience – I am torn between choosing to go and see the legendary Abdullah Ibrahim live in London tonight… or have a night in?

Abdullah is one of those jazz legends, a South African piano maestro who has lived abroad, played around Europe, written the soundtrack for Chocolat and achieved immense amounts in his 78 rich years of life.

But perhaps I should rather go see a musician in the making of greatness... or a ‘musician on a mission’ as he calls himself! He is already great in my eyes, it’s the rest of the world who shall soon share in the discovery of his creative talents. And with his first ever printed CDs to call his own, he now has the physical product to take to the bigger boys of the music game! He has been doing the self-promotion thing online for some time, using all the YouTubes and social network sites available to spread the sound of one Ryan Koriya! And spread it he must! Ryan Koriya is a musician to watch for 2009…

And talking of YouTube and using the internet to full affect, I shall perhaps get to know these South African musical greats via the videos of the online world – and slowly but surely I can catch up on the Yvonne Chaka Chakas, Hugh Masakelas, Vusi Mhalaselas, Abdullahs, Dubes, Fassies, Makebas and more! And tonight I shall support the living arts at my favourite acoustic haven of the Halfmoon!

Rock on legendary musicians – and legendary musicians in the making…
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Musical offspring...

Famous musical offspring seem to be everywhere at the moment – and talented ones too. This is nothing new of course, from Nat King Cole and his daughter Natalie, to The Buckleys, dad Tim and son Jeff – and most recently one to have caught my eye is Miley Cyrus, daughter of country ‘achie-breakie-heart’ dad Billie Ray Cyrus!

And like anything when you start to notice a trend, so your peripheral thinking picks up on it even more...

In London, Joe Sumner comes to mind – lead singer of fabulous rock band Fiction Plane and son of Sting! (Fiction Plane supported The Police on their world tour this year!)

And then of course, I turned my attention to South Africa to spot who are the famous offspring of musical geniuses – who most likely are both honoured and hindered by the connections of fame. So… ‘What’s in a name’, asks Juliet in classic Shakespearean tale Romeo and Juliet. Well, to those in the know of that particular name – quite a lot it would seem.

Here are a few SA ‘offspring artists’ I found…

Jesse Clegg… that one doesn’t take many guesses to get who his dad is…! But, one does wonder what style of music he has gone for. While talent and hard work clearly run in the family, Jess has grown up to know life on the road as his dad has been playing his whole life. We’re talking of course, world music artist Johnny Clegg! Jesse Clegg is not even 21 yet and has already released a debut album! ‘When I wake up’, made up of 11 songs, is an album of meaning and with a positive message, with Jesse’s first single ‘Today’ debuting at No.1 on the Highveld Homebrew Chart soon after the album was released on 1 Oct.

He’s got a great voice, is very listenable and seems serious about what he does. And nothing to do with being Johnny’s son. Jesse has songwriting under his belt, and with live performances and interviews he is at ease. And what a great name. Linked to fame or not. 'Jesse Clegg' just has a great ring to it!

Interesting fact: Apparently Johnny wrote the song ‘Cruel Crazy Beautiful World’ for his kids – and for this I reference another blog post worth reading for more about Johnny and Jesse.

Other famous SA musical offspring include the late Brenda Fassie’s son Bongani ‘Bongz’ Fassie who is part of the hip hop hotties in South Africa known as Jozi. They have just picked up the ‘best live act’ award from the MTV Africa Music Awards! Check out a video of what Jozi do best! (see – I promised Id look into some of the nominated bands from the MAMAs!)

(And one of SA's heavy rock sons, Seether, also won an award for 'best alternative'!)

And then, an upcoming event in London – where Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse’s daughter will be performing… Her name is Mpho Skeef and she has just released her debut album - 'To Spite My Face'. And I’ve been told that this lass is good! So that might be a good date to diarise – Sunday 7 Dec at Brixton Jamm – and DJ Mo Laudi will be spinning a deck or two, too!

Rock on rockstar offspring!
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