Miriam Makeba

Mbube (with The Chad Mitchell Trio)

Miriam Makeba

With The Belafonte Folk Singers

Conducted by Milt Okun

Guitar: Perry Lopez

Produced by Bob Bollard

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City

Recording Engineer: Bob Simpson

RCA Victor LSP-2267

1960

From the back cover: TIME, The Weekly New Magazine, February 1, 1960:

Singer Miriam Makeba Xosa tribeswoman (full name: Zensi Miriam Makeba Ogwashu ogu vama yi keti le nenxgoma sittu xa saku aga ba uknutsha sithathe izitsha sizi Khalu sivuke ngomso sizi chole ezo zinge knayo zinga hikho nfalo singamalamu singa mangamla nagithi), is probably too shy to realize it, but her return to Africa would leave a noticeable gap in the U.S. entertainment world, which she entered a mere six weeks ago...

At Manhattan's Blue Angel, a smoky, low-ceiling saloon-for-sophisticates, she is delighting the customers with the songs and styles she learned as a child. In her high, sweet, reedy voice, the knowing can hear many echoes – of Ella Fitzgerald, whose records she bought as a child, of Harry Belafonte, who helped her get started in the U.S. – but she singe like no one else.

Click Of Corks. The close-cropped, wooly head and the sleek white Fifth Avenue gown come from different worlds, but the combination has charm and grace of its own. In the ballad, she maintains the clean, classic phrasing of a church singer, she can be roguish in a West Indian ditty about a naughty flea, and she can make a... lament of A Warrior's Retreat Song... When Makeba sings or talks in her native Xosa dialect, its expressive staccato clicks sound like the popping of champagne corks. Though she tries many styles, she never signs the Afrikanner songs of white South Africa. ("When Afrikanners sing in my language," she says, "then I will sing in theirs.") But whatever mood she assumes, Miriam Makeba maintains a simple and primitive stoicism that sets her sharply apart from the emotional, often artificial style of American Negro singers.

The Show Went On. As remarkable as anything about Makeba is the fact that, however arresting her talent, she managed to sing her way out of the anonymity of South African Negro life. Helping her mother in various servants' jobs around Johannesburg, Miriam sang in school, at weddings and funerals. If she could get close to a radio, she tuned in the native songs played on Johannesburg radio stations. "Anyone who sings, makes music," says she, "as long as it' good to my ear."

At 17, she began singing at benefits – some nights for Negroes, some nights for whites. Soon she joined a traveling group call The Black Manhattan Brothers (eleven mean and Miriam), and for three years she barnstormed all over Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo and South Africa. "The bus often broke down," Miriam remembers, "and after the first five months I was crying all the time. But they kept telling me the show must go on. We always managed to get there on time."

Miriam finally left the group to join a touring musical variety show, then got the female lead in a Negro jazz opera called King Kong (based on a true story of a prizefighter who killed his mistress). In 1958 restless Singer Makeba applied for a passport, and after a year's wait she was on her way to London. From there she moved on to Manhattan's downtown Village Vanguard, then uptown to the Angel.

From Billboard - October 17, 1960: The young African folk singer has become a fixture at New York Clubs here she has built a devoted following. Her style, which combines deep sincerity with a strong jazz feelings, is shown off beautifully in the collection, which stress native African songs, with a sprinkling of other folk items. Strong backing by the Belafonte folk singers adds to the disk.

The Retreat Song (Jikele Maweni)

Suliram

The Click Song

Umbome

Olilili

Lakutshn, Ilanga
Mbube

The Naughty Little Flea

Where Does It Lead?

Nomeva

House Of The Rising Sun

Saduva

One More Dance (and Charles Coleman)

Iya Guduza