December 15, 2008

miriam makeba, "kilamanjaro"



really feelin this lady lately. she died during a performance in italy in november. that's a good way to go out, right? just doin' your thing to the literal end. NY times has a nice obit, including details such as marriages to stokely carmichael and hugh masakela: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/world/africa/11makeba.html

(rubens, if you're still stopping by here, i think you will like this clip!)

2 comments:

jay said...

great song. do you know what language that is?

dan said...

not sure, but this is from the nytimes obit:

Her 1960s hits “Qongqothwane,” known in English as “The Click Song,” and the dance song “Pata Pata,” which would be remade by many other performers in the next decades, used the tongue-clicking sound that is part of the Xhosa language her family spoke. Traditional African ululation was also one of her many vocal techniques.

some of her stuff is more straight-up jazz/bossa nova in sound. it's all pretty good though, at least from the record i found makeba sings! i can pando if you want.