FEATURED INTERVIEW SUBJECTS
Zenzile Monique Lee
Zenzi Lee is Miriam Makeba’s granddaughter. She was born in Manhattan, New York. Her mother Bongi Makeba Lee died in 1985. She grew up with her grandmother. Zenzi Lee sang as a backup vocalist for Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. Her debut album “Daynights” was released the 26th of November 1999 in South Africa.
Nelson Lumumba Lee
Lumumba Lee is Miriam Makeba’s grandson, and Zenzi Lee’s big brother. Lumumba Lee joined the Miriam Makeba Band on synthesizers and produced some of Miriam Makeba’s music.
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela
Hugh Masekela, born on April 4th, 1939 in Witbank, SA, began singing and playing piano as a child. But at age 14 he began his career as a trumpeter. In the ‘60s Miriam Makeba helped Hugh Masekela obtain admission to the Manhattan School of Music (NY). Masekela can be heard adding his trumpet, singing and arranging talents to some of the singer's very best records. In 1964 Makeba and Masekela married. Two years later, in 1966, they divorced and Masekela relocated to Los Angeles.
Angélique Kidjo
Angélique Kidjo is a Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist. Her music is influenced by her child-hood idol Miriam Makeba. Other musical influences include Afropop, Caribbean zouk, gospel, Congolese rumba, jazz and Latin styles. In 1989 Kidjo opened a Miriam Makeba concert and they became friends. In 2008 she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. On September 2009, The Festival D'Ile De France in Paris asked Angélique to curate a tribute to Miriam Makeba.
Abigail Kubeka
Abigail Kubeka was discovered at the age of sixteen by Miriam Makeba, when she joined her female singing group, “The Skylarks” and understudied her in the acclaimed musical King Kong. Abigail has performed in every major country in Africa, Europe and Asia and is an acclaimed television, film and theatre actress.
Dorothy Masuku
Dorothy Masuku (a.k.a. Masuka) is a jazz singer who was born in Zimbabwe in 1935, then called Southern Rhodesia. Her family moved to South Africa when she was 12. By the time she was 19, she was touring in South Africa with singers she had admired as a girl. Masuku's music was popular in SA throughout the ‘50s, but when her songs became more serious, the government began questioning her. Her song "Dr. Malan," was banned and in 1961 she sang a song for Patrice Lumumba which led to her exile. Being a friend of Miriam Makeba, she wrote several of her songs and spent time with her in exile.
Joe Mogotsi
Joe Mogotsi was a band member of “The Manhattan Brothers” who have their origin in the early '30s. The group (consisting of four male vocalists) was one of the most influential vocal groups in the history of South Africa’s music. During the late '40s and '50s, they appeared regularly on South African television and radio and influenced succeeding generations with their style of dress, speech, attitude, and lifestyle. In the early '50s, the Manhattan Brothers expanded with the addition of female vocalist, Miriam Makeba, who had just started her career and was part of the group for much of the ‘50s.
Leopoldo Fleming and William “Bill” Salter
Leopoldo Fleming is a musician, composer, lyricist and arranger with a rich and multicoloured palette of inspiration from his Puerto Rican Latin-Afro-Indian roots. He accompanied Miriam Makeba during her time in the US as did the bassist Bill Salter who wrote most of her English songs. Both musicians played with Makeba among others at the “Live at Bern’s Salonger, Stockholm, Sweden” concert in 1966.
Kathleen Neal Cleaver
From 1967 till 1987, Kathleen Cleaver was married to the Black Panther cofounder Eldridge Cleaver († 1.05. 1998). She became the first female member of the Black Panther Party’s decision-making body as communications secretary. Today, Professor Cleaver is a Senior Research Associate at the Yale Law School, and a Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies department at Yale University.
Lorraine Gordon
Lorraine Gordon is a jazz icon who has lived more than a few lives: downtown bohemian, uptown grande dame, music business pioneer, wife, lover, mother and finally – at a point when most women at her age were just settling into grandmotherhood – owner of the most famous jazz club in the world, the “Village Vanguard” in New York. This famous venue was where Miriam Makeba debuted in the USA.