Cornelius Thomas
Although jazz vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin has nine albums to her credit and has recorded with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Buster Williams, she is largely unknown in South Africa. For jazz connoisseurs who wish to know Benjamin better, though, help has arrived in the form a book, Sathima Bea Benjamin: Embracing Jazz.
The book synthesises three decades of Danish bookstore owner Lars Rasmussen’s labour of love. He writes: “I first saw Sathima on stage in Copenhagen in 1972 where she appeared … at the Jazzhaus Montmartre. I was immediately struck by her natural appearance and the beauty of her voice … To this day I have remained an admirer of her singing.”
Sathima combines popular and scholarly commentary on the life of Benjamin, who was born in Johannesburg in 1936 but grew up in Cape Town. In 1962 she left for Europe and for the next 15 years oscillated between Europe, the United States and Africa, until she and husband Abdullah Ibrahim settled in New York City. The book consists of 10 essays (including one by Benjamin herself, and a frank interview) a discography and critical appraisals. In Sathima ‘Beattie’ Benjamin Finds Cape Jazz to be Her Home Within Carol Ann Muller traces Benjamin’s history, placing emphasis on the influences that impacted on her musical development from US jazz tunes, street ditty and coon sounds and the Cape Town jazz scene to an inspirational meeting with Duke Ellington in 1963.
Despite a cool reception of her songs which were “not African enough” by the liberation movement, Benjamin remained loyal to country and people.
“Deeply traumatised by these responses to her music,” writes Muller, “Sathima … turned the pain to creative effect.” Her nine albums stand as evidence of this.
Other essays explicate Benjamin’s ancestry, Africanness, memories and her hunger to sing. Her own essay, Sathima Writes, holds the centre. In it she explains her essence, writing, “Home to me is actually within. I carry this feeling of exile always but I can function fully here … Cape Town and South Africa vibrate within me always.” Overall, the reader gets an insight into how South African history has affected musicians and of the beautiful ideas and sounds ordinary folk bequeathed to them. Rasmussen has included two CDs, Cape Town Love and Embracing Jazz, with this publication. The latter is available exclusively with the book. Sathima Bea Benjamin will be performing from Rosies and All That Jazz stage at the African Harvest North Sea Jazz Festival in Cape Town on March 30 and 31. Sathima can be ordered from Rasmussen at [email protected].