Battle: A scene from The Woman King, which tells the story of all-woman warrior unit the Agojie, which protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey from the 17th to the 19th century.
Imagine for a minute the spectacle that is Amabutho, the Zulu warriors that you have most likely seen a lot more of in the media recently with the passing of King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu and the coronation of King Misuzulu kaZwelithini. Think of them doing indlamu, the war dance, the chanting and stomping of their feet to the big, rhythmic, loud sounds of the heavy traditional drums, izigubhu. Now take that image of their song and dance to the drum beat and imagine them performing it with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.
This is the sound that accompanies the action sequences in The Woman King, creating an unusual yet breathtaking harmony.
The film’s euphonious score, the work of acclaimed jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, expertly fuses the two worlds of powerful orchestral music and traditional African instrumentation and then marries that with evocative, spiritual and wordless vocals. He recorded the music with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow, in about three sessions over five days.
Blanchard, who has won five Grammys and received two Oscar nominations, told me that from the beginning of their talks, the film’s celebrated director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, wanted to make sure that The Woman King score carried the sound of West African-influenced instruments.
“But I convinced her that Africans played in orchestras as well,” he laughed, “and that that would also be a great part of developing a sound for the score.”
Jazz fans will not need an introduction to Blanchard, a native of New Orleans. If, however, you don’t instantly recognise his name but have seen films like Love and Basketball, which was written and directed by Prince-Bythewood, or any of the 17 films and three TV projects he has collaborated on with Spike Lee, like Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Da 5 Bloods, BlacKkKlansman, Red Tails and others, then you have heard the musical magic that Blanchard creates when he dons his film composer hat.
Blanchard also composed the first opera by a Black composer to ever be staged at The Metropolitan Opera in New York in its 138-year history. The opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, reopened The Met, the US’s leading opera house, in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and played to sold-out houses.
The Woman King, which tells the story of the 1820s West African kingdom of Dahomey, in what is now Benin, snatched the number one domestic box office spot when it opened in the US on September 16. The critically acclaimed film, which stars Viola Davis, Mzansi’s Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and John Boyega, smashed projections by bringing in $19-million instead of the expected $12-millon.
The film was shot in Mzansi over 63 days from November 2021 and is based on the true life Agojie, the all-female warrior unit which protected Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries.
At an advance screening of the film in New York, days before it opened in the US, Prince-Bythewood said Blanchard was the obvious choice for the composer job as soon as she took on the project and working with him was “the most inspiring musical collaboration” of her career.
She brought in Mzansi’s Lebo M, also a Grammy winner, to write three songs which were sung by a South African choir in Fongbe, a language spoken in Benin.
Prince-Bythewood said during initial research they learned that the Dahomey used to create songs and elaborate dance sequences to get ready for battle and to honour the king and each other. The Lebo M songs — Tribute to the King, Agojie It’s War, led by Jabu Chirindah and Blood of Our Sisters, led by Nokukhanya Dlamini — were also taught to the cast to sing in the film during the song and dance sequences.
Blanchard’s music does not have lyrics, but it does carry vocal improvisations and choir. For that, he brought in jazz powerhouse Dianne Reeves, another Grammy winner, as well as an ensemble of opera singers he worked with on Fire Shut Up In My Bones.
The music that Reeves is featured in is easily distinguishable, even if you are not familiar with her voice because it sounds deeply spiritual. Her scat improvisations in cues like Stronger Warriors and A Shark’s Tooth are reminiscent of the ancient Zulu music style called ukuhuba, which often sounds like a spiritual groaning of the inner being.
I asked Blanchard why Reeves had been his choice for soloist on this project and where he drew the inspiration for these sounds.
“It’s interesting when you talk about Dianne Reeves and the spiritual side of the music because I was influenced by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the harmonic and melodic nature of some of the things that they do,” he told me.
“I think it was totally appropriate for this type of film, given its emotional side. It’s not just an action film, there’s a story and a drama to it that’s really beautiful and I wanted to make sure that the score would reflect that emotionally. The vocalists were doing the choral recordings on the same day that she was there and when Dianne sang her first improvised phrase, those guys just lost it. We all did. It just all made so much sense and I told Dianne that I really feel like everything that we’ve both done in our careers has led us to this moment right now doing The Woman King,” explained Blanchard.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s sicathamiya and mbube vocal styles may have been the inspiration behind some of the vocals, but what of those drums in the cues that accompany the action sequences like Oyo Battle, I asked.
Blanchard told me that a few things influenced him when he worked on Oyo Battle.
“The scene itself, I think the way it’s shot is just totally amazing. I was on tour at the time with Herbie Hancock and the guitarist in the band, Lionel Loueke, who used to also be in my band and is from Benin, has always been a great help to me when it comes to learning more about different styles of music.
“He was a big help when it came time to develop the rhythmic ideas for all of the battle scenes. I wanted to change it up and not necessarily have the same type of rhythm because, when you hear these drummers play live, the thing that I really love about what they do is that somebody can give a cue and the whole thing can switch on a dime, but the momentum still stays the same. And that’s what I tried to do for all of the battle scenes in The Woman King.”
The film’s battle scenes have been widely discussed since the first trailers were released. They are brutal, yet artistic and well-choreographed.
At the New York advance screening, Mbedu recalled how difficult training for those scenes had been.
“We had strength training, martial arts, combat training, weapons training because we had to learn to use the machetes and spears. It was two or three hours of training and I would ask for an extra hour because it was very important for me to have my stunts match my performance.”
Actor and TV personality Siv Ngesi, who plays The Migan, the male warriors’ general to Boyega’s King Ghezo, echoed Mbedu’s sentiments about the intensity of the training.
“It was the craziest training I’ve ever had,” he told me in a WhatsApp voice note. “I did my own stunts in this film, it was crazy, but I would never change a single thing.”
Ngesi laughed when I wondered what it was like to do all of those running and fighting scenes with no shoes on.
“When I was younger we played barefoot and it was fun, but now my feet have gone to private school. After every take, they would give us our shoes back because we did all our fight scenes, all our running scenes, through thorns, through bushes, and rocks, it was always barefoot. What an incredible experience. But no, I’m not barefoot anymore. I’ve definitely got private school feet now.”
With all of the admirable achievements he has under his belt, I asked Blanchard what he thought of The Woman King overall and he said, “When I saw it for the first time, I was just amazed at the way it looked and I kept saying this is something we’ve needed to see on the screen for decades. These women were extremely powerful. This is based on real events, real people, people that our young women can be proud of. This is not just for women of colour, this is for women in general, all over the world, to understand that they can be part of anything successful, as long as they work hard. I’m proud and happy to be a part of this film, not just because it’s a great film, but because of what it means to our culture, and to the world’s history and spreading the story,” he said.
The Woman King opens in South Africa on September 30. The film’s score is available now on all streaming platforms.