Nefertiti of Soweto: Brenda Fassie

Brenda Fassie

Brenda Fassie died in 2004 of cardiac arrest. But claims that cocaine was found in her blood and that she was HIV positive hung about.  Like Whitney Houston, another talented artist who passed away recently, Brenda Fassie, the continentally acclaimed ‘Madonna of the townships’ (Time magazine, 2001) led a scandal filled off-stage life that kept  many a mediocre journalist employed long past their prime.

She came up to Johannesburg from Cape Town as a teenager when apartheid was still unchallenged.  Her moving hit Black President was banned by the government but endeared her to millions of fans in the townships across the country.  Her fame spread quickly across Africa; her hits I am Not a Bad Girl  and Memeza (among a bevy of others) were immensely popular from Nairobi to Free Town.  She won multiple awards and dominated the charts for all of the 80s and much of the 90s.

She had a fiery, shit-kicking personality which led her to a cocaine addiction, serial affairs and a horrible experience of waking up in a run down shack in Soweto next to the drug addled corpse of her lesbian lover.  Amazingly she turned her life around and went on to record some of her biggest hits in the 90s.

Brenda’s music is 1980s nightclub music. But her voice is strong, the production top class and overall this is a great record of South African pop music. Black President, Jail to Jail, I am Not a Bad Girl, The Lord is My Shepherd…all standouts!

            Track Listing:

            01 Black President

02 Too Late For Mama

03 Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu

04 I am Not A Bad Girl

05 Boipatong

06 Jail To Jail

07 Ngiyakusaba

08 I Straight Le Ndaba

09 Yo Baby

10 Bump Bump

11 Heroes Party

12 The Lord Is My Shepherd

13 Black President [US Remix]

here

Antidote to Eurovision: African Disco

The Eurovision final is tomorrow night. A 90 year old Englebert Humperdinck will represent the UK. My, we've let it slip a bit through the years.

To REALLY get your blood pumping on this (wet) Saturday night, here's a fine collection of 1970s disco. Actually, R&B ala Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, afrobeat without Fela and lots of other goodies from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana.

Dig.

Track Listing:

01 Shakara Oloje-Lady [Eprahim Uzomechina Nzeka]

02 Get That Groove In [Blo]

03 Advice from Father [Buari]

04 Ashewo Ara [Kabbala]

05 Afro-DiscoBeat [Tony Allen and Afrika 70]

06 Kaloule Woman [Malinga Five]

07 The Way It Used To Be [Pacific Express]

08 A.I.E (A'Mwana) [Black Blood]

09 Zombie [Eprahaim Uzomechina Nzeka]

10 Money is the Root of Evil [Dan Boadi]

here

Nights on Chowringhee: Usha Uthup

Usha Uthup, the irrepressible sari-clad pop star of India, keeps on trucking. In 2011 she was awarded the Padma Shree by the Indian government for her contribution to the Arts.  And just yesterday, she was named BIG Woman Entertainer of the Year for her contribution to Bengali music. (BIG in this instance referring to a commercial entity not to her sari size.)

Tonight we tip our musical hat in her direction by highlighting her first entirely Hindi language non-film music album.  From 1981, 24 Carats is a killer.  The music tracks are lifted entirely from some of the biggest late 70s disco hits: Hot Stuff (Donna Summer), We Don’t Talk Anymore (Cliff Richards), I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor), Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees), Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough (Michael Jackson) and My Life (Billy Joel) but the lyrics are all in Hindi. And they are not direct translations but rather racy verses about love’s magic, tugging saris and heaving breasts.

An early example of Indo-disco, this is a keeper for all those cold winter or hot summer parties where you want to fill the dance floor with something strangely familiar but very different.

On ya, Usha!

            Track Listing:

            01 Lelo Dil Mera

            02 Aha Yeh Root Mastani

            03 Soja Mere Ladle

            04. Aayenge Mere Saajan

            05 Aaj Sanam Mujhe

            06 Aaj Mere Ghar Aaye

            07 Chhupke Kaun Aya

            08 Tum Ho Sanam

            09 Suhana Suhana Suhana

            10 Mujko Kisise Ab

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6000 Year old Spirit: Asha Puthli

Asha Puthli

If you don’t by now, the Washerman’s Dog loves Indian music.  Music by Indians who live in India, musicians who used to live in India but now in neighboring countries with newer names, as well as Indians in the diaspora.  

Asha Puthli is the sort of guest a shy person invites to a dinner party.  Her larger than life personality and wicked laugh galvanize everyone’s attention. She’s got an unusual background and drops names like a tropical thunderstorm.  The quiet host sits back and smiles as Asha regales the other diners with her story of how she filled in for Ursula Andress in an Italian B-movie, and sparked a disco craze in Germany.  One of the guests sniggers at the mention of the word ‘disco’. Ms Puthli fires a wilting glance at the offender and by way of putting him in his place reminds people that she won a couple of jazz awards for her work with Ornette Coleman.   The dinner party, everyone agrees as they stumble home in the wee hours, is a smashing success.

Asha Puthli, the truly unique artist upon whom the spotlight shines tonight, is what the tax authorities of India refer to as a NRI (non-resident Indian). Born into a Hindu home in Mumbai and educated in a Catholic school Asha fell in love with the American jazz she heard on Voice of America.  She began her career singing in clubs around India’s most hip city but always wanted to make it in America. “I wanted to fuse the 6,000-year-old culture of India with American music. I feel like a global person,” she once told to an interviewer. “My psyche, I think, is very American. My soul and my roots are very Indian. And my career has been more European.”

Ved Mehta, wrote an article for the New Yorker, about Bombay in which she got several mentions. Some time later she bagged a Martha Graham dance scholarship to the States in the late 60s. John Hammond, legendary producer and talent scout (Billie Holliday, Dylan, Springsteen) for Columbia Records who had read the New Yorker article recommended her to the giant of free jazz Ornette Coleman who was searching for a new voice to sing his complex music.

The match was made in heaven. Coleman found a singer he couldn’t believe and Asha won accolades from the jazz pandits for her performance.

Though she was off to smashing start in the land of her dreams the American music machine couldn’t find a place to fit her and opportunities dried up. She moved to Europe where she scandalized and charmed her way into the hearts of Italian, German and British audiences. Her records, which tread the ground between soul, jazz and disco (often seen as a forerunner to Donna Summer’s sensual stylings), were not only understood but appreciated. Asha was at last able to give her voice, trained in opera and Indian classical music, the freedom and varied terrain it yearned for.

Tonight’s post is a 1973 record made in the UK.  Asha covers JJ Cale and Jimmy Webb and makes it sound like something completely her own.   In recent years her music has been amply sampled by hip hop artists and Asha, still a resident of New York, has found a late life celebrity.

This is amazing stuff served up by a natural artist and cracker of a dinner guest.

            Track Listing:

            01 Right Down Here

02 Neither One Of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye

03 I Dig Love

04 This Is Your Life

05 Love

06 Lies

07 Let Me In Your Lifes

08 I Am A Song (Sing Me)

09 Truth

 Listen here