Pass Radio
Neo Muyanga
A once-off: Chief Dr. Prof. Neo Muyanga drops his shembe baton and pulls out the toys – and this man takes his games seriously.
Muyanga was born in Soweto, into a long line of traditional composers and makers of the timbila (a Mozambican tuned wood percussion instrument). He studied the Italian madrigal tradition with choral maestro, Piero Poclen, in Trieste, Italy. Neo composes works for choir, chamber and large ensemble and continues to tour widely as a solo performer and as a member of Blk Sonshine. He has also composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Handspring Puppet Company, and is co-curator of the Pan African Space Station (PASS) with Ntone Edjabe.
His new fictional operetta, The Flower of Shembe is about faith and destiny, based on the story of myths surrounding Isaiah Shembe. Shembe founded the New Nazareth African Church (iBandla la maNazaretha) at the beginning of the 20th century, and became regarded by many followers as God-made-flesh. He also had detractors, however, who saw him variously as a radical revolutionary, a charlatan and/or a trickster-magician. Muyanga sets out to reflect the epic perils such a journey might entail. In doing so, he also speculates on what manner of trials and tribulations a new incarnation of Shembe might have to live before they were able to come to terms with their own destiny.
Watch this 2009 PASS interview where Muyanga is featured.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bscL9aDY_t0
Reza Khota
Spha Mdlalose
Jazz vocalist Spha Mdlalose moves from rough-hewn shebeen-styled jazz through souful gospel grooves to Sarah Vaughan-like sophistication and Ella-edged beboppers. Since graduating Mdlalose has performed alongside Jimmy Dludlu, Zamajobe and Sbongile Khumalo. PASS people will know her from Bheki Khoza’s War Chorale, her sets with Lwanda Gogwana and the Plantation Miners at Tagore’s and her recent performance in Neo Muyanga’s Flower of Shembe.
New musical territories
Digging in the PASS archives to bring you genre-busting sounds from global Africa. Tonight we broadcast live from Tagore’s Jazz Bar in Obs, Cape Town from 9.30pm. Tune in for Spha Mdlalose mixing shebeen-styled fire through souful gospel grooves, Sarah Vaughan-like sophistication and Ella-edged beboppers.
Category: Pass Blog, Pass Radio
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Johnny Cradle
Fusing the intricate head-nodding beats of hip-hop legends Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and with the other-worldly Xhosa harmonies of his native Eastern Cape, Johnny Cradle is something of an enigma. Describing his sound as roots electronica fitting “right between Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the nerd scoring virtual bleeps on the computer screen,” Cradle is a beat technician with the dexterity of a turntablist, a punk with the bleeding heart of a soul star and a rapper with the vision of a poet. …
From the vaults
Category: Pass Blog, Pass Radio
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