The month-long Arts Alive festival is over for another year, finishing in a mind-blowing collaboration of music legends.
PLACE the legendary Dorothy Masuku, the multi-talented Abigail Khubeka, the versatile Thandiswa Mazwai and the incomparable Caiphus Semenya on stage, then throw in trumpet maestro Hugh Masekela – and the end result is a magnificent musical mix that will blow your mind.
Presenting South Africa's music icon with a gift
And many fans were certainly given one musical feast they will never forget on Sunday, 27 September at the Dorothy Masuku and Friends concert at the Joburg Theatre Complex, when the music icons took to the stage to record a DVD, marking the end of Arts Alive.
The show started promptly at 6pm, with Masuku opening the concert with a catchy old time song that set a groovy mood. After warming up the stage, Masuku called Mazwai on to the stage, and the two had the audience all but eating out of their hands.
The evening would not have been complete without Masuku singing one of her best known songs from the 1950s – Pata Pata. Before singing it, Masuku said she composed the song in 1952; six years later, the late legend, Miriam Makeba, recorded a version of it, making it an international hit.
One fan couldn’t resist the temptation to stand up and do the “pata pata”, a dance that involves touching almost every part of your body and stomping to the beat at the same time.
Old friends
Masuku, wearing a trendy black dress and a matching head scarf, called Khubeka on stage, whom she introduced as an old friend. Masuku and Khubeka went back into the past, reminiscing about the good old days when they were still young and beautiful and men were falling over themselves for their hands in marriage.
“I remember one tycoon called Khehla, who really was into Dorothy but Dorothy didn’t want anything to do with the man. [He] had only one hand but drove big open cars like the Cadillac. Those were the days,” said Khubeka.
The two performed Masuku’s song Uzongifakela Amabhadi, much to the audience’s delight. Next on stage was Caiphus Semenya of Matswale and Angelina fame. The two musical giants also had the crowd dancing and singing along in what Masuku described as a very rare duet.
The versatile Thandiswa Mazwai
After Semenya, and with the crowd still asking for more, Masuku performed her hit Hamba Nontsokolo, the song that catapulted her into stardom in the 1950s.
Local jazz singer, Sibongile Khumalo, also had a chance to sing with her “grandmother” on stage. Khumalo started off by telling a story that happened a “long time ago”, a story that would introduce the song Into Yami (Ngiyayithanda), which was played in many shebeens in the 1960s.
Husband song
“There was a late aunt of mine who used to be abused by her husband – who is also late – when he was drunk. There was a time when my aunt couldn’t take it any more and she decided to run away to live with us at home. However, my father and other elders decided to ‘fix’ her husband and held a meeting to decide on the best course of action,” said Khumalo.
While the “talks” were in session, Khumalo said her aunt was busy outside the house washing clothes and when she overheard what was being planned for her husband, she began singing loudly Into Yami Ngiyayithanda, which means, I love my husband.
“The men decided then and there to abandon their mission and let her deal with her husband alone,” she said, to much laughter from the audience.
Next was the turn of Masekela, who jumped on to the stage with his trumpet hanging over his left arm. Masekela said he met Masuku when he was 17 years old on a train to Cape Town.
“I was the youngest musician and all the women made me tie their corsets and their shoes because they couldn’t bend over. I would stand alone in the balcony of the one train coach and regret getting on the train but it was the best experience of my life,” he said.
As the concert – and Arts Alive – came to a close, all Masuku’s friends – to standing ovation – came on stage to wave goodbye to the audience. Before they left, scores of young children wearing Arts Alive T-shirts got on stage to sing and hand Masuku a portrait of herself.
