January 29, 2011

  • "that conjures up that feeling of the sun inside the rain" Johnny Clegg

    Finally something good to post.  Tonight I ordered my tickets to see Johnny Clegg perform at The Cedar in Minneapolis on April 17.  The last (and so far only) time I saw Johnny Clegg in concert was 1997 or 1998 at The Minnesota Zoo.  I had picked up a free copy of City Pages a couple weeks before that concert and that was how I found out about it.  I assumed since the concert was only a couple weeks away it was sold out, but I called anyway and they still had tickets.  I had never been to a concert at the zoo before so I didn't know there weren't any real "seats", it was just large rows of concrete slab.  We got in and found our spot, Johnny Clegg came out and the entire crowd stood up and moved down about 10 rows.  We were right in front after all, in fact at one point I was up against the fence, as close as you could get to the stage.  

    I've been a fan of Johnny Clegg since I was 14 years old, the same time I discovered my fascination with South Africa.  The first 2 songs I ever heard by Johnny Clegg were "I Call Your Name" and "Take My Heart Away".  Those 2 songs were on the album "African Shadow Man" by Johnny Clegg's band "Savuka" (Savuka means "We have risen" and/or "We have awakened") and I caught them performing it on a late night talk show and was hooked from that moment on.

    After that I searched out everything I could find by Johnny Clegg and managed to get my hands on a few albums from when the band was "Juluka" (Juluka means "Sweat"). The early Juluka music was recorded mostly in Zulu as opposed to English.  Juluka was formed when Johnny Clegg met Sipho Mchunu playing guitar on the streets of South Africa.  They were only teenagers when they met, and Sipho taught Johnny to speak Zulu and perform Zulu stick fighting and dancing.  Juluka was the first racially mixed South African band.  Their first album, "Universal Men", received no air play on the state owned SABC because it was illegal for racially mixed bands to perform in South Africa during the apartheid era.  Juluka broke up  and reformed as Savuka when Sipho Mchunu went back to his father's farm to take care of it as he was the oldest son.  When I saw Johnny Clegg at the zoo Sipho Mchunu had joined him on that tour, so I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to see them play together.

    Both bands were very political and outspoken during the apartheid era.  Johnny Clegg is known as "the white Zulu".  In 1992 Dudu Mntowaziwayo Ndlovu (AKA Dudu Zulu) who was Johnny Clegg's dancing partner in Savuka for many years was assassinated, killed by 9 bullets in the back from an AK47.  Johnny Clegg dedicated the song "Osiyezo (The Crossing)" to Dudu Zulu, one of my favorite songs by Savuka.

    I'm very excited to have the opportunity to see Johnny Clegg perform again, even though I still need to catch up on purchasing a lot of his albums released after Savuka.  For 8 years nothing was sold in North America and he didn't tour here at all.  I did find a South African site to order Johnny Clegg CDs and DVDs from, and the prices, once converted to rands, were excellent, however, shipping took approximately a month, lol.  I'll be updating my Johnny Clegg collection soon though.  Here are a few more of my favorites, though it's hard for me to pick favorites since I pretty much like everything he does.

    Oh yeah, here are 2 of his songs that were featured in films that might actually be recognized by people who have never actually heard of Johnny Clegg.  The movie "Rain Man" featured "Scatterlings Of Africa" and the movie "George Of The Jungle" featured "Dela".  I've seen "Rain Man", but not "George Of The Jungle".

    And an actual video I found on YouTube of Johnny Clegg singing his song "Asimbononga", a tribute to Nelson Mandela, and Nelson Mandela comes on stage and speaks.

    I am learning to speak Zulu and I started by learning all of the lyrics to Johnny Clegg songs.  All 4 of my cats have Zulu tribal names; Nandi Zodwa - Nandi is short for Ntombazi and was the name of a Zulu queen and means "sweet" and Zodwa means "girl".  Shaka Zulu for the powerful Zulu leader/warrior.  Sihle Zola - Sihle is short for Simosihle and means "beautiful feeling" and Zola means "tranquil".  Kaya Zanele - Kaya means "restful" and Zanele means "we've had enough of girls".  Kaya is my third female cat so I thought Zanele was a fun name, lol.  I also once almost changed my name from Melissa to Mandisa - I thought it would work well since they have the same number of letters, both start with M and end with A, Melissa means "honeybee" and Mandisa means "sweetness".  

    Now all I have to do is find someone in my area who knows how to get to The Cedar in Minneapolis and would enjoy a free ticket to see Johnny Clegg perform, as long as they are willing to drive me to the concert, lol.