musik from the heart

South African Virtuoso
Makes ‘Music from the
Heart’
South African musician Ringo
Madlingozi confronts issues
affecting his homeland in his
new music.
Darren Taylor | Johannesburg, South Africa
“In South Africa, every conceivable
situation – be it birth, death,
whatever – demands music,” says
Ringo Madlingozi, his face fixed
upon the multicolored screen of a
computer that holds his latest
songs. As he speaks, a new
recording plays in the background.
He nods his head appreciatively, in
sync with the beat.
Inside his dark studio in a house in
a Johannesburg suburb, Madlingozi
– an outstanding vocalist, multi-
instrumentalist and session
musician – is hard at work on his
new album. “It’s called Umbiyozo,
which means ‘celebration.’ This is
my album celebrating the highs
and the lows of modern-day South
Africa,” he says.
Madlingozi has performed with
international superstars like Eric
Clapton, UB40, Simply Red and
Teddy Pendergrass. He’s made
music for the worldwide smash hit
Hollywood movie, The Lion King.
He produced several albums for
the deceased South African singer
the legendary Miriam Makeba.
However, Madlingozi remains one
of the unsung heroes of South
Africa’s music scene.
Africa’s best
In contrast with many of his
contemporaries, he’s not brash and
boastful. Even at awards
functions, the well-built man often
fades into the background,
wearing understated clothes and
talking quietly in corners with
friends. He never seems to
appear in South Africa’s
newspapers and gossip magazines.
Madlingozi laughs, “I wouldn’t say
I am an angel, but I don’t think I
do much in the way of bling and
bad behavior to deserve
appearing on a back page!”
Yet the accolades that this
musician’s accumulated are
numerous. Since winning the Shell
Road to Fame talent competition
with his first band, Peto, in 1986,
Madlingozi’s won several South
African Music Awards and Kora All
African Music Awards, for, among
other things, Best Male Vocalist in
Africa.
His albums have gone double
platinum in South Africa, selling
over 200,000 copies. He’s
performed all over the world,
thrilling audiences at leading global
music events such as the New
Orleans Jazz Festival.
Madlingozi describes his sound as a
“mixture of many genres and
rhythms,” including rock ‘n roll,
jazz, reggae, mbaqanga and
maskandi music.
“Mbaqanga and maskandi are the
traditional, indigenous South
African sounds. With mbaqanga,
it’s all about layers of riffs,” he
explains. But essentially,
Madlingozi adds, he makes African
music, the “main elements” of
which are “drum, bass and voice.”
Ringo from The Beatles….
On his albums, Madlingozi sings
and plays most instruments
himself. He’s proficient in guitar,
piano, flute and many other
instruments. He’s constantly
expanding his repertoire. At the
moment, he’s teaching himself to
play saxophone.
But it’s to the drums that he owes
his establishment in South Africa’s
music industry, as well as his stage
name. Madlingozi explains, “I used
to drum when I was young. In
fact, I used to bash out rhythms
on anything I could get my hands
on; that’s what my mother tells
me. And when I was a kid, The
Beatles were real big. So people
started calling me ‘Ringo’ after
Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr.”
But to this day, Madlingozi hasn’t
had “even one second” of formal
musical training. “I make music
using my ears and heart, through
passion and perseverance.
Through experience I have
learned that if I do something
over and over again, it becomes
part of me,” he says. “I am
entirely self-taught.”
He’s convinced the roots of this
desire that drives him presently
are to be found in his past.
“Because there weren’t many
opportunities for black musicians
during apartheid, I was forced to
teach myself and to work much
harder to progress – which in the
end has proved to be a good
thing!”
Mistakes become sonic success.
Madlingozi prides himself on his
powers of improvisation, insisting
that he often turns his musical
mistakes into sonic successes.
“Some of the mistakes are
beautiful stuff!” he exclaims.
He bemoans the fact that some
record producers “want everything
polished and perfect. They tell me,
‘No, Ringo, that note – it’s false.’
Then I tell them, ‘No, it’s meant to
be there. It sounds good! Leave it
in!’”
Madlingozi attributes his success to
“enjoyment. Every single aspect
of music that I learn, I enjoy –
even the difficult and tedious
parts.”
Over the years, he’s honed his live
performances to the point where
South African music critics have
described them as one of the best
ever seen in his home country.
“I always want to do better. But
the main thing is – I love being on
stage,” he says. “I am my own
competition. I always put myself
in the audience and ask myself,
‘Would I want to see this guy do
this and do that?’”
Madlingozi adds, “Sometimes when
I’m performing I pick up that I’ve
lost some people. Then
immediately I strive to connect
back with those guys. In so doing,
I become more and more dynamic
and then the people usually go
crazy, man!”
Fighting modern-day evils
Ever since his public debut more
than 20 years ago, Madlingozi’s
garnered a reputation as a
“serious” musician. He says it has
a lot to do with his background.
Born in 1964, he grew up in Cape
Town’s Gugulethu township, which
in the past was a key
battleground between apartheid
security forces and militant black
youths. As a young man,
Madlingozi witnessed intense
violence. Desperate for an escape
route, he retreated into music.
“Music was my sanctuary…. My
savior, my guide…. I became
myself when I was within my
music. I became protected, within
my music,” he says. “I could say
what I liked, how I liked, through
my music. I felt I had a voice,
through the songs that I made
then,” he says.
In present-day South Africa,
Madlingozi’s voice remains
relevant. “I write about the
different people of South Africa
accepting one another. I write
about the injustices one person
forces on others,” he says.
Madlingozi maintains that “just
because South Africa is now
controlled by a black party (the
African National Congress), it
doesn’t mean everything’s cool”
here at the moment.
He explains, “Today in South
Africa, oppression takes many
forms; it’s not just racial oppression
happening. There are people of all
races now in South Africa who just
want to put money into their
pockets and the poor be damned!”
Madlingozi says he’ll “make music
against these evil forces” until
they’re vanquished.
“It can take 10 years; it can take
15, 20, but who cares? We will get
all those who are not doing the
right things, and sing about them,
and make noise! Beautiful things,
bad things, everything that is
happening – people should know
what’s happening.”
On his latest album, Jayiva Sbali
(Dance, Brothers), a song called
Siyabhiyoza (We Are Marching),
urges South Africans to protest
against modern-day injustices in
their country. Madlingozi raises his
voice against corrupt politicians,
crime syndicates and men who
abuse women.
“I can’t be ignorant of these
things,” he says. “It’s my duty as
an artist to reflect life as it is now
in South Africa. And unfortunately,
that life isn’t always so nice….”
Then, twiddling some knobs on a
mixing board, he smiles and says,
“But I hope my music is.”

Music review jazz

MUSIC REVIEW
At Philharmonic, Jazz
Blended Unevenly
Hiroyuki Ito for The New York
Times
Alan Gilbert conducting the New
York Philharmonic.
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: September 23, 2010
What better way to open an
orchestra ’s new season than with a
new piece? That was Alan Gilbert’s
reasoning last September, when he
inaugurated his tenure as music
director of the New York
Philharmonic with the premiere of
“EXPO,” an exciting work by
Magnus Lindberg, the
Philharmonic ’s composer in
residence.
On Wednesday night at Avery
Fisher Hall, Mr. Gilbert began his
second season at the helm of the
Philharmonic. Again the program,
broadcast on PBS’s “Live From
Lincoln Center,” began with a
premiere, this time of a sprawling
new score by Wynton Marsalis,
“Swing Symphony” (Symphony No.
3), written for and performed by
the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
and the Philharmonic.
This was actually the American
premiere. The piece was jointly
commissioned by the New York
Philharmonic, the Berlin
Philharmonic, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic and the Barbican in
London. The first performance took
place recently in Berlin. Still, an
American premiere counts as new.
And sharing is a good thing,
especially in recessionary times.
Mr. Marsalis has described “Swing
Symphony” as a symphonic
meditation on the evolution of
swing. The concept had great
potential and possible pitfalls, and
Mr. Marsalis ’s piece both fulfilled
some of the potential and
succumbed to some of the pitfalls.
The five movements of this 45-
minute work evoke, pay homage
to and juxtapose styles of jazz and
pop: ragtime, mambo, bebop, black
American church music. And
bringing the 15 virtuosos of the
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra,
including Mr. Marsalis, together with
the players of the Philharmonic
was, in theory, an inspiring idea.
Still, during long stretches the music,
as orchestrated here, hovered
uneasily in some middle ground,
sounding at times like a jazz
ensemble beefed up with an
orchestra and at other times like an
orchestra jolted by jazz. Though it
made acoustic and dramatic sense
to place the jazz musicians in the
center of the stage, surrounded by
the Philharmonic players, this
enhanced the impression that the
jazz artists were more of a solo
ensemble than true collaborators. I
liked the piece best whenever Mr.
Marsalis worked hard to blend the
two instrumental contingents and
when the music seemed not just a
homage to old jazz styles but a
transformed synthesis, something
fresh, subtle and startling.
Actually, there are six movements
to this symphony. But at the Berlin
premiere the piece lasted nearly an
hour. The Philharmonic had
commissioned a score of about 40
minutes or so, since the gala was
being televised and had to clock in
under two hours. So one
movement was dropped for this
occasion, the only performance of
the work this season. (Next season
the entire piece will be performed
in a subscription series program.)
The first movement, “St. Louis to
New Orleans,” builds quickly into a
growling, organic blast from the
joint forces. Then the music segues
smoothly into a perky, syncopated
march. But Mr. Marsalis lays things
on thick. The textures were
sometimes so dense that the
chords were indistinct and lost their
punch. I was relieved when the
second movement, “All-American
Pep,” a homage to early-20th-
century pop music, began, because
the textures thinned out and you
could hear many more of the
music ’s nuances and intricacies. Riffs
and bits of tunes are tossed from
section to section of the orchestra;
the music is scored with clarity and,
at times, welcome delicacy. In a
captivating episode for solo
baritone saxophone -- played here
by Joe Temperley, a master -- a
sensual, unabashedly romantic
melody is cushioned by pungent
string chords.
“Midwestern Moods,” the third
movement, had engrossing
moments, especially a mellow
episode for subdued yet restless
strings backing up solo turns by the
jazz musicians. “Manhattan to L.A.”
pulses with rippling bebop. “The
Low Down Up On High,” the finale,
flows with muted brasses and
woodwinds, like bittersweet gospel.
A hymnlike section featuring the
five saxophones ushers in the
surprise ending, where the music
just slips away.
Mr. Marsalis is a staggeringly
talented musician and a Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer.
Still, just evoking older styles of
music, however astutely and
sensitively, seemed not enough.
You could have believed that this
work was from, say, 1959 and had
been introduced by Leonard
Bernstein.
Mr. Gilbert seemed totally in his
element, conducting with a mix of
cool command and jazzy swing.
The Philharmonic players should be
proud. They played with verve and
color, never sounding like classical
music stiffs. Quite a few players
looked as if they were enjoying
themselves immensely, as did
members of the audience, which
gave Mr. Marsalis and the musicians
a standing ovation. I have never
seen so many people at a
Philharmonic concert tapping their
feet and hands. And this time it was
entirely appropriate, not at all a
distraction.
After intermission, the program
became like an entirely different
concert. Mr. Gilbert led a blazing,
rhapsodic and impressively lucid
account of Strauss ’s voluptuous
tone poem “Don Juan.”
He ended with a work that the
Philharmonic introduced in 1944,
Hindemith ’s “Symphonic
Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl
Maria von Weber. ” Once a staple,
this piece does not turn up that
often these days. The title may
sound a little convoluted, but it
describes what goes on. Hindemith
borrowed obscure tunes from
Weber and, in a true
metamorphosis, generated a
delightful, dazzling and ingenious
four-movement symphonic suite.
The score proves that sometimes a
tune is just a little thing a composer
can use to get a piece going.
Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic
played it to the hilt. The Hindemith
and Strauss works will be repeated
as part of the Philharmonic ’s first
subscription program through
Tuesday at Avery Fisher Hall. There
will also be a work by Dutilleux and
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with
Itzhak Perlman, no less, as soloist.