Miriam Makeba - All About Miriam (1966)

Following a three-decade-long exile, Miriam Makeba's return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as the Empress of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the '60s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music.

Makeba's life has consistently been marked by struggle. As the daughter of a sangoma, a mystical traditional healer of the Xhosa tribe, she spent six months of her birth year in jail with her mother. Gifted with a dynamic vocal tone, Makeba recorded her debut single, "Lakutshona Llange," as a member of the Manhattan Brothers in 1953. Although she left to form an all-female group named the Skylarks in 1958, she reunited with members of the Manhattan Brothers when she accepted the lead female role in a musical version of King Kong, which told the tragic tale of Black African boxer, Ezekiel "King Kong" Dlamani, in 1959. The same year, she began an 18-month tour of South Africa with Alf Herbert's musical extravaganza, African Jazz and Variety, and made an appearance in a documentary film, Come Back Africa. These successes led to invitations to perform in Europe and the United States.

Makeba was embraced by the African American community. "Pata Pata," Makeba's signature tune, was written by Dorothy Masuka and recorded in South Africa in 1956 before eventually becoming a major hit in the U.S. in 1967. In late 1959, she performed for four weeks at the Village Vanguard in New York. She later made a guest appearance during Harry Belafonte's groundbreaking concerts at Carnegie Hall. A double-album of the event, released in 1960, received a Grammy award. Makeba has continued to periodically renew her collaboration with Belafonte, releasing an album in 1972 titled Belafonte & Miriam Makeba. Makeba then made a special guest appearance at the Harry Belafonte Tribute at Madison Square Garden in 1997.

"All About Miriam" is the 1966 ninth studio album of Miriam Makeba (LP Mercury 134029). Arrangements for the album were by Luchi DeJesus and Sivuca (as Severino Dias De Olivera). Sivuca also played guitar. Harold Dodson played bass, and drummer was Leopoldo Flemming.

Tracklist:

A1 The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
A2 Yetentu Tizaleny
A3 Maria Fulo
A4 I Think I Ought To
A5 Click Song (Number 1)
A6 To Love And Lose
B1 Four-Letter Words
B2 U Shaka
B3 Mas Que Nada
B4 Mommy, Mommy What Is Heaven Like?
B5 Jol'inkomo
B6 The Sound Of A Drum


Miriam Makeba - All About Miriam (1966)

(320 kbps, cover art included)