Miriam Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid in South Africa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs. Soon afterwards, at the age of 21, she joined a jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, who sang a mixture of South African songs and pieces from popular African-American groups. Makeba was the only woman in the group. With the Manhattan Brothers she recorded her first hit, "Laku Tshoni Ilanga", in 1953, and developed a national reputation as a musician. In 1956 she joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. Formed by Gallotone Records, the group was also known as the Sunbeams. Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she also travelled with the Manhattan Brothers. In the Skylarks, Makeba sang alongside Rhodesian-born musician Dorothy Masuka, whose music Makeba had followed, along with that of Dolly Rathebe. Several of the Skylarks' pieces from this period became popular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1956, Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success; the Xhosa lyric about a man looking for his beloved in jails and hospitals was replaced with the unrelated and innocuous line "You tell such lovely lies with your two lovely eyes" in the English version. The record became the first South African record to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100.

 

 

Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million. Her New York debut at the Village Vanguard occurred soon after; she sang in Xhosa and Zulu, and performed a Yiddish folk song. Her audience at this concert included Miles Davis and Duke Ellington; her performance received strongly positive reviews from critics. She first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968. As a result, she lost support among white Americans. The US government cancelled her visa while she was travelling abroad, leading her and Carmichael to move to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues" was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named a UN goodwill ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes.


She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.

Josephine Network

Josephine Network is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist yenta from New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She cut her teeth fronting power-pop glam bands The Jeanies and Velveteen Rabbit. Whereas The Jeanies had a more ragged American pop feel like early Tom Petty meets Gentleman Jesse, Velveteen Rabbit are pure gloss & glam and far more fey, yet no less ferocious. Far less flavor of The Fevers here and more aligned with the breathy pop syrup of the gone-too-soon Brett Smiley, Velveteen Rabbit are one of the finest examples of modern glam, a genre soaked in 1970s over-production that’s virtually impossible to pull off in most cases. She also plays guitar in Brower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Music is Easy” on Dig! Records is her debut solo album of original songs in glittering “soul-gum” style. Her songs are sincere, soulful and sometimes sly. In 2021, “Music Is Easy” was featured on a special mixtape episode of NPR’s This American Life. 
 She plays live with an 8-piece ensemble, featuring Toni Lynn (Apache), Saara Untracht-Oakner (SUO, Boytoy), Nat Brower (Brower, Nancy), Keith Cayea (Brooklyn Bluebirds), Dorian Deangelo (Darien Rectangle), Max Hiersteiner (Dirty Fences, Hershguy) and Jay Pluck (The Doilies, EKP). 
 In early 2021, she produced a Yiddish-infused glam-punk collab album with Hershguy titled “Stocky Tunes”.
 In summer of 2021, Josephine self-produced a dance cassingle, “I Feel Like Rain” on Paris Tapes. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In mid-2021, the Josephine Network band went electric and enjoyed opening for legendary rock acts, like Shannon & the Clams, and Seth Bogart (Hunx & His Punx). The group is on their way to becoming the premier queer power-pop group of the 20s.

Delta 5

Delta 5 was an English post-punk band from Leeds. The band was formed from the same art school scene at Leeds University as Gang of Four and The Mekons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original members of Delta 5, Julz Sale (vocals/guitar), Ros Allen (bass) and Bethan Peters (bass), formed the band "on a lark", but soon became a part of the thriving Leeds post-punk scene, and later added Kelvin Knight on drums and Alan Riggs on guitar, both of whom also played in Dead Beats. Combining feminist politics with a two-bass funk-punk sound (much in the style of another, more famous Leeds band, Gang of Four), they released their debut single "Mind Your Own Business" in 1979. 

 

 

 

 

After the release of second single "You", the band went on a successful tour of the United States, and soon thereafter left Rough Trade for Charisma Records imprint Pre. They recorded their debut album See the Whirl, which suffered from overly clean production and received low marks both critically and commercially. Due to the commercial disappointment of the album, the group disbanded. 

Apart from bassist Bethan Peters playing on Fun Boy Three's second album Waiting and performing with them live to support its release, the members of Delta 5 were mostly musically inactive. Meanwhile Delta 5’s recorded output was finding a posthumous fan base internationally. The band Shonen Knife recorded a cover version of "You" with Japanese lyrics and renamed "Saboten" ("Cactus") for their 1982 debut album Minna Tanoshiku. In 2006, Kill Rock Stars released a compilation of early Delta 5 material titled Singles & Sessions 1979-1981, capitalising on the re-emerging popularity of post-punk bands such as Gang of Four and Wire. The set included unreleased material, along with BBC radio sessions and live cuts.

Delta 5 drummer Kelvin Knight died on 2 December 2015 from liver and kidney failure at the age of 56. Singer and guitarist Julz Sale died from cancer in Thailand on 20 September 2021.

Lynn Perko-Truell

Lynn Perko-Truell is an American musician, best known as the drummer, bass guitarist, and co-singer for the San Francisco indie rock band Imperial Teen. She is also known as the drummer for the San Francisco-based blues grunge band Sister Double Happiness, and the San Francisco version of the hardcore punk band The Dicks. Perko-Truell was an iconic figure and a pioneering female in the American hardcore punk and alternative rock movements of the 1980s and 1990s and remains active.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1980 at the age of 16 Perko took up the drums and joined the all-girl punk band the Wrecks with Helen Johnson, Bessie Oakely, and Joan Stebbins. They performed locally and regionally. They supported touring punk bands such as Black Flag, TSOL, D.O.A., and 7 Seconds. There last show was July 4, 1982 at the Vancouver Community Center opening for Black Flag and Saccharin Trust. They had one self-released cassette- Teenage Jive and appeared on the Not So Quiet On The Western Front compilation (Alternative Tentacles).

 

 

 

 

 

Perko moved to San Francisco in 1982 and met Gary Floyd singer of the formerly Austin TX punk band The Dicks. In 1983, Gary started a San Francisco-based version of The Dicks and invited Lynn to try out. This new version of the Dicks became a popular band in the SF punk scene. They also toured nationally multiple times with D.O.A, and fellow SF band MDC. One of the most prominent shows was playing outside the 1984 Democratic National Convention with the Dead Kennedys. With the Dicks Perko recorded one album on Alternative Tentactles and one single on R Radical records. The single on R Radical Records included the anti-war anthem "No Fucking War".

Perko and Gary Floyd formed Sister Double Happiness in 1985 with Benjamin Cohen and Mikey Donaldson. They favored an alternative hard-rock blues sound and quickly became one of the most popular bands in San Francisco. They did multiples US tours both as headliners and as support for other prominent alternative bands (Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Mighty Lemondrops, L7, and Soundgarden, The Replacements, 4 Non-Blonds). They were also well received in Europe where they did several tours and released one live concert video from Zurich, Switzerland. Their last performance was in 1996.

Towards the end of the Sister Double Happiness, Perko formed a band with her long-time friend Roddy Bottum of Faith No More, It also included Jone Stebbins from her previous band the Wrecks and Will Schwartz. Imperial Teen remains active and have released six studio LPs, one live LP and numerous singles. They toured with The Lemonheads, Hole, The Breeders, The Amps, Pink and The Go-Gos. Imperial Teen is perhaps best known for their single "Yoo Hoo", used in the 1999 film Jawbreaker.

Totó la Momposina

Sonia Bazanta Vides (born 1 August 1940), also known as Totó la Momposina, is a Colombian singer of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous descent. She reached international attention with the release of her 1993 album La Candela Viva on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records label. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hailing from Talaigua, a tiny village on the banks of the mighty Magdalena River, Totó was born into a family of musicians spanning five generations. The household lived with the musical traditions of ‘la costa’ and she learned to sing and dance as a child. As a teenager, she traveled from village to village researching their various rhythms and dances and studying the art of the cantadora – the gifted women at the heart of rural cultural life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She has toured internationally since the 1970s. In the early 1990s her global fame was cemented by a WOMAD tour across three continents and the release of La Candela Viva, the first of many acclaimed albums. In 2006 she was presented with the WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary contribution to world music. A dynamic 71 year old, Totó continues to work tirelessly to promote the music of her homeland, driven by passion and the simple joy of performance.

 

 

 

 

 

“A cantadora belongs to the people!” Totó exclaims. “She is a woman who belongs to the space around her and who is true to her roots...but she is born with the gift of singing, the gift of summoning people.” Through the power of her voice and creative spontaneity, Totó La Momposina has used this gift to summon people from all over the world, to hear the evocative village music of her roots, and celebrate a rich traditional legacy with one of the true giants of Latin American music.

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American singer. She is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and was one of the first country music artists to successfully cross over into pop music. Cline had several major hits during her eight-year recording career, including two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cline's first professional performances began at the local WINC radio station when she was fifteen. In the early 1950s, Cline began appearing in a local band led by performer Bill Peer. Various local appearances led to featured performances on Connie B. Gay's Town and Country television broadcasts. It also led to the signing of her first recording contract with the Four Star label in 1954. She had minor success with her earliest Four Star singles including "A Church, a Courtroom, Then Goodbye" (1955) and "I've Loved and Lost Again" (1956). In 1957 however, Cline made her first national television appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After performing "Walkin' After Midnight", the single would become her first major hit on both the country and pop charts. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cline's further singles with Four Star Records were unsuccessful, although she continued performing and recording. In 1958 she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further her career. Working with new manager Randy Hughes, Cline would become a member of the Grand Ole Opry and then move to Decca Records in 1960. Under the direction of producer Owen Bradley, her musical sound shifted and she achieved consistent success. The 1961 single "I Fall to Pieces" would become her first to top the Billboard country chart. As the song became a hit, Cline was severely injured in an automobile accident, which caused her to spend a month in the hospital. After recovering, her next single release "Crazy" would also become a major hit. 

Between 1962 and 1963, Cline had hits with "She's Got You", "When I Get Through with You", "So Wrong" and "Leavin' on Your Mind". She also toured and headlined shows with more frequency. In March 1963, Cline was killed in a plane crash along with country performers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and manager Randy Hughes, during a flight from Kansas City, Kansas back to Nashville.

Since her death, Cline has been cited as one of the most celebrated, respected and influential performers of the 20th century. Her music has influenced performers of various styles and genres. She has also been seen as a forerunner for women in country music, being among the first to sell records and headline concerts. In 1973, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Erma Franklin

Erma Vernice Franklin (March 13, 1938 – September 7, 2002) was an American gospel and soul singer. Franklin was the elder sister of American singer/musician Aretha Franklin. Franklin's best known recording was the original version of "Piece of My Heart", written and produced by Bert Berns, and recorded in 1967, for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During her childhood, Erma and her sisters Aretha and Carolyn sang at New Bethel Baptist Church. Later, when Aretha became a recording artist, Erma provided backing vocals and toured with her. Among her more notable back-up performances for her sister was on Aretha's signature tune "Respect".

 

 

 

 

 

Erma Franklin sang the original version of Piece of My Heart, which was a top 10 soul hit in the U.S. and rose to number 62 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track was co-written and produced by Bert Berns. The single was re-released in the UK in 1992 and peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 9.

While she was primed to keep up the momentum and record an album, Berns tragically died at age 38, which left the record company in chaos. Again Franklin retreated from the limelight, but did spend the next few years contributing backup vocals to her sister’s recordings. Eventually, she signed with Brunswick and was able to record and release her 2nd album, Soul Sister.

Unfortunately, Soul Sister was another dud for Franklin, and her music career fizzled out. She did continue to sing on some records and make live appearances with her sister Aretha, but spent most of her time working for a children’s charity in Michigan.  

Franklin died of cancer in Detroit, Michigan on September 7, 2002, at age 64.

Barbara O' Meara - Punchin' Judy

Barbara O'Meara was the singer of the UK glam band Punchin' Judy. The band had a very short existence and only released one album and tow singles. This English band was born in London in 1972. Its particularity was to count in its ranks a singer whose intonations were not without reminding the late Janis Joplin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1973, they released what remains to this day its only record: an eponymous album. Their sound was swimming in the waters of Hard Rock, Glam-Rock and Boogie-Rock. This band was more or less in tune with the times and was trying to make its mark. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A track that sums up all the musical styles mentioned above is 'Settle Down': this mid-tempo song skilfully mixes Hard Rock, Glam and Boogie and is carried by Barbara O' Meara's vocal performance, which does not leave anyone indifferent. What's more, a few discreet piano notes brighten up this track which, in the end, turns out to be deliciously catchy. 

 

The band only lasted for two years, they formed in 1972, released one LP in 1973 and two singles the next year and were over by 1974.

Mary Huff - Southern Culture On The Skids

 Mary Huff is the bass player and vocalist for the group Southern Culture On The Skids.The band also known as SCOTS, is an American rock band known for its eclectic sound which combines elements of rockabilly, surf music, country music and R&B with humorous lyrics inspired by Southern Americana. Formed in 1983 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the band consists of Rick Miller, Dave Hartman, and Mary Huff. 

Rick Miller and Stan Lewis formed Southern Culture on the Skids in 1983 in Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina. The lineup fluctuated for a number of years, numbering as many as five members before Lewis quit in 1987, leaving Miller in charge. He soon drafted bassist Mary Huff from a Richmond, Virginia, band called the Phantoms. Her friend Dave Hartman followed as the new Skids drummer, and the trio’s lineup was set.

The Skids then took off across America, logging countless miles on the road while carving out a reputation as a crackerjack live ensemble. The Skids had just as much garage in them as any punk band, but they never really fit into anyone’s notion of alternative rock. Playing more than 200 dates a year, the band connected with scores of like-minded bands on the roots-rock chitlins circuit—everyone from the Cramps to Reverend Horton Heat. In 1994 the Skids started up a roots-rock festival in Chapel Hill: Sleazefest, an annual weekend-long shindig featuring the Skids as the headliner over a bill of similarly inclined roots-oriented bands from all over the country.

By the time they reached the ten-year mark, their profile was high enough that they finally began attracting major-label attention. Geffen Records signed the band in 1994 and issued the Dirt Track Date album the following year on its “alternative” imprint DGC. The album never reached Billboard’s Top 200 album chart but it sold a quarter-million copies, mostly on the strength of airplay for the swamp-rock album-opener “Voodoo Cadillac.” The very peculiar S&M ode “Camel Walk” also picked up some major exposure in the 1996 screwball comedy Flirting with Disaster. The Skids continued their multimedia ways by appearing as themselves in the 1997 movie I Know What You Did Last Summer (as the band in a beach-party scene at the beginning of the film).

Jane Tielman - Tielman Brothers

Janette Loraine Tielman, born 17 Aug 1940 in Surabaya Jateng (East Java) Hindia Belandamap, was the only female sibling from the Dutch-Indonesian band the Tielman Brothers. Jane was the youngest of the family and the band was one of the pioneers of rock and roll in The Netherlands, and are credited with releasing the first Dutch rock and roll single, Rock Little Baby of Mine in 1958. The band became famous in Europe for playing a kind of rock and roll later called Indorock, a fusion of Indonesian and Western music with roots in Kroncong. At the height of their career, in the 1950s and early 1960s, the band was hailed as one of the greatest live-acts in Europe. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1956, The Tielman Brothers moved to The Netherlands, first to Breda, later to The Hague. Their performances were noted because of their spectacular stage act, which included guitar tossing. In 1958 the band were part of the Dutch pavilion at the Brussels World Fair. They were the relief band. While the Hawaiian band took a break, the Tielman brothers were supposed to be on for just 15 minutes but took advantage of the opportunity. While on stage they excited the audience with their stage antics while tossing instruments to each other and playing the bass with their teeth etc. Their energetic stage performance drew the attention of international concert promoters, and the band was booked to play for several concerts in German night clubs, including on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. After the World Fair, The Tielman Brothers were signed by the Belgian record label Fernap Records to record their first single, a song called Rock Little Baby of Mine. This is considered to be the first Dutch rock 'n' roll record. In 1959, the band was signed to Imperial Records.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1960, an additional guitarist joined the band, Frank Luyten. In Germany, the band grew out to be a popular live act. The band received there a fee of 20,000 guilders to perform for a month, and Ariola released records especially for the German market.[1] In their wake many more indorock bands started to perform in Germany. The Tielman Brothers also performed in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Italy and Sweden. At the end of 1967, the Tielman Brothers released the single Little Bird, which would become their biggest hit in The Netherlands. The single reached #7 in the Dutch Top 40.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In later years, the Tielman Brothers moved to Australia. The band members would occasionally return to Europe for performances. In 1983, Andy Tielman disbanded the band. Jane died in 1993.