Musical Echoes
tells the life story of the South African jazz vocalist Sathima Bea
Benjamin. Born in Cape Town in the 1930s, Benjamin came to know
American jazz and popular music through the radio, movies, records,
and live stage and dance band performances. She was especially moved
by the voice of Billie Holiday. In 1962 she and Dollar Brand
(Abdullah Ibrahim) left South Africa together for Europe, where they
met and recorded with Duke Ellington. Benjamin and Ibrahim spent
their lives on the move between Europe, the United States, and South
Africa until 1977, when they left Africa for New York City and
declared their support for the African National Congress. In New
York, Benjamin established her own record company and recorded her
music independently from Ibrahim. Musical Echoes reflects twenty
years of archival research and conversation between this
extraordinary jazz singer and the South African musicologist Carol
Ann Muller. The narrative of Benjamin’s life and times is
interspersed with Muller’s reflections on the vocalist’s story
and its implications for jazz history.
