The Indispensable 1955-1962

Once music goes out of its 50-year copyright, open season follows on the reissues market. Two issues ago I reviewed Mama Africa, a compilation bringing together the first two solo albums Makeba recorded after she found asylum in the US: 1960's Miriam Makeba, and The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba, released two years later. This three-disc set goes one better, encompassing all of the material from those two LPs and adding to them 41 tracks recorded in South Africa prior to her departure. The US-recorded material finds her either in simpler folk vein, accompanied by a single guitar and Harry Belafonte's backing singers, or by a small folk-jazz combo that included Hugh Masekela on trumpet. It is intriguing to contrast these recordings with the material she recorded in Johannesburg between 1955-59, with the Manhattan Brothers, the Skylarks and then solo. While the New York recordings have been clearly Americanised to fit the aesthetic of the folk revival that was at the time exploding in the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village, the South African recordings fizz with a much more authentic township swing.

Yet it's ultimately more complicated than that, for the Zulu/Xhosa tribal sway of the Manhattan Brothers had in turn been influenced by American vocal groups such as the Inkspots; while tracks such as ‘Hush’, recorded with the Skylarks, betray the clear influence of American gospel singing. The cross-pollination in both directions is fascinating and thrilling; it's one of many reasons why these recordings are indeed indispensable.