Search - Sathima Bea Benjamin :: SongSpirit

Sathima Bea Benjamin
SongSpirit
Genres: Jazz, Pop

Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
1. Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Herbert, Victor
2. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Ellington, Duke
3. Africa - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Benjamin, Sathima B
4. Indian Summer - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Dubin, Al
5. It Never Entered My Mind [#] - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Hart, Lorenz
6. I Only Have Eyes for You - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Dubin, Al
7. Memories of You - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Blake, Eubie
8. Music - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Benjamin, Sathima B
9. Lush Life - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Strayhorn, Billy
10. Children of Soweto - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Benjamin, Sathima B
11. I'll Follow My Secret Heart - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Coward, Noel
12. Loveless Love/Careless Love - Sathima Bea Benjamin, Handy, W.C.

CD Details

All Artists: Sathima Bea Benjamin
Title: SongSpirit
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Ekapa Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2006
Re-Release Date: 10/17/2006
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Styles: Modern Postbebop, Bebop, Vocal Pop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 616892835424

Synopsis

Album Description

"SongSpirit" celebrates South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's 70th birthday with a compilation of 11 of her greatest recorded tracks, plus one previously unreleased duet with her husband, jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim. Also showcased on the album are pianists Duke Ellington, Kenny Barron, and Stephen Scott; bassist Buster Williams; drummers Billy Higgins and Ben Riley; and many more. The newly remastered album features liner notes by jazz critic Francis Davis.

CD Reviews

A Real Lady Of Jazz Singing: The True Spirit of Song

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 12/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sathima Bea Benjamin is a legend in her native South Africa and after having the pleasure of listening to this superb collection of excerpts from her career of recording, this listener is amazed to discover a 70 year old lady of song about whom I've heard nothing!

Benjamin is a stylist who works so intricately well with her small jazz ensembles that she transports us to the intimacy of a cabaret. Her voice is rich and in the mezzo range, creamy and pliant and capable of embracing both slow and fast pieces with ease. 'I Got it Bad and that Ain't Good' is mournful and elegant and as accompanied here by the composer Duke Ellington this version is probably as correct and real as any ever sung. It is meltingly beautiful.

Other standouts on this 12 track, well-recorded CD include a strange approach to 'Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life' (think Victor Herbert in a blues/jazz idiom!), 'It Never Entered My Mind' with Abdullah Ibrahim (her husband) at the piano, 'Lush Life', a trio of African works ('Africa', 'Music' and 'Children of Soweto'), and a terrific 'Loveless Love, Careless Love'. The associated musicians are excellent especially when the influence of African rhythms in the drumming enters oh so subtly.

Meet Sathima Bea Benjamin - unless you already know her - and in either case this is a fine, fine recording! Grady Harp, December 06"