Philip Miller composes score for MultiChoice’s prestigious new show ‘Shaka iLembe’
Award-winning South African composer and sound artist, as well as Sheer Client, Philip Miller, composed the score for MultiChoice’s new show ‘Shaka iLembe’ for Bomb Productions with Mbuso Khoza. This is the biggest Multichoice production of the year and we are excited that one of our clients is part of the music scoring.
This unique album features dynamic new interpretations and arrangements of songs by the prolific and popular South African composer Reuben T. Caluza (1895–1969), who was once a household name in South Africa. His music, and the messages of his songs still have strong relevance today, in the ways he innovated musical styles, and in his commentaries on everything from popular culture and topical issues of the day to workers’ and civil rights. Yet, for decades his legacy has largely become buried and forgotten in the sound archives of South Africa’s musical history.
Until now.
Over the past eighteen months, the brilliant ensemble of twelve local singers – Ayanda Eleki, Ann Masina, Bulelani Madondile, Nokuthula Magubane, Lydia Manyama, Rueben Mbonambi, Lulama Mgceleza, Zebulon Mmusi, Tshegofatso Moeng, Mapule Moloi, Lindokuhle Thabede and Lubabalo Velebayi – have collaborated with composers Philip Miller and Tshegofatso Moeng, together with accomplished jazz instrumentalists, including brass players Adam Howard and Dan Selsick, Lwanda Gogwana and bassist Thembinkosi Mavimbela, to create a new album of Caluza’s hit songs, based on his own album, The Double Quartet, recorded in London in 1930.
The project began during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when Philip Miller came across the song ‘Influenza (1918)’, that Caluza had written during the devastation of the Spanish flu pandemic. It resonated powerfully.
At a time when artists were struggling to make ends meet due to performance restrictions, Philip created a new arrangement of Caluza’s song, and invited singers and musicians with whom he has collaborated over the years to record their singing parts on their cell phones. With video designer Marcos Martins, Philip then made these into a music video of the song, and started an online campaign and artist relief fund, #MusoReliefSA.
The hugely positive reception the song received, and the fact that the singers loved making the arrangement of ‘Influenza (1918)’ so much, resulted in the ensemble continuing to learn, arrange and record more of Caluza’s incredible repertoire.
Music arrangement: Phillip Miller and Tshegofatso Moeng
Video design: Marcos Martins
Reuben T Caluza @ The Market Theatre September 2023
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SABC NEWS
Heritage Month I Phillip Miller tells us about concert to celebrate Caluza's musical legacy
A little or no breeze, a new collaborative piece, comprises two moving image works (developed with Gary Stewart), and an original soundscape combining both spoken word and music. The work directly references two texts from Hans Sloane’s A Voyage to Jamaica; one in which he charts the weather in Jamaica on a daily basis, and the other in which he records his brutal and nonconsensual medical treatment of Rose, an enslaved woman at the house he is staying, who is suffering from depression. The work engages with Sloane’s casting of himself as an objective observer in his work, rather than a perpetrator of violence. This material is interweaved with a re-imagined Angolan slave song, originally noted down by freed slave and Jamaican musician Mr Baptiste, and fragments of recorded phone call conversations between the artist, Joy Gregory, and the recollections of Jamaicans who emigrated to the UK and their early encounters with the British weather.
Rose was produced by Joy Gregory and Philip Miller in association with Gary Stewart. Photography production: Joy Gregory; editing: Gary Stewart, Joy Gregory; music and sound design: Philip Miller; sound recording and mixing: Rob Brinkworth at Resonate Studios. Voices: Pauline Edwards, Sister Granville, Dionne Gregory, George Gregory, Joy Gregory, Linius Gregory, Sasha Prince, Wendy Robinson, Gary Stewart.
We are very pleased to announce that the symposium on the occasion of the work of William Kentridge is now online on our website as well as on our YouTube channel.
Please find below three links to our YouTube channel and our website (in German and English language). Again, we are very thankful that you took part in the symposium, it was a great pleasure to work with you all.
Deichtorhallen Hamburg YouTube channel ▶︎ https://youtu.be/E7u8tgOwO2o
Deichtorhallen Hamburg German Website ▶︎ https://www.deichtorhallen.de/veranstaltung/william-kentridge-symposium
Deichtorhallen Hamburg English Website ▶︎ https://www.deichtorhallen.de/en/veranstaltung/william-kentridge-symposium
Reuben T Caluza's song: AmaOxford Bags ( Ubunghca) arranged by Philip Miller and Tseghofatso Moeng, video design by Marcos Martins.
Director: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka
Cinematography: Jonathan Kovel
Producer: Michael Auret
The South African composer Philip Miller and his collaborator, Tshegofatso Moeng recently created an arrangement of a new song to continue to raise funds for local singers and musicians who are currently unable to earn a living during the COVID 19 Lockdown. The song, iLand Act 1913 is composed by the celebrated composer, Reuben T Caluza. This song is particularly relevant in today’s world and will resonate with everyone due to the current crisis.
Once again, Philip worked with a group of talented vocalists and musicians all over the country who recorded themselves in their own homes, supplying voice notes for him to assemble the whole song. The video is created by Marcos Martins, using cellphone videos from the amazing vocalists involved in the making of this work.
To donate to this cause #musoreliefSA, please scan the QR code displayed at the end of this video or use this link.
