Sathima Bea Benjamin
| Sathima Bea Benjamin | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Beatrice Benjamin |
| Born |
17 October 1936 Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa |
| Died | 20 August 2013 (aged 76) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Genres | South African jazz, vocal jazz, soul jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, composer, lyricist |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1955–2013 |
| Labels | ekapa |
| Associated acts | Jean Grae, Abdullah Ibrahim, Buster Williams, Onaje Allan Gumbs |
Beatrice "Sathima Bea" Benjamin (17 October 1936 – 20 August 2013) was a South African vocalist and composer, based for nearly 45 years in New York City.
She was born Beatrice Bertha Benjamin in Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa. As an adolescent, she first performed popular music in talent contests at the local cinema (bioscope) during the intermission. By the 1950s she was singing at various nightclubs, community dances and social events, performing with notable Cape Town pianists Tony Schilder and Henry February, among others. She built her repertoire watching British and American movies and transcribing lyrics from songs heard on the radio, where she discovered Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald. These musicians would come to influence her singing style, notably in terms of light phrasing and clear diction.
At age 21, she joined Arthur Klugman's traveling show, Coloured Jazz and Variety, on a tour of South Africa. When the production failed, she found herself stranded in Mozambique, where she met South African saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi. In 1959, she returned to Cape Town's now thriving jazz scene, where she met pianist Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), whom she would marry in 1965. In that same year she recorded what would have been the first jazz LP in South Africa's history. Entitled My Songs for You, with accompaniment by Ibrahim's trio, the recording of mostly standards was never released.
In the aftermath of South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, Benjamin and Ibrahim left South Africa for Europe. The couple, along with Ibrahim's trio of bassist Johnny Gertze and drummer Makhaya Ntshoko, settled in Zurich, Switzerland, and worked throughout Germany and Scandinavia, meeting and occasional working with American jazz players, including Don Byas, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Ben Webster, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk. The artist who would have the greatest impact on Benjamin’s life, however, was Duke Ellington.
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