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Miriam Makeba

Reggae / Latin / Other African traditions · 1960

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba

Why listen

From a brief unaccompanied song to a layered closing vocal, Makeba changes the scale of performance across fourteen selections.

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English editorial edition

Album story

The Click Song is followed by Umhome, a piece lasting only about eighty-one seconds. Keep going beyond the familiar title and the album begins to reveal its changing proportions. At the other end of the sequence, Iya Guduza presents layered vocals. These are different ways of constructing a performance, not interchangeable examples of one supposedly uniform sound.

Released in 1960, this was Makeba’s first American album, not the beginning of her work as a singer in South Africa. The selected RCA/Sony distribution retains the fourteen-song programme. Guitar and additional singers belong to the recorded project, but their presence should not flatten its varied material into a single type of entertainment.

Hear language beyond a title

The English name The Click Song directs attention towards particular consonants. They are part of language, however, rather than an effect added to decorate the music. Follow how consonants and vowels form phrases instead of listening only for a surprising sound. Some period publicity used exoticising descriptions; those reveal the language of promotion, not an adequate definition of the singer.

A sequence with changing proportions

Mbube closes the original first side, and The Naughty Little Flea opens the second. House of the Rising Sun may be familiar from other performers, but its place here invites another reading. Compare the unaccompanied Umhome with the layered closing song rather than assuming that every selection uses the same resources. An album containing varied languages and repertories does not become a single representative sound for an entire continent.

Biography without swallowing every song

The invalidation of Makeba’s passport in 1960 and her resulting inability to return home are essential context. They do not turn every character in every song into a literal account of her exile. Let the individual performances retain their differences. After completing the sequence, return to the changes in vocal texture and accompaniment: a self-titled album introduces one particular artist through several kinds of musical decisions.

The album through its tracks

Continue from The Click Song into the unaccompanied Umhome, then compare the layered vocals of the closing Iya Guduza.

  1. The Click Song (Qongqothwane)

    The third track lasts approximately two minutes and thirty-four seconds in this distribution. The original sleeve describes a Xhosa wedding song. Its English title can make particular consonants seem the entire attraction, but they belong to the language rather than being percussion tricks added by the singer. Follow a complete phrase and notice how its consonants and vowels move together. On another pass, attend to where the phrase ends instead of waiting only for the most unfamiliar sound. Continue into the unaccompanied Umhome to hear a different use of vocal space. The selection belongs to the first American album; it is not a later concert rendition with an extended spoken introduction.

    Reference · Flatinternational archive: original sleeve notes and fourteen-track side order

  2. Mbube

    Placed seventh, Mbube closes the original first side. The composition credit to Solomon Linda reminds us that a song’s history can extend beyond the artist named on an album cover. If the melody is familiar from another title or arrangement, try not to lay that remembered recording over this one. Follow how a returning phrase holds its place during Makeba’s approximately three-minute-and-twenty-three-second version. The selected item is neither Linda’s original recording nor another performer’s subsequent hit. It is this album performance in its own sequence. Hear it after Lakutshn Ilanga and before The Naughty Little Flea, restoring the side boundary as another way to understand a song that can otherwise circulate independently.

    Reference · Qobuz / Legacy: RCA programme, durations and credits

Listen next

Continue with Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s Shaka Zulu, comparing how different ensembles and periods organise a complete song through voices.

Shaka Zulu ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.