0:00:04 > 0:00:06Welcome to our concert.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09The sound of migration, of South Africa,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12dedicated to the people of South Africa
0:00:12 > 0:00:15who have been able to, after 300 years, collect together
0:00:15 > 0:00:18such a great anthology of songs.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22We're playing tonight with the London Symphony Orchestra,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26a few South African singers, and the community choir of the LSO.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Welcome to South Africa.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39APPLAUSE AND CHEERS
0:04:45 > 0:04:51I grew up in the...in Africa's largest coal-mining town, Witbank.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54Music absorbed me from when I was a little child.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58When I was two years old I lived for the gramophone -
0:04:58 > 0:05:00two, three years old, I used to wait,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03who's going to get up first so they can hold it for me?
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Cos I wasn't strong enough to hold it and wind it up.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10By the time I was 13 I went to boarding school
0:05:10 > 0:05:14and I saw a movie about a trumpet player called Young Man With A Horn.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20I'd already met Father Harrison cos he was chaplain of my school.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24He asked me one day, "What do you really want to do in life?"
0:05:24 > 0:05:27I sort of was in trouble a lot with the authorities.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33I said, "If I could get a trumpet, Father, just a trumpet, I wouldn't bother anybody any more."
0:05:33 > 0:05:37And he got me a trumpet and a trumpet teacher.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41I'd been trying for three years to get Harrison to get me a scholarship,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45so I could come and study music here, and he finally got Johnny Dankworth,
0:05:45 > 0:05:51who had been deported from South Africa for hanging out too much with the native people,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and they convinced the Guildhall to write me a letter of acceptance,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58which was the only thing that I was lacking.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02I got it shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05And I left immediately, because by then
0:06:05 > 0:06:10I was also, like, very politically involved in the resistance movement
0:06:10 > 0:06:12and underground work.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16And...yeah, I left in a hurry.
0:12:19 > 0:12:20APPLAUSE AND CHEERS
0:12:26 > 0:12:30I had worked very hard so that by the time I got to New York,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33I could already really play, you know?
0:12:33 > 0:12:40I wanted really to, if nothing else, play in Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42But they refused to give me a gig.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47Everybody said "Why don't you do your own thing? You come from Africa,"
0:12:47 > 0:12:48blah, blah, blah.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53So finally I put together a trio and from there, I was gone.
0:12:55 > 0:13:01We were really, like, into protest music and the anti-Vietnam War crusade was really on,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05and the Civil Rights thing was on, so it was a great time for anarchy.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09I was already very heavily involved in rubbishing the apartheid government,
0:13:09 > 0:13:14and my friends were people like Belafonte and Miriam Makeba
0:13:14 > 0:13:19and Dizzy and... It was all the anti-apartheid people.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23And I was unknown, so Belafonte especially sat me down and said,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26"Man, with your mouth you're going back there...
0:13:26 > 0:13:29"They don't even know who you are, nobody knows who you are.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33"They're going to be waiting for you at the airport
0:13:33 > 0:13:35"and you're going straight to jail.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37"They can do anything with you,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39"nobody will know what happened to you.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43"But if you stay here and you try and make a name for yourself,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46"and you talk about your county,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48"if you have a name, people will listen,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51"and you'll be able to get the message across.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54"You'll be of more use to your people than going back to them."
0:13:54 > 0:13:57And...it made sense, so I stayed.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01I stayed 26 years longer than I had planned.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05MUSIC: "Stimela"
0:14:05 > 0:14:09PERCUSSION IMITATES TRAIN
0:14:12 > 0:14:14There's a train.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17APPLAUSE AND CHEERS
0:14:27 > 0:14:30It comes from Malawi,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Namibia.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37There's a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41There's a train that comes from Angola
0:14:41 > 0:14:44and Mozambique.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46From Lesotho, from Botswana,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48from Swaziland.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52From all the hinterlands of Southern and Central Africa.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56This train carries young and old African men
0:14:56 > 0:15:00who are conscripted to come and work on contract
0:15:00 > 0:15:04in the gold and mineral mines of Johannesburg
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and its surrounding provinces and metropoli.
0:15:07 > 0:15:1116 hours or more a day,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15for almost no pay.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Deep!
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26deep, deep down in the belly of the earth.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33When they are digging and drilling
0:15:33 > 0:15:35for that shiny, mighty evasive stone.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40When they dish that mish-mash-mush food
0:15:40 > 0:15:45into their iron plates with an iron shovel.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48When they sit in their stinky,
0:15:48 > 0:15:53filthy, funky, flea-ridden barracks and hostels,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57and they think about their loved ones they may never see again
0:15:57 > 0:16:01because they might already have been forcibly removed
0:16:01 > 0:16:03from where they last left them.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10Or wantonly murdered in the dead of night
0:16:10 > 0:16:16by roving and marauding gangs of no particular origin.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20So we are told.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23They think about their lands and their herds
0:16:23 > 0:16:27that were taken away from them with the gun and the cannon,
0:16:27 > 0:16:34with the collaborator, the dog, the tear gas and the poison.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38With the bomb and the Gatling.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41And when they hear that choo-choo train,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46a-smoking and a-chugging and a-pumping and a-climbing
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and a-struggling and a-pumping and a-smoking,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52a-puffing and a-tooting and a-singing and a-crying
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and a-moaning and a-wailing and a-screeching and a-screaming -
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Aah! AAAAAAH!
0:17:02 > 0:17:04They always curse.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07And they curse the coal train.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11The coal train that brought them to Johannesburg.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Stimela.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02APPLAUSE
0:25:27 > 0:25:30APPLAUSE AND CHEERS
0:25:35 > 0:25:38I got ahead during the times of free love,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42and I was a flower child, and my friends were people like David Crosby
0:25:42 > 0:25:48and...the Jefferson Airplane people,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50the Grateful Dead,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Big Brother and the Holding Company.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57I played Monterey Park, you know.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59It was everybody -
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Jimi Hendrix was, you know, hanging out there.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08And we were not wild, but we didn't sleep much.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14The biggest record I ever had was Grazing In The Grass,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18a typical South African dance tune.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22And Russ Regan was the head of A&R at UNI.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25He came to listen to, I think it was my fifth album,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28he came and said, "I like that album, but you need another sound."
0:26:28 > 0:26:31The saxophone player had been listening to these tapes that
0:26:31 > 0:26:33I had just brought back from Zambia.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36He said, "Why don't we try that song? Because it's simple."
0:26:36 > 0:26:37It's got a simple melody,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41It's got a bass line with four notes, boom boom, boom boom.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46The drum just goes bam, ch-ch, bam, ch-ch.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49And the piano goes... HE SINGS THE MELODY
0:26:49 > 0:26:53And the guitar goes... HE SINGS THE MELODY
0:26:55 > 0:26:57So we did it in half an hour,
0:26:57 > 0:27:03and by the time Russ Regan came, it was mixed,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05it just took us a short time.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07Maybe we spent two hours on it.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11And he came in and we played it for him and he said, "This is a smash."
0:32:32 > 0:32:36APPLAUSE
0:33:03 > 0:33:06This is an old, beautiful song from Brazil.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11It's called The Joke Of Life. Brinca de Vivre.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16It was written by Jon Lucien at a time when he thought
0:33:16 > 0:33:20that injustice was the biggest joke of life.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Brinca de Vivre.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17APPLAUSE
0:39:18 > 0:39:22I spent 1980 to 1985 living in Botswana.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29While here, we started the Botswana International School of Music,
0:39:29 > 0:39:34and I'd signed with Jive Records and had a mobile studio,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37in Gaborone.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40So, I came back and I lived in England for five years, on and off.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45On the stage, I toured with Paul Simon and I had Sarafina.
0:39:45 > 0:39:50We were doing Sarafina, it was on Broadway, I think, for two years
0:39:50 > 0:39:53when I got the call that Mandela was going to...
0:39:53 > 0:39:55then Sisulu and Kathrada and all those people
0:39:55 > 0:39:58were going to be let out of jail and then soon we'll be able to go home.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00I didn't believe it, but when I...
0:40:02 > 0:40:05When I finally spoke to Miriam Makeba and my sister Barbara,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08at the time, was Mandela's chief of staff,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12they put him on the phone and he said, "Hugh, you must come home.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14"It's been long enough now."
0:40:14 > 0:40:16And the next week I was on the plane.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49APPLAUSE
0:43:52 > 0:43:56I think the greatest thing for me of getting back to South Africa
0:43:56 > 0:44:00was to be able to get back with the people,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03especially the rural, ethnic, indigenous people.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06And learn those things
0:44:06 > 0:44:11about my heritage that I didn't know.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15Now, I'm so obsessed with, like, all that kind of revival,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18not only for myself, because, like,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22colonialism and apartheid dealt so much damage,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25not only in South Africa,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27but all the neighbouring countries and, I guess,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30to a great extent, the whole continent itself.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34It's very important that, I think, the people of Africa
0:44:34 > 0:44:38get back into their heritage, because I think there lies
0:44:38 > 0:44:41the remedy for xenophobia.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44I wasn't naive, because I'd lived in Botswana,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48I knew what the economics of Africa was.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Indeed, I'd lived in the Congo, I'd lived in Nigeria,
0:44:51 > 0:44:54I'd lived in Ghana, I'd lived in Guinea,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56I'd lived in Liberia and Senegal.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58So I knew the terrain.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01So when I went back it was, of course, personally,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05to be able to, like, reimmerse myself
0:45:05 > 0:45:08in the culture and the society,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11but mostly to see what I could bring,
0:45:11 > 0:45:16because I had sourced so much from Africa
0:45:16 > 0:45:17and I need to pay it back.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22And the only way to pay it back, I think, is by making the people see
0:45:22 > 0:45:25how wonderful they are and how excellent they are
0:45:25 > 0:45:29and get them to enjoy their heritage again.
0:49:56 > 0:49:57APPLAUSE
0:49:59 > 0:50:03The most unfair judgement of South Africa is the fact that
0:50:03 > 0:50:07people expect us to be that which they thought we were going to be -
0:50:07 > 0:50:09The Miracle Nation.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12But we come from a very, very untidy
0:50:12 > 0:50:16and raggedy and very violent past.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21And also...a very corrupt one.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25And we've only been free 15 years.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30I say to people - listen, England has been enjoying freedom
0:50:30 > 0:50:34maybe for over, like, ten centuries.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38France, you know, maybe just as long,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41if not longer, and, like, Germany and all those places.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46And America has been free, maybe, almost 300 years.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48But they all have problems.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49They still have problems,
0:50:49 > 0:50:53so maybe if you come back to me 800 years from now,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56I'll be able to say, "Well, we're making some headway."
0:50:56 > 0:51:00MUSIC: South African National Anthem - "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika"
0:57:11 > 0:57:15APPLAUSE AND CHEERING