Sathima Bea Benjamin

Artist 1936–2013 Cape Town connection

Cape Town singer, born in Claremont in 1936, who left South Africa with Abdullah Ibrahim and spent most of her life in New York. It was Benjamin who persuaded Duke Ellington to come and hear the trio in Switzerland in 1963, the audition that opened Europe to them. She returned to Cape Town in 2011 and died there in 2013.

Connections

was born in

Claremont (1936)

worked with

Abdullah Ibrahim married; she arranged the Ellington audition

lived in

New York City 45 years before returning to Cape Town in 2011

Read more on Cape Town Data

Hear the music for yourself

Play the South African music quizTen new questions every day, most of them short clips from more than 90 South African recordings, from kwela and Cape jazz to amapiano. Answer to read the story behind each song.

Sources for these connections

Mail and Guardian: Jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin dead at 76

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