Audrey Motaung

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Audrey Motaung (born May 21, 1952 near Pietersburg , South Africa ; † November 4, 2019 in Hamburg ) was a South African-German musician . Her vocal spectrum ranged from classical to blues , soul , jazz , gospel and rock . In addition, she was a composer and percussionist .

Life

Audrey Motaung began performing in theater, dance and singing groups in her South African homeland very early on. As an opponent of apartheid , she was involved in the ANC . She became a member of the then famous rock band HAWK , with whom she also traveled to England to perform at festivals. After their return, the family was exposed to political reprisals, which is why Audrey Motaung dropped out of her training as an English teacher and went into exile in Europe.

Your first stop was England. In 1974 she performed there as a choir singer for Emerson, Lake & Palmer at the Reading Festival . The following year she became a jazz singer at Club 100 in London and toured the jazz clubs of England. In 1976 their tours also took them to the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1977 she moved to Hamburg . She performed in clubs and was celebrated at the International Dixieland Festival Dresden in 1979. She was a background singer for musicians such as Michael Bolton , Brian Jerry , Achim Reichel , Georg Danzer and Terence Trent D'Arby . In order to be able to provide for her family, she also worked in a department store.

In 1986 she founded her own band, Audrey Motaung & Grace , which combined African rhythms with modern western jazz and rock music. This enabled her to present her own compositions to a larger audience. She sang the intro to Howard Carpendale's song Laura Jane in 1987 . Many festival appearances followed at home and abroad, for example at the Jazz Festival Montreux and in 1989 in Sacramento in the USA. Until 1990 Motaung was banned from performing in South Africa. In Hamburg she founded a discussion forum with African Heritage , from which later singing and dance performances emerged.

Her first solo albums were released, and she sang Love Is Such a Lonely Sword on Blue System , a duet with Dieter Bohlen . In 1991, her song Mandela was presented in the African Worldbeat sampler series . A high point in 1994 was the performance of the musical Displaced Blacks she wrote .

As of 1995, Audrey Motaung took on roles as a film actress. In 1996 she traveled to South Africa and sang the song specially composed for him at Nelson Mandela's birthday party.

After the release of her Best Of album, she worked with the American jazz pianist Johnny Manhattan Taylor. Out of consideration for her family in Hamburg, she turned down an offer to sing at the opera in Madrid. She worked on The Element Project for TRIP - Remix your Experience and recorded the gospel album I Believe in 2003 . Shortly after completing the recording, Audrey Motaung suffered a stroke while performing in Berlin .

Filmography

Discography

  • 1989/1992: African Sun (Mountain / Newmusic)
  • 1990: Duet Love Is Such a Lonely Sword (Hansa)
  • 1991: Mandela on African Worldbeat (Eurostar)
  • 1994: Colors Can't Clash (Mountain Records)
  • 1995: Light (Mountain / New Music)
  • 2000: The Best of Audrey Motaung (Mountain Records)
  • 2002: Call me Sister on soundtrack by Anam (ES-DUR)
  • 2004: I Believe (ferryhouse / Mountain / New Music)
  • 2006: TRIP The Music Soundtrack (ferryhouse / Warner)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary leethorpentertainment.blogspot.com, accessed on November 13, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Motaung, Audrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-South African musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH at Pietersburg
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 2019
Place of death Hamburg