Ray Phiri
Sound
Biography
Raymond Chikapa Enock Phiri (23 March 1947 – 12 July 2017) was a South African jazz, fusion and mbaqanga musician born in Mpumalanga to Thabethe Phiri, a Malawian immigrant worker, and South African guitarist nicknamed "Just Now" Phiri. He was a founding member of the Cannibals in the 1970s. When the Cannibals disbanded Ray founded Stimela, with whom he conceived gold and platinum-selling albums like Fire, Passion and Ecstacy (1984), Look, Listen and Decide (1986). He collaborated with Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Simon's Graceland (1986) album. Ray Phiri was born near Nelspruit in the then Eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga Province, in South Africa. In 1985, Paul Simon asked Ray along with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and other South African musicians to join his Graceland (1986) project, which was successful and also helped the South African musicians to make names for themselves abroad. Phiri was to collaborate with Simon again on Simon's Rhythm of the Saints (1990), which saw him perform in over 30 nations during 1990 and 1991, including in Paul Simon's Concert in the Park (1991) and at New York's Madison Square Garden, as well as appearing on Saturday Night Live and other top television shows in the United States. The tour concluded in early 1992 with concerts staged in South Africa at venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban. In a 2011 interview with The Sunday Times Phiri said that there was "bad blood" between him and Simon. Phiri maintained that Simon never gave him credit for the songs he had written for Graceland, and that Ladysmith Black Mambazo "hardly got any royalties". But he added: "maybe I wouldn't have been able to handle all that wealth. I sleep at night, I have my sanity and I enjoy living. The big rock 'n' roll machine did not munch me." In 2012, Simon organised a European Graceland 25th Anniversary Tour in which Phiri also contributed his voice, guitar and leadership. Phiri was involved in a series of car accidents which affected his personal life and musical career. In 1987 he was badly injured in a crash that claimed the lives of his band manager and six others. In 2003, his wife was killed in a car accident, but Ray escaped serious injury. Phiri was diagnosed with lung cancer and died at the age of 70 on 12 July 2017 at a Nelspruit hospital. A memorial service for Phiri was held at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on 20 July, and the funeral service took place at the same venue two days later.
Known For
A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.
Classic Albums
Singer Paul Simon and several African musicians perform a concert to benefit victims of apartheid in South Africa.
Paul Simon | Graceland: The African Concert
The singer's free concert in New York City when he performed songs from his albums Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints as well as older material, backed by the New York session musicians and the native musicians from South Africa and Brazil who had enlivened his solo work. Songs include Graceland, You Can Call Me Al, The Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Kodachrome, The Boxer, America, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Cecilia, and Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.
Paul Simon's Concert in the Park
Singer-songwriter Paul Simon had been on the cutting-edge of pop music throughout most of the 1960s and the '70s, first as half of the seminal folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, and then as a well-received solo artist. But the rise of 1980s rock and new wave saw a decline in Simon's commercial success, and the singer responded by experimenting with different musical styles--most notably, world beat--that culminated in his adventurous 1986 masterpiece GRACELAND. The album's fusion of American folk-rock songwriting and buoyant South African rhythms not only broke new ground in pop music, but became Simon's biggest-selling solo record. This episode of the CLASSIC ALBUMS series examines the making of Simon's groundbreaking work through interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, music videos, and live performances of album tracks such as "Boy in the Bubble," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," "You Can Call Me Al," and "Under African Skies."
Classic Albums: Paul Simon - Graceland
Charterston Township 1990. Professor Zamani is respected in the township. To be sure, he once raped one of his students but the community turned a blind eye. Zamani used to rail against the apartheid system but those days are long gone. Now he teaches South African history in the Afrikaner language and grudgingly organizes the picnic for National Day, which commemorates the Boers' massacre of the Zulu nation... When Zani, the rape victim's brother, returns from Swaziland where he won a place in school, he is determined to change everything. In the small hours, in the waiting room at Johannesburg station, he runs into Prof. Zamani, who's spent the night on the town. They travel back together to the harsh reality of the township. In due course, Zamani regains some of his pride and Zani, inevitably, loses some of his...under the gaze of the women, who never renounced their dignity.