Nelson Mandela singing and dancing with South African jazz singer Sylvia Mdunyelwa at his staff party at Green Dolphin Restaurant, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive) 
If Miriam Makeba is hailed as the South African vocalist of her generation who brilliantly embraced (and actually shaped) global music sounds, and Sathima Bea Benjamin as the experimenter who entranced the modern jazz scene in Europe and the US, then Ncediwe Sylvia Mdunyelwa joins that pantheon of late, great South African singers as the consummate vocal classicist. Known affectionately in her home city of Cape Town as “Mama Kaap”, Mdunyelwa passed away on 25 August at the age of 74.
As a researcher who documents historical and current South African jazz and popular music, I believe Mdunyelwa merits recognition not only for the regard she won from fellow players but also for her activism as a community music educator and advocate for South African jazz.
At the core of her music was a fierce insistence on respect for the tradition – of the great American jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan as well as the traditional music of her isiXhosa-speaking community – and for the song.
Who was Sylvia Mdunyelwa?
Born in the Cape Town township of Langa, Mdunyelwa grew up in those traditions during the 1950s and 1960s, as white minority rule and apartheid were clamping down on black political activity.
Her uncle, Aspro Sipoyo, led the close-harmony vocal group The Semitones and her sister was a jazz singer. Her home became a meeting place for musicians, including bassist Victor Ntoni. Family gatherings sounded loud with religious songs; Fitzgerald, Vaughan and another US jazz vocalist, Carmen McRae, were all regulars on the record player. Singing along, the young Nce became a singer even before she had articulated the ambition to be one.
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Her first employment in the late 1960s was at Cape Town’s Space Theatre as a receptionist. The Space provided a stage for independent and often politically challenging drama, for poets and music. There she grew her experience as a vocalist and developed a formidable acting career.
Sunday afternoon jazz sessions at the theatre brought Mdunyelwa into contact with pianist Merton Barrow (credited by many Cape Town jazz players as unstinting with advice and guidance) and drummer Maurice Gawronsky. By her early 20s she was the vocalist with the regular band there, the Victor Ntoni Sextet, as well as guesting with other Cape Town jazz stars including the Ngcukana Brothers, Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi and many more. But she was also drawn into some of the theatre productions The Space hosted. This experience led to her talent being noticed and to many later acting appearances, including parts in the US movie Freedom Road, the South African feature film Born to Win and numerous TV series.
Her passion to pass on all this skill and knowledge to younger generations led her into community arts education. And that, in turn, led to a 1990 Canada trip as the head of a youth group, and eventually to a bursary to study at UCLA. Tours followed, including the Berlin Jazz Festival and to Colombia in Latin America (where she was awarded for her community work in Cape Town).
Albums
Mdunyelwa released two albums, the 1998 African Diva, recorded live at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (then Grahamstown), and the 2000 studio recording Ingoma, on the international Blue Note jazz label.