On August 7, 1965, Miriam Makeba brought the sounds of South Africa and elsewhere to a full house of about 1100 at the Berkshire Music Barn in Lenox.

Miriam Makeba’s Artistry Wins Rapt Attention

By R.C. Hammerich for The Morning Union.

LENOX – Miriam Makeba was back in the Music Barn Saturday afternoon to sing for a full house about 1100.

Versatile Voice

She had with her (besides her versatile voice) a guitarist who doubled on accordion, a bass player and a young man who knew how to draw a multitude of rhythms from a pair of keg-shaped African drums.

Miss Makeba can sing folk songs from many sources – Middle East, South America, Europe – but her primary source is her home, South Africa – Johannesburg, to be precise. And her heritage strongly influences her work.

All her songs Saturday – love, adventure, religion, humor – all were tinged with a touch of melancholy, a deep-seated sadness that turned the humor to irony, the adventure to tragedy and love to loneliness. They sounded as if they might have been written by the same composer, whether couched in Cuban rhythms or rising in tribal melodies.

Range of Expression

And although Miss Makeba’s music was limited technically and her tempos seemed to be all the same, her range of expression was more than adequate to the demands of the songs.

She sang with a wide range of dramatic and rhythmic expression and dynamics. Her soprano voice was sometimes big, full, round and warm; sometimes aggressive and biting; sometimes thin, high and dry. It was agile and accurate and vigorous.

But it was well that her vocalism was expressive, because most of her songs were wordless and abstract, with wails and moans or unintelligible with strange (to us) African dialects.

Were Exceptions

There were exceptions. A funny song about a girl whose husband is dying for instance would have been a total loss if the words that told the story hadn’t been sung with understandable clarity.

Miss Makeba proved to be still a first-rate entertainer, in spite of the stylistic limitations of her program. Even in the Berkshires it was hot Saturday afternoon, and she never lost the rapt attention of her perspiring audience.