January 28, 2025
Review: Soweto Gospel Choir at The Rechabite
Soweto Gospel Choir at The Rechabite
Saturday, January 25, 2025
It’s rare that an act of the stature of the Soweto Gospel Choir performs an extended season in Perth. Normally it would be one show at the Perth Concert Hall or something of similar capacity. But for Fringe World, this incredible South African choir is performing at The Rechabite for the next two weeks.
If the audience for their opening show last Saturday afternoon is anything to go by, it will be a sellout. The queue on arrival snaked down the block. When they opened the doors, the floor and two circling balconies of The Rechabite’s heritage, high-tech auditorium quickly filled up.
Soweto is an abbreviation of South Western Township. The town being Johannesburg. Hope is the first (of two) programs the Choir is presenting in Perth.
Sung in both Afrikaans and English, the show combines songs from South African communities fighting the apartheid regime with ones from the American Civil Rights Movement. Stirring anthems of people power, protest, empowerment and inspiration. The sheer volume and strength of the voices reach deep into the human soul and make the hairs on your head, neck, and arms go haywire. Each singer has a natural voice that could lift the roof of The Rechabite, and there were eighteen of them all miked up. The sound was tremendous, beyond anything most people have ever heard, especially in such a confined, almost intimate space.
Every aspect of this show screamed vibrancy. The voices, chthonic choreography, tribal drumming, bright multi-coloured costumes, and waist-length braided hair of many of the female choristers. The gender balance was perfect: nine women, nine men. Each singer took their turn to lead on a specific song, usually paired up one woman, one man.
The main accompaniment was the percussion, which included not only jungle beats but also the shimmering sounds of cymbals, tambourine, and chimes, while the harmonic structures and keys were set by a single keyboard that ranged from stirring organ to simple electric piano. Many of the songs, though, dispensed with this guide altogether and relied solely on the amazing, rich voices.
The show began with a blast on a bull’s horn, rounded out by the keys and percussion, then a lone female singer centre stage. At the end of the first verse, the other fifteen singers solemnly filed on and rowed up behind her. Thunderous harmonies and wild ululations ensued. From there, one song to the next, the sound became richer, denser, and more multi-layered.
The spirit of protest in South African singing has an important social and political history. As Anne Schumann in the Vienna Journal of African Studies (as quoted on the Hope album cover) put it:
“… the political use of music in South Africa changed from being a ‘mirror’ in the 1940s and 1950s to becoming a ‘hammer’ with which to shape reality in the 1980s. … music went from reflecting common experiences and concerns in the early years of apartheid to eventually function as a force to confront the State and as a means to actively construct an alternative political and social reality.”
The anger and frustration in the music were palpable and conveyed strongly to the audience even though the vast majority could not understand a single word. The gestures and expressions carried the emotion. There was a certain irony in a completely black choir singing to an almost entirely white audience, but one hopes they felt the genuine love and appreciation that were being thrown back at them. In one song, they mimed firing handguns into the audience, which packed a punch and reminded us of our own shameful history of Indigenous oppression.
With each song, not only was a different face presented to the audience but a different reconfiguration of the choir as well. In some, the emphasis was on dancing; in others, on different formations of the singers in triangles and rows. On one song, the apex of the triangle was ever-changing as the female singers passed the hand-held from one to the other and took turns to lead a verse.
The American songs they performed included Curtis Mayfield and Johnny Pate’s Amen; Ronald Miller’s Heaven Help Us All; Rutherford and Robinson’s The Living Years; Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come; and Joshuah Campbell and Cynthia Echumuna-Enviro’s Stand Up.
The finale was a sensational rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. With two verses in English and two in Afrikaans, it blended both the spirit and passion of that lyric across the cultures. Its choruses were perhaps the highlight of the entire afternoon. The voices kicked up a notch and seemed to lift the pressed-metal ceiling off the Rechabite. After a short pause, choir master Shimmy Jiyane invited the audience to join in on one final chorus. The emotion that had been building in the room throughout the show finally exploded. There were some fine singers in the audience, one soprano in particular soared operatically.
It was an empowering experience for everyone, audience and choir alike. Throughout the show, the support, encouragement, and empowerment within the choir were striking. A tight ensemble, they pushed themselves and each other to ever greater heights of singing, fathoming ever greater depths of human emotion. It was wondrous to be a part of it.
Formed in 2002, Soweto Gospel Choir’s career achievements are phenomenal. To list but some:.
They have collaborated with Peter Gabriel, U2, John Legend, Robert Plant, Chance the Rapper and Ben Harper.
They have performed on stage with Celine Dion, Andre Rieu, Bono, Diana Ross, Zahara, and Pharrell Williams.
They have performed in programs alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, Angelique Kidjo, Jimmy Cliff, Youssou N’Dour, Ziggy Marley, and South African superstar Johnny Clegg, including at his farewell concert.
They have sung in Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Royal Festival Hall London, and the Nelson Mandela Theatre, and at the 2009 Academy Awards, Nelson Mandela’s funeral, memorial service in Westminster Abbey, and centenary celebrations; Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s funeral, as well as his 75th and 80th birthdays; the FIFA 2009 World Cup opening ceremony in Cape Town and kick-off in Johannesburg; and Winnie Madikileza-Mandela’s memorial service.
In addition to Nelson Mandela and their once patron, Desmond Tutu, they have performed before Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Prince Charles and Camilla, Prince Harry, Princess Charlene of Monaco, and a plethora of TV personalities, celebrities, glitterarties, dignitaries, ambassadors, movie stars and rock stars.
They have also appeared on NBC’s Today Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Along with Fringe World, their festival appearances include Edinburgh, Adelaide (Festival and Fringe), Hong Kong, London, WOMADelaide and the Montreal Jazz Festival.
They have been nominated for five Grammys, an Oscar (with Peter Gabriel), and six South African Music Awards (SAMAs), as well as an International Reggae and World Music Award, and have been awarded three Grammys in their own right and three associated ones, an Emmy, three SAMAs, two American Gospel Awards, the inaugural Tower Music African Gospel Award for best gospel group, and a Helpmann Award.
Hope and History of House are running at The Rechabite through until February 9. Tickets are available through Fringe World. Can you afford not to go to at least one of these shows?
