Tag: Mandela Day

Thanks to Hotstix

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From: Steve Hamilton
Date: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 3:31 PM
Subject: Mandela Day
To: martin@martinmyers.co.za

Hi Martin

I hope you had a great time in NY & you & Sipho got back safely to Jo’burg.

Just thought I’d send a quick message to say that we ( particularly the horn
section ) really enjoyed playing with Sipho and I can’t get over how joyful
his playing is. Without playing too much or too fast – it just seems to make everyone want to dance – a great gift that you can’t learn !

Great chatting to you at the aftershow too & hope we can play together again
soon.

Take care

Best wishes

Steve Hamilton ( tenor sax )

Mandela Day review from www.Variety.com Watch SABC 2 in R.S.A On Sat 1 Aug at 21h30 to see show

Published on by Brian Currin1 Comment

Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse was one of the South African musicians selected to perform at the inaugural Mandela Day Concert in New York.

He was accompanied by PA Martin Myers who, armed with a camera, captured event preparations, backstage encounters with other performers, rehearsals, candid shots with celebrities like Forrest Whitaker, and the show itself…

Recently Reviewed

Mandela Day Concert

(Radio City Music Hall; 5,904 capacity; $500 top)

By DAVID SPRAGUE

Presented by Radio City Entertainment. Reviewed July 18, 2009.

Performers: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Cyndi Lauper, Lil’ Kim, Angelique Kidjo, Gloria Gaynor, Carla Bruni, Baaba Maal, will.i.am, Wyclef Jean, Queen Latifah, Dave Stewart, Jesse McCartney, Josh Groban, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Zucchero, Suzanne Owiyo, Sipho Mabuse,Vusi Mahlasela, Jesse Clegg, Thandiswa Mazwai, Loyiso, Soweto Gospel Choir.

Nelson Mandela Day isn’t on any official calendars at this point in time, but the organizers of this year’s concert in honor of the nonagenarian civil rights giant are working overtime to ensure that state of affairs changes soon. This year’s event — held in North America for the first time — also marked the first time that 46664 (Mandela’s charitable organization) expanded things to include a full week of activities, ranging from an art exhibit at Grand Central Station to a gala dinner hosted by former president Bill Clinton.

The main event, however, was the concert, scaled down from its initial Madison Square Garden location last month, which managed to achieve accessibility without dumbing down. While the big names certainly did not disappoint — Aretha Franklin was particularly fiery in her performance of “Make Them Hear You” — the real knockout punches were delivered by unexpected sources.

France’s first lady Carla Bruni, for instance, teamed with Dave Stewart for a steely and stirring rendition of “Blowin’ in the Wind” — a particularly fitting selection to celebrate Mandela’s life — while Baaba Maal and Chris Chameleon eked a full spectrum of emotions from Ben Harper‘s “With My Two Hands.” While those pairings brought together performers from relatively close quarters, it proved particularly intriguing to see cross-cultural boundary crossings like Alicia Keys and Angelique Kidjo’s “Afrika.”

African-based performers offered plenty of powerful perfs, notably saxophonist Sipho Mabuse, who brought down the house with the soulful “Shikisha.” Surprises also emanated from closer to home, a point emphasized by Cyndi Lauper and Lil’ Kim working through a medley of “Time After Time” and “Lighters Up” that found each woman tweaking the other’s tune with dexterity and love. The set ended on a warm note with Stevie Wonder leading the entire ensemble — and the aud — through a sweet rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

The program, which was punctuated, but not hamstrung, by speeches, was webcast live worldwide. TV broadcasts are planned on a number of international platforms, including VH1 in the States and Canal Plus in much of Latin America.

some happy snaps from Mandela day 18 july 2009 Radio city music hall Sipho Mabuse rocked the show

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am amazing trip. these are some of the happy snaps
neill berstein my great friend came to the show

New York friday

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well its the consulate today
took sipho mabuse to the Apollo theatre yesterday
Sipho had lunch at the boat house in central park, with our dear SA friend Neil bernstein. he is working the property business.

Roy Harman Loyiso’s manager has had loads of meetings at record co’s…
The gala dinner at Grand Central was fantastic
Bill Clinton has an aura and Morgan Freeman looks like Mandela
The show on Sat is gig of the week in New York Times.

new york day 2

Published on by Brian Currin1 Comment

rehearsals at 11am, Just been to the apple store at 7.30am to buy some things, Store open 24 hours a day the store is on 5th avenue next to Trump tower
Saw Yvonne Chaka Chaka last night she had a great chat with Sipho Mabuse. Jesse Clegg is also in town he has rehearsals at 3pm today
Vusi Mahlasela is singing with Josh Groban, taking a guess must be his version of weeping.
Now we go to the deli on Madison at 48th street to have breakfast
weather is fantastic ,nice and sunny not too hot
seeing Brian Benatar from Thunda.com at midday for lunch and then tonight its the gala dinner at Grand Central Station

Mandela Day rehearsals

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We have just received the call sheets for the trip to New York for Mandela Day and this is the brief on the rehearsal space we move into on Wednesday morning at 10am local time to rehearse

SIR New York ( www.sir-usa.com) takes great pride in being part of the city’s rich and diverse music community. Since 1973, we’ve helped to showcase, nourish and support the careers of many up-and-coming artists and legendary performers. Some of the area musicians who have graced our halls over the past 30 years include: The Rolling Stones, Joan Jett, Lou Reed, NY Dolls, The Ramones, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mariah Carey, Roberta Flack, The Roots, Jay Z and Paul Simon. The studio is Based in midtown Manhattan, and is ten mins away from the hotel

46664 AND THE NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION TO STREAM MANDELA DAY CONCERT LIVE

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09 July 2009: 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, together with live video streaming partner, Livestream, have launched Mandela Day TV, a free and pay-per-view event that lets viewers anywhere in the world take part in the Mandela Day concert at Radio City Music Hall, New York on July 18th.

The concert boasts a wonderful range of artists from all over the world including Stevie Wonder; Wyclef Jean; Aretha Franklin; Loyiso; Will.I.Am; Jesse McCartney; Cyndi Lauper; Zucchero; Josh Groban; Baaba Maal; Angelique Kidjo; the Soweto Gospel Choir and many more.

This is the latest pioneering development in the campaign for people around the world to support and take part in the creation of an official Mandela Day, to be held annually on July 18th, Mr Mandela’s birthday.

Livestream has enabled the free viewing option for users by creating a custom video Flash player that can be embedded as a widget on any Web site and social networking page. The player widget has been developed using a soon to be announced Livestream player API (application programming interface)“We were chosen because our live Flash player and Livestream Premium platform has the scalability required for the hundreds of thousands of concurrent users expected to view the Mandela Day event,” commented Max Haot, CEO and Co-Founder of Livestream.

Distribution partners already on board include: Sympatico-MSN (Canada), Canoe (Canada), Telefonica (Spain), Univision.com (Mexico), MSN (Italy), Tiscali UK/Carphone Warehouse, Comcast (US) and UOL (Brazil). The Mandela Day event will be promoted and available on the Livestream.com website. Sites wishing to support Mandela Day are invited to contact 46664.

For the $4.99 pay-per-view alternative to Livestream’s free option, organizers have forged a partnership with Pecunia, that will let users who visit mandeladay.com watch the concert in high resolution, full-screen mode. These viewers gain access to multiple camera feeds and interactive content.

Pecunia is a cutting-edge live streaming partner using the Silverlight technology to create a full screen, immersive and interactive environment where users will be able to view multiple camera feeds, information about the artists featured during the event, share with friends, exchange live with their contacts on Twitter and Facebook, answer polling questions and send in their questions to specific artists.

All the net proceeds from this pay-per-view experience will benefit all the Nelson Mandela organisations.

The annual Mandela Day celebration is being created to inspire people from every corner of the earth to embrace Nelson Mandela’s values as they seek to improve their lives through service to their communities.

New York takes world center-stage in July when the city hosts the inaugural ‘Mandela Day.’ Centered around a massive music headliner concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday, July 18, the event is designed as a call around the world for people to honor Nelson Mandela’s inspiration and values, and observe the day annually as a celebration – not as a holiday, but as a day to opt in.

Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years, beginning in 1942 when he first started to campaign for the human rights of every South African. His life has been an inspiration to the world. To date, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664 have focused mainly on supporting projects in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa where current needs are greatest, particularly for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

The Mandela Day campaign calls upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them.

46664 will also be working with partner organizations, other city authorities and community associations and volunteers across the globe to create a worldwide series of Mandela Day events to honour Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy.

‘46664 – Mandela Day Celebration’ Radio City Music Hall concert tickets prices range from $75-$500, with VIP packages available. All tickets are available at http://www.ticketmaster.com, livenation.com, thegarden.com and charge by phone at 800-745-3000. For VIP packages visit ticketmaster.com.

To view the free live stream visit www.livestream.com/mandeladaytv

To pick the embeddable flash player widget visit http://www.mandeladay.com/events/mandeladaytv/simulcast/

For photos, footage and EPK visit www.MandelaDay.com