AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

It is not on daily basis that you just get up to a message from Stevie Marvel.

JONATHAN BUTLER: I heard his voice say, Jonathan, that is Stevie. I really like all the pieces in regards to the track. I really like the best way you sing it. I really like the best way you inform the story. And he stated, you recognize, I’d love to provide you a present.

RASCOE: Jonathan Butler, who’s been impressed by Marvel for years, was thrilled. The South African musician has simply launched his twenty eighth album. It is referred to as “Ubuntu,” and it begins with a tribute to his hero, masking Marvel’s 1972 track “Superwoman.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SUPERWOMAN (WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU)”)

BUTLER: (Singing) However tomorrow will replicate love’s previous. (Vocalizing). Come again to me, child.

RASCOE: Jonathan Butler joins us now from Los Angeles. Welcome to the present.

BUTLER: Oh, I am so excited to be in your present this morning.

RASCOE: Properly, thanks a lot. So, I imply, Stevie Marvel referred to as you up. Like, what was that wish to get a message from him? As a result of that is somebody who you have at all times appeared as much as.

BUTLER: It’s totally surreal to me nonetheless. You already know, in South Africa, we did not develop up with music faculty. I am self-taught. And Stevie Marvel – I at all times dreamt and imagined what it would be like to really meet him in individual. And so I met Stevie a very long time in the past. Lengthy story brief, we saved the dialog going, and he stated, meet me at my studios. And Stevie pulled out one in every of his harmonicas, and he started to play on the report.

RASCOE: Oh, my gosh. Inform me about rising up in South Africa, after which how does that come to play on this album?

BUTLER: Properly, you recognize, in South Africa, we had vinyl data, you recognize, and numerous our properties by no means had electrical energy. So whoever had electrical energy, we’d go there, and we would go hearken to the music. If it is McCoy Tyner, if it is Herbie, if it is George Benson, if it is Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack. These are all those that sort of helped us sort of discover the power to write down our personal music as a result of beneath the apartheid system, you recognize, our music was not performed on the radio. As I used to be rising up, I started to understand that, you recognize, I am a boy from the Cape Flats in Cape City, and I’ve my very own vocal sound that I wanted to develop.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RAINBOW NATION”)

BUTLER: (Singing) From the place you meet your very edge, your ideas held collectively on their lonesome. So lovely, so lovely.

RASCOE: Ubuntu – it is a faculty of Zulu philosophy, proper? Are you able to discuss to me about what that that means is? And that is the title of your album.

BUTLER: To indicate humanity to your brother is what ubuntu in South Africa meant. I’m since you are. You already know, I’m as a result of we’re. It is the humanity in the direction of others that issues even within the face of apartheid, even within the face of racism, the wickedness and stuff, the hardships that we have seen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RAINBOW NATION”)

BUTLER: (Singing) All of us affirmation, fountains of fireside, holy survivors.

It is actually attention-grabbing as a result of when Madiba got here out of jail, even the jail guards have been those that he confirmed his humanity to. You already know, he by no means – he addressed them like human beings, despite the fact that he was incarcerated.

RASCOE: You are speaking about Nelson Mandela, only for…

BUTLER: Sure, I’m. Sure. Sure.

RASCOE: Sure. Sure.

BUTLER: Sure. Sure. And you recognize, I discovered my reality in ubuntu as nicely, you recognize, as a result of I dwell in the USA. And throughout the pandemic, the killing of George Floyd triggered so many alternative feelings and totally different emotions and fears that I had rising up. You already know, subsequently, songs like “Our Voices Matter” was really written and impressed by George Floyd.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “OUR VOICES MATTER”)

BUTLER: (Singing) Our voices matter. They matter. What issues to you, it issues to me. Our voices matter. They matter. We’re all a part of this nice melody. Like tone and time…

RASCOE: On this track, you could have the lyrics, if we glance inside, we can’t go with out on this home. What does that imply?

BUTLER: That there are blind spots in white society in terms of white privilege, racism, segregation, prejudice. And we should always have messages that may converse of the occasions that we’re dwelling in. And if we are able to tackle what’s inside us, you recognize, I imply, what occurred to George Floyd – one thing occurred to all of us. And you’ll’t neglect that – like me, as a child rising up poor beneath apartheid and singing in white golf equipment and whites-only institutions and stuff like that.

I feel it is a larger message. If we glance inside, we can’t go with out. It is maybe a cry. That is why ubuntu is a motion in the direction of a humanity way of thinking the place you see your self in others. You would not need that factor to occur to that individual. With the track, I am attempting to ship that message that what issues to you issues to me. That is what I am attempting to convey via the track, you recognize?

RASCOE: Do you see any parallels between the struggles for racial justice in South Africa and the struggles for racial justice in the USA?

BUTLER: Properly, to be Black is to be Black. You already know, I am grateful that I now personal a house in my nation. Our moms are nonetheless home maids, you recognize, elevating their youngsters, economically not free. You already know, what you name initiatives we name townships. A township is the place the fellows that work within the mines – there’s about 12 guys sleeping in a single room, you recognize, and with only a range to prepare dinner. They’ve totally different sides. However I assume we transcend via our spirit, via ubuntu. We transcend all issues via our spirit of entrepreneurship, our tenacity to maintain going. We’re gifted. We’re robust. And, you recognize, we’re wealthy in so many, some ways. However I converse for all the youngsters that seem like me in South Africa.

(SOUNDBITE OF JONATHAN BUTLER SONG, “UBUNTU”)

RASCOE: This album – it is so sonically wealthy, you recognize, simply beautiful. Do you are feeling like, in the end, with this album, that what you might be bringing is a chunk of your life in South Africa and bringing that to the world?

BUTLER: This report is a giant milestone for me as a result of each little bit of my want, my ambition and my love for my nation was placed on this album. And all the pieces that I cried over in my life, you recognize, as a Black artist from South Africa – this report actually allowed me to change into the person who I’ve at all times needed to be.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “UBUNTU”)

BUTLER: (Singing in non-English language).

RASCOE: Jonathan Butler is a South African jazz musician and has a brand new album out referred to as “Ubuntu.” Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.

BUTLER: You are so welcome. Thanks so very a lot for having me. Nice dialog.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “UBUNTU”)

BUTLER: (Singing in non-English language).

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