RJ unplugged at Piatto Unplugged- 25 Nov 2009
Posted by RJ Benjamin in event on 21 November, 2009
Following the huge success of “An Intimate Evening with RJ”, I have
decided to have another evening in the same vein. For those who
attended the gig at Villamaura & wanted 2 know when the next one would
be & for those who could not make it, here it is!
On 25 November, I will be reviewing my career from my beginnings with
songs like Wonderwall & Cry all the way through to Shut-up & Change
The World. Much like my “Intimate Evening” performance, there will be
sum surprise guest artists & I’m sure some songs you didn’t realise I
had even sung.
The Venue: Piatto Unplugged, Cedar Square, Fourways.
Start: 8pm
Entrance fee: R60 but food optional.
Pls mail Sarah at sarahlynnbenjamin@gmail.com to book your table.
Keep it Soulful
RJ Benjamin
An intimate evening with RJ Benjamin – 22 October 2009
Posted by RJ Benjamin in event on 11 October, 2009
So, all year I’ve been swept up in house music madness. 1st, Change the World then a host of house tracks followed that. My band have phoned & sms’d from time to time during the year saying “I miss playing with you“ & “when are we playing again?” Naturally most performances have been blazing house tunes with a DJ.
I’ve been dying to get back to my basics & on 22nd October I’ll have that opportunity. I’ll be performing an intimate set accompanied by guitar & percussion playing the songs that have changed my life & maybe yours. The beauty of this night is there is no entrance fee.
So what can you expect? The songs that made me fall in love with music, my own brand of neo-soul which initially featured across the country such as See You In My Dreams, Cry & my cover of Oasis’ Wonderwall, my own versions of songs I wrote & produced for artists ranging from Lira to Danny K, songs from my Metro FM award winning album Swimming in the Soul of Music & acoustic versions of the recent house songs that have dominated SA charts all year!
Come through to Vilamoura Sandton on 22 October for some great food & great music.
To book pls mail Sarah: sarahlynnbenjamin@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149791842757&ref=share
My moments with MJ
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 21 July, 2009
Like so many of you, Michael Jackson was the 1st influence & the one that made me believe I could live music. Here are some moments in my life that instantly popped into my head when the news came of his passing. Rest in Peace dude!
- Sitting with my sis in front of the giant speakers my dad had, waiting for Alex Jay to play MJ’s new single Scream for the 1st time on SA radio. My parents let us bunk school that day so we could hear it!
- Every Sunday morning when I was about 12 yrs old, I would go to the single seater couch in my parents lounge & sit with giant headphones on…my eyes closed & listening to the Dangerous album from beginning to end.
- Attempting to teach my music students Thriller for harmony class. Year after year it would go smoothly up until the “killer, chiller, thriller, here tonight…!” part and then it was curtains. Don’t think any group ever got it right!
- Being inspired by Man In The Mirror to write my 1st pop song entitled Life In A Mirror.
- Playing Earth Song for my mom one day after school, when it got to the “what about us” part, I just remember looking back at her at the end of the song & she was in tears!
- Playing Just Good Friends featuring Stevie Wonder from the Bad album on my dad’s record player so many times it wouldn’t play anymore. In fact, it was doomed from the bridge where it says “see the signs”, it would just repeat “see the signs, see the signs see the signs…” LOL
- Going to the MJ concert in JHB. I gotta be honest I was disappointed that he mimed most of the songs but as a show it was spectacular!
- Tearing up my sister’s Bad tour book to stick the pictures on my wall without asking her. You can just imagine the trouble I got into for that! I still don’t think my sister has forgiven me for that one!
- Going with my dad to some record store in some alley way in JHB town because we had found out they had copies of the new MJ album, Bad. It hadn’t been released in SA yet & we couldn’t wait!
It all started with house
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 9 May, 2009
Despite what a lot of my new & old fans may think, house music has been an integral part of my life & my career.
I guess it all started in high school. I went into high school, Standard 6 back then (now grade 8), not really knowing anyone. I befriended a crazy little Portuguese dude named Grant de Sousa. Back then we used to rip him about being a Prince fan…all those people are now religious fans…thanks Grant! Anyway, Grant’s older brother was the guy it seemed every guy wanted to be, to us anyway. His name is Craig de Sousa. Way back he was one of the 1st of a new breed of DJs & friends with many of whom are now massive DJs in South Africa. I just remember sleeping over at Grant’s place as a kid & hearing Craig & his buddies at 4, 5am & later coming home & blazing house music…no chance of us sleeping! Every now & then Grant & I would tag along with Craig & his buddies to some of the early raves.
From there it was only inevitable that Grant would take up DJing…Grant & I used to record these crazy tapes of us singing. Once I left school & started taking my music & singing more seriously I would tag along with Grant to various clubs in Johannesburg & test my improvising skills over deep & funky house. From there I decided to go it alone. I’d take my microphone to the local house clubs & randomly ask DJs if I could sing. Initially reluctant, I’d sell it that if they didn’t like it I’d leave knowing they would be impressed & I would score a few bucks out of it. Whoohoo!
I also met a little known but highly driven guy while studying at a little Campus in Bramley. Back then it was known as Allenby Campus – DJ Cleo. He was studying Sound Engineering while I was studying music. He showed me the other side of house music…how the Kasi people party. Quite a learning curve & it was dark but I could swear at one club one of Lebo Mathosa’s male dancers started grinding on me which must have been pretty funny to Cleo & all the other Black peeps at the club that night. Never the less it was Cleo who gave me my 1st opportunity in house music & as a result I recorded a few tracks on his debut album Eskhaleni ext. 4.
As a result of that & recording my 1st album Who I Am at Jazzworx, I met Craig Massive, one of the masterminds behind Tamara’s Dey’s early work & a great house DJ too. He’s now a member of the Flash Republic. Craig & Ryan Dent (a past friend of Craig De Sousa I might add) brought me on to record a track called Good Times which appeared on Ryan’s album Ryan Dent Presents Platform Music, a big hit on White radio stations country wide. I finally got the chance to work the man who made all the noise back in the day, Mr Craig de Sousa on a track that had huge success called Everything. It featured on his album The Deeper Sounds of Craig de Sousa. I followed that with a cover version of Prince’s When Doves Cry which appeared on a local cover album called The Cover, again produced by Massive & the Dentist. That along with Good Times & Everything have been the few songs featuring me on “white” radio stations.
Fast forward to now & Change the World has brought me back into the house scene & now is followed by a new track called Goodbye Baby produced by 37MPH. Check his great new album 37 Energy Levels. I still perform with Grant de Sousa which is kinda fun considering the way we used to mess around as kids & many other performances with various house DJs.
I know people often see me as a soul man & that I truly am BUT when I look back on more than half my life & certainly my music career…it all started with house!
Tone versus Range, what do you think
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musically speaking on 11 March, 2009
I’ve spoken about my thoughts on tone in blogs gone by but I’ve always been curious about what other people think is more important for a vocalist. The reason why I got thinking is because a vocal student brought me a singing program by a guy named Brett Manning from the US. Nothing wrong with the course at all other than it possibly being too advanced for people ordering it over the internet. What did bother me was the massive focus on range. Yes it is important but in my opinion not as important as tone quality. I’d go as far as saying they go hand in hand but what good is a singer with 7 octaves if they sound like “crap”?
I started researching singers with large ranges & it’s quite amazing how high some women & men have gone! Off the piano in fact, wow! But looking at some of the greatest recording artists they certainly don’t have the biggest ranges of all time. For the most part 3, pushing 4 octaves. The odd few aka the Mariah’s have 5 I would hazard to guess but when last did you hear Mariah going that high…or low?
So my question to you is what do you think is more important for a singer, a big range or great tone? If you’re unclear on what tone is, it’s simply the sound quality of the voice.
I changed my world, now I’m changing yours!
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 1 February, 2009
It seems another lifetime ago, I was struggling to find my sound, my place in the music & myself in general. I tried for a long time to convince myself I was comfortable with me & my life & the way I was living it but I was lying to myself. It took a few life changing moments to push into the direction I find my life & my music has gone into & those moments shook my world & grew me up!
Heading towards 30 years of age, I have accepted & embraced responsibility in my life. I used to run away from it but at the same time was never really comfortable jumping from party to party smiling falsely, dancing to music I didn’t like. The new me parties when I have a reason to celebrate, to music that moves me & with people that I feel I resonate with. Read the rest of this entry »
My Metro FM experience
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 1 December, 2008
My relationship with Metro FM goes as far back as the start of my solo career.
Before I had even completed my 1st solo project “Who I am”, Metro without even knowing who RJ Benjamin was, play listed what was my 1st single “See you in my dreams”. Later that year, I sang at the Metro FM awards. It was a simple performance, I sang & played piano with a saxophonist named Brian Smith. The song was a ballad that in fact never made it onto my debut album called “When is it love?” which will now appear on Puff Johnson’s next album. The audience was probably thinking “who’s this little white guy on the piano?”. Needless to say the reception I received was great! It was a big move for me because up to that point I was surviving as a performance doing cover gigs & getting whatever work I could get. In fact that evening, I was booked to perform at Sun City at the valley of the waves with a cover band singing Beach Boys songs. I made the choice to cancel & in so doing, I was fired from the band & certainly created enemies with the members of that band. Once again, metro FM gave me that opportunity, a foot in the door. I’ll never forget meeting artists I had seen & heard like KB, Lira, Mafikizolo, Mzekeke & Zola. I was at that time sharing the rookie performance slots with other up & comers like MXO, 340ml, Sliq Angel & Tumi & the Volume. I must say sitting backstage with Sliq jamming on the guitar & hearing the other singing & ad libbing, I wondered how I would eventually fit in to this picture & of the big question, “Could I fit in”??? Read the rest of this entry »
Greed & Arrogance for a piece of a very small pie
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 7 November, 2008
It’s very clear the music industry has changed globally. CD sales dropping day by day & the web playing a more dominant role is common knowledge. South Africa, in my opinion seems to be stuck obsessing with selling CD’s. Certainly at the stores where the stands housing CD’s are getting smaller & smaller & the stands holding DVD’s growing ever larger. I would imagine Blu-Ray will take that over & therefore film will have its lifeline for many years to come. Yes, music videos & live performances will survive but as for purely audio music is concerned, the album is dead!
Look, I cannot explain or answer why the majority of our record companies are not putting more focus on the web but whatever their reasons, whilst they still focus on selling “physical” product, the SA music industry pie is getting smaller & smaller & SA artists & their record companies will do whatever they have to do to get out there!
I think my shock of all this is how desperate people seem to be to get publicity. Award ceremonies in SA lack credibility & this status has been around for a long time. There are rules put in place for these things. We’d be fools to think other award ceremonies around the world haven’t had there fair share of controversy but it never seems to be as obvious as the controversy certain SA music awards have achieved. I remember many years ago when I attended my 1st awards show. It all looked so prestigious. That changed once I learned that artists won on unlimited sms votes. It seemed foolish to me as this gave potential to record companies looking to life the profile up by voting, not just a few votes but thousands. Ok, sure…more votes means more money for that specific company running the awards but the bigger picture, less credibility for our small industry worldwide. & yet, no one ever says anything. Not artists, music producers & companies seeing this happening. Why? Because instead of seeing the bigger picture they want whatever publicity they can get. Truly, in our little country, it may be great publicity but everywhere else they are laughing! Read the rest of this entry »
The official top 20 greatest albums of all time…Oh please!
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musings on 13 August, 2008
- Image via Wikipedia
Over the years, there have been many lists drawn up of “THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME”. Many albums repeating on the lists but not always in the same order & always highly scrutinized by all who read them. It seems like the world had become obsessed with “The top of all time lists”. With respect to music it makes sense these lists exist. Certainly from the onset of Rock n’ roll they’ve existed & music never looked back.
Now, after 60 odd years & a myriad of mega-stars, the great debates begin & the one that always fascinates me, “THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME”. The Internet’s a perfect one for these sort of lists & I ignore them consistently like ignoring spam because without fail, personal opinion gets in the way & then the comments rage on & people get ugly. A few weeks back, in front of me as one of the headlines of a legitimate news website – “THE OFFICIAL TOP 20 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME”. Read the rest of this entry »
A note to idiots about rhyming
Posted by RJ Benjamin in musically speaking on 8 July, 2008
Sometimes, contrary to what I believe, supposedly intelligent people say very un-intelligent things.
Flashback to last year, I was newly single. A good friend of mine asked me to join him at his new flings house for a little games night. Single girls were there & that was the incentive he gave to me if I came. Needless to say it was essentially just a game night. They needed an extra player
My rather competitive friend & I played together & were victorious as usual. Ok, I won’t boast about my superior game playing skills. I don’t recall what game we were playing but the challenge on one of the cards of this certain game was to come with 2 lines with a rhyming word at the end of each line. So, off I went creating my 2 line on the spot because as I recall, there was time limit. I said my little 2 line rhyme as was abruptly told by all at the little soirée, WRONG!!!! Of course, I asked why? I really can’t remember the 2 lines but the 2 last words of each line were something like 1st line: fat, 2nd line: back. Apparently, they don’t rhyme.
Ok, this next part will be brief. Idiots of the world, yes, maybe when you 1st learnt how to rhyme, hat & cat were essential for rhyming, however as we evolve as humans, a few of us realize that the consonants are not as important for the most part as the vowels. It’s the “a” sound that creates the rhyme, not the “t” with the “ck”! To me, that just seems logical & it’s very simple to prove my point. Here are some lyrics from the song “Stan” by Eminem:
“Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds
It’s like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me”“It’s been six months and still no word – I don’t deserve it?
I know you got my last two letters;
I wrote the addresses on ‘em perfect”“Well, gotta go, I’m almost at the bridge now
Oh shit, I forgot, how’m I supposed to send this shit out?”“Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy
You said your girlfriend’s pregnant now, how far along is she?”
Look, I didn’t spend hours & hours looking for a song to prove my point. I picked the 1st one that came to mind. Its not rocket science & I would have expected the well educated people I was enjoying a lovely games evening with to have been a little more logical about something that should have been way beyond their years! If lyricists had to rhyme consonants as well as vowels, there would be nothing to rhyme! I think I’ve proved my point. You don’t like it, Go back to pre-school!
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