Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Remembering musicians of the recent past
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harimau
Posts: 1819
Joined: 06 Feb 2007, 21:43

Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by harimau »

"Patrick Ngcobo, the only indigenous African in the continent to have become an expert of Carnatic music, has died in South Africa, leaving his fans in a state of mourning", reports Deccan Chronicle in its today's (Feb 5, 2015) edition.

He was a disciple of Sri K J Yesudas.

I was hoping that the Madras Music Academy and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana would showcase him one day to show the reach of Carnatic music but that was not meant to be.

A detailed report can be found in the Deccan Chronicle. Perhaps somebody can dig up the URL for an online version of the news item.

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by vasanthakokilam »

I remember a brief discussion about Patrick Ngcobo quite a few years back here.

Here is a BBC article about him: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3784767.stm

ganesh_mourthy
Posts: 1371
Joined: 02 Sep 2007, 23:08

Re: Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by ganesh_mourthy »

I wish he left some recording to listen to . It is indeed sad . Sometimes you develop a different taste that may practically not possible but it dies out, but instead here the man had died out in spite of his steadfast learning.

ganesh_mourthy
Posts: 1371
Joined: 02 Sep 2007, 23:08

Re: Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by ganesh_mourthy »

Altogether, his passion had not offered him a good comfortable life in exchange but only penury. He had to drive taxi, gardening.... It would not have been easy to come to another country as a have not and live a life like that. I wish there were some audio or video to listen to .

sruthi
Posts: 204
Joined: 21 Sep 2010, 19:59

Vidwan Patrick Ngcobo

Post by sruthi »

Image
http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/ ... 41364.html
Johannesburg, February 4, 2015: Patrick Ngcobo, the only indigenous African on the continent to have become an expert of Carnatic music, has died in South Africa, leaving his fans in a state of mourning.
Ngcobo, 43, died on Sunday of renal failure shortly afterbeing admitted to a hospital near his home in Durban.
Despite opposition from his Zulu community where he grew up, Ngcobo insisted on continuing his studies in Carnatic music after first hearing it at the homes of Indian friends living nearby.
Ngcobo joined a local Tamil band and soon endeared himself to audiences by his flawless Tamil renditions of film songs.
But his greater love was for classical Carnatic singing,which he started practising on his own and later with assistance from South Africa's foremost India-trained Carnatic performer, Karthigesan Pillay.
"His mastery of the Tamil language despite it being foreign to him was better even that that of some young Indian South African students," Pillay said.
Pillay and several friends supported Ngcobo's desire to be trained in India, but his big break came when renowned South Indian singer K J Yesudas toured South Africa.
The Indian music legend took Ngcobo under his wing for training in India after hearing him.
At the time, Yesudas said he had never seen such passion for Carnatic music in a person from a totally different culture.
On his return, Ngcobo enthralled audiences all over the country with live performances, but joined the lament about specialists like him and several other South African Indian Carnatic music artists not getting enough financial support to survive with their families.
Ngcobo also became the first and still only Black African presenter of a classical music programme on the national radio station aimed at the Indian community, Radio Lotus.
In recent years, ill health forced Ngcobo to curtail his public appearances and he was largely forgotten except for a few friends who maintained contact, according to his family.
"Patrick would sacrifice anything for his music, even when the community laughed at him about preferring another culture to his own, but later some acknowledged his bold moves as a great step in inter-cultural relations," said his brother Derrick.

Also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3784767.stm

rshankar
Posts: 13754
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Vidwan Patrick Ngcobo

Post by rshankar »

May his soul RIP!
Very sad to see any life cut short at such a young age, but particularly depressing to hear about this artist.

maduraimini
Posts: 477
Joined: 22 Sep 2009, 02:55

Re: Vidwan Patrick Ngcobo

Post by maduraimini »

Sad to hear about this artist dying so young. He must have loved CM very much to go against his people to learn the Music. May his soul rest in peace.

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Vidwan Patrick Ngcobo

Post by Nick H »

How sad, especially that he died so young

cpblog
Posts: 233
Joined: 07 Jul 2009, 22:01

Re: Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by cpblog »

That " nobody keeps in contact" (paragraph in link below) is often a stark commentary on a passage of life that will face many of us.

In spite of all the great teachings in the world, and not withstanding that emotional and sentimental parts of our created being, phenomenon ultimately seems to prevail over us with its state of "out of sight, out of mind".

As a young successful person, who after a stint at Harvard and in the corridors of the churn in Wall Street, shared with this writer, recently, in a philosophy class:

"...you know, growing up, we rarely have any education to shape us on the dynamics of "what should we do to become a better person".... most of what is taught to us in the name of high quality education is only material profit and losses, how to cut somebody out so that everything will flow into you, how to market yourself under any garb so that people will be attracted to the garb, rarely knowing anything of the person inside....we strive to work and earn only to lose ourselves, only to create an illusory spin of overkill 'sound' and 'color'...open any web page today, or any old newspaper....all capture in headlines is about "man and woman's inhumanity towards another, individually or collectively"...knowingly or unknowingly we are only bound towards that....today we mask it under another 'buzz' word created every alternate second ....you know New York, not too long ago, had to create a law called the "Good Samaritan" law to say that it was OK for someone to go and touch another person distressed!...."

The above commentary is just incidental. The real intention was to share details in this link http://subrygovender.blogspot.com/2015/ ... otten.html

Just a member,
CPBlog team

VK RAMAN
Posts: 5009
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Re: Patrick Ngcobo, RIP

Post by VK RAMAN »

True "out of sight out of mind". Olden times when we used to travel in Train for 72 hours, we get friendly with so many good souls and have good times. Once we reach our destination, those good friends are gone never to meet again.

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