Tribute for Ray Phiri
Friends and artists pay tribute to musician Ray Phiri, a man many call a ‘great legend’
TRIBUTES have been pouring in for legendary musician Ray Phiri, who died in the early hours of yesterday at the age of 70 after battling lung cancer. Richard Mitchell, a friend and music engineer, had started a crowd funding initiative to help pay for Phiri’s medical costs.
Dave Segal, the sound engineer for Phiri’s band Stimela, said: “It is a very sad day for South Africa. I have worked with Phiri since 1982 when Stimela came alive. He is a musical genius who is down to earth.
“I find it very strange that he needed a crowdfunding to pay for medical bills. There should be royalties coming from Paul Simon’s Graceland album, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) and all of his music. More should be done about pension funds for musicians, it was mentioned that the department of culture may create better schemes for musicians… This is what Ray was campaigning for for a very long time.
“Stimela has just finished a new album. It does not have Ray Phiri in it, but I’m sure he would have been in all of the music videos. He was working on a tour and he mentioned that to me earlier on this year. He was a great legend,” said Segal.
Nicknamed “Just Now”, Phiri was the founding member of the Cannibals in the 1970s, who would later be renamed Stimela, with whom he created gold and platinum-selling albums.
In 1982 Stimela topped the music charts with the release of Fire, Passion and
Ecstasy, followed by Shadows, Fear and Pain, Look, Listen and Decide, Whispers In The Deep and Come To Me (Zwakala), to name a few of their award winning songs. His 1986 performances on Paul Simon’s
Graceland created a reputation that only a few musicians could match.
Award winning jazz legend and friend Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse was devastated by the news. He and Phiri did so much work together and “when we got together it was always fun”, as he recalls.
Mabuse said: “I’m shattered and didn’t expect this to happen. I spoke with his daughter this morning (Wednesday) and she was so distraught by the news.
“We were planning to bring him to the Music Exchange Conference in September so he could speak to the youth. We were planning on a tour to KwaZulu-Natal later on this year. Yes, there was a crowdfunding to raise medical costs, but the family has asked us to please respect their decision to not speak to the media at this stage.”
Founder of the Music Exchange and Mabuse’s manager, Martin Myers said: “I spoke to Ray last week, he was planning on doing a song with RJ Benjamin. I grew up with Stimela.
“I remember in 1977, during the unfinished tour at the Good Hope Centre which was like R10 to enter, we spoke truth to power. I mean, Whispers In The Deep was like the anthem at the time of political uncertainty. It is so sad to celebrate people when they are late. People are not immortal and we need to celebrate them more often while they are still with us. We lost a soft spoken, wise man,” he said.
The guitarist, producer and vocalist was scheduled to perform at Rocking the Daisies music festival later this year.