UHURU AFRIKA
banned by South-African government
October, 5th, 1964

ALBUMS BY LENA HORNE,  RANDY WESTON
BANNED BY SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT
 

In a recent action by the government-controlled Board of Censors, the Union of South Africa officially banned two albums by U.S. artists: pianist-composer Randy Weston's Uhuru Afrika and singer Lena Horne’s Here's Lena NOW The records join drummer Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, banned in an earlier South African decision. Copies of the Weston and Horne albums were seized in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In the future, the Board said, it will examine carefully all records imported from the United States featuring Negro artists, particularly any that use "freedom" in the title. Mr. Weston's Uhuru Afrika is a four-movement suite --"an American salute to an emerging continent"-- which grew out of the composer’s interest in African music and culture. As recorded on Roulette Records by an all-star orchestra led by Mr. Weston, with arrangements by Melba Liston and lyrics to two of the movements by noted poet-playwright Langston Hughes, it represents a meeting of African rhythms and Western melodic concepts. Miss Home's album, on 20th Century-Fox Records, contains a number of songs associated with the U.S. civil rights movement as well as more generally "popular" material.

October 5, 1964

Jazz Publicity Service
342 East 13th Street
New York 3, New York
 

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