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Grant Mbeki

HER NAME

Plays a horn that belonged to a man he never met and feels responsible for it

style

  • afro jazz
  • cape jazz
  • saxophone lead
  • upright bass
  • male baritone
  • smooth and conversational
  • live band
  • sophisticated groove
  • south african accent
  • smooth

the numbers

bpm
123
key
G minor
energy
0.75
dance
0.87
valence
0.45
vocal at
8.0s
length
3:32
language
En

lyrics

(her name)

The archive gave me two lines and a date of death
For a man whose horn I've played for twenty years
But underneath in pencil, small, and almost gone
Was a woman's name and nobody had asked

Her name (her name)
Nobody wrote down her name
She made the decision, her name
Her name

Her name, her name, her name, her name
She gave it away and they recorded him
Her name, her name, her name, her name
I've played a widow's choice for twenty years

(solo sax, 8 bars)
Grace. It was Grace. It took an afternoon to find.
An afternoon, after forty years of nobody looking.
That is not an archive problem. That is a us problem.
(band returns, gently)

Her name, her name, her name, her name
She gave it away and they recorded him
Her name, her name, her name, her name
I've played a widow's choice for twenty years

(Grace...)