Joseph Pessach (November 17, 1905, Sir Lowry's Pass Village – April 27, 1978,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

), better known by his stage name Josef Marais, was a folk-singer from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

.Marais and Miranda.com
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Biography

Marais left South Africa in the 1920s to study violin and viola in Europe, finally settling in London. He toured as a concert violinist for several years and when he heard that

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...

was eager to record songs in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

for the South African market, he offered his services. The very successful recordings were heard by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

who approached Marais with the request that he translate and perform the songs for British audiences. These broadcasts were heard by the British representative of NBC and Marais was invited to New York in 1939 to do a radio show for NBC. During World War II, he worked at the U.S.

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

. In 1945, he started singing with Roosje Baruch de la Bardo, a Dutch immigrant who worked at the Office of War Information as a linguist; in time they became a team and she adopted the stage name Miranda. They were married in 1947 and performed for more than 30 years as Marais and Miranda, recording many South African traditional folk ballads and original songs such as "Zulu Warrior".Josef Marais, 72; Singer and Writer
''The New York Times'', May 3, 1978, page B2; accessed 2024.05.05. Several of their songs achieved popularity when recorded by high-profile American recording artists, such as "

Sugar Bush Sugar Bush may refer to: * Sugar bush, a forest that is harvested for maple syrup. Plants * Sugar Bush (''Rhus ovata''), an evergreen shrub that grows in the southwest United States * Common Sugarbush Protea (''Protea repens'') * ''Protea'', a g ...

" (a duet between

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

and

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

), " A-round the Corner (Beneath the Berry Tree)" (

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical tr ...

) and "Ma Says, Pa Says" (a duet between Doris Day and

Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blu ...

Partial discography

Marais & Miranda

#Josef Marais and his Bushveld Band - ''Songs of the South African Veld'' (Decca DLP 5014 10") #Josef Marais and his Bushveld Band - ''Songs from the Veld'' (Decca DLP 5083 10") #Josef Marais and Miranda - ''Songs Of Many Lands'' (Decca DL 5106 10") #Marais and Miranda - ''In Person'' Vol.1 (Decca DL 9026) #Marais and Miranda - ''In Person'' Vol.2 (Decca DL 9027) #Marais and Miranda - ''Christmas with Marais and Miranda'' (Decca DL 9030) #Marais and Miranda - ''Africana Suite and Songs of Spirit and Humor'' (Decca DL 9047) #Josef Marais and Miranda - ''Revisit the South African Veld'' (Decca DL 8811) #Josef Marais and Miranda - ''South African Folk Songs'' (Harmony HL 7043) #Marais and Miranda - ''No Dolly No and Other Rare Folk Songs'' (MGM E4143) #Marais and Miranda - ''Nature Songs'' (Motivation Records MR 0318) #Marais and Miranda - ''More Nature Songs'' (Motivation Records MR 0320) #Marais and Miranda - ''Souvenir Album'' (Glendale GLS6022)

References

External links

Marais and Miranda website
(via the Internet Archive)

(include Nature Songs and More Nature Songs) 1905 births 1978 deaths Afrikaner people Afrikaans-language singers of South Africa 20th-century South African male singers South African folk singers South African expatriates in the United Kingdom {{South-Africa-bio-stub