Johnny Cradle is lucky he’s cute because we would go to his shows even if it was just to look at him. He’s is even luckier that he has crazy pipes, plays instruments and has the power to turn the stage into a sacred space.
An illustrator by way of paying bills, he was born Sakumzi Qumana and now calls himself Johnny Cradle. The last name comes from an insecurity — he thinks he makes boring music that will rock listeners to sleep. I can assure you, put my funny money on the line and tell you that Johnny will definitely rock you, not to sleep though. Maybe to a place very far away, where all sounds converge into a phantasmagorical audio utopia.
Cradle has been able to take all his musical preferences (the only known surviving Bone Thugs n’ Harmony fan) and influences and marry them to create a matchless sound which even he can’t stamp. This boy can take you on a neo-soul trip, skank you down dub lane, lyrically speak to the hip-hop head inside you and invoke the rock star lurking in your depths, all on one track-that is a gift.
His talent also extend into the comical. When I asked him who his musical idols were his response was Moog Little Phatty and Apple Logic Pro. He quickly redeemed himself by admitting he grew up with his old man blazing Count Bassie and Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” (which he hated), overdosed on American west coast rap in his teens and came out of rehab playing Sade’s “Lovers Rock.” At the foundation of his musical sense are the traditional chants sung when young Xhosa men send boys to initiation school. Wounded in a typical muso way, for him music is sex, drugs and depression inducing, of course love is hurtful.
Cradle is a feeling man, and that comes across by the manner in which he gets lost in the sounds he is making. Many of us are looking for truth in the arts we support, and to sit and see a man have enough respect for his audience to give them his all, is real. A Cradle performance is surreal, decked with contraptions that make a virtual band, one gets the feeling that when he gets organized with a live band he will create experiences we will not soon forget.
Find out more about Johnny Cradle here.
