From the Vault of Art Shay: My Music Career

My music career started on the harmonica, bugle and trumpet in the Bronx. The ultimately immortal jazz trumpeter Shorty Rogers and I shared a 25-cent-a-week rental Conn trumpet from James Monroe High School. More recently Billy Corgan has hired me for a 3 year collaboration - but my music career didn\'t take off until I got to Africa. Now the secret is out! The rock group I founded in Swaziland long ago, Ngumbo hit platinum on its first Mbaba Label album, and has been #1 on Radio Zimbabwe and on African pop stations including Chad, Mali and even poor Libya for the past two weeks. My xylophone solo can be heard in \"Stalking the Stork,\" the theme of the birth control movement in Swaziland. Shela Mhlume does the vocal.

Percussionist Lavu Misa insisted on giving me the tour. His tribe, he boasts, were headhunters as recently as 1952.

Marpuna MBune abandoned his guitar momentarily to display his talent with the javelin.

Ngumbo brass arranging a concert with a Masai committee.

A used car salesman from Capetown tries to sell wheels to a music fan.

Two native dancers en route to try out as an opening act.

By showtime, our group\'s nervousness all gone, the dancers warmed up, \r\nthe MC making Lady Gaga jokes on the mike. We were ready for our first home turf concert, called \"April Fooling Around.\"