(Pic by Timmy Henny: Melanie Scholtz Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Jazz)Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown.
The Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown runs from June 21 to July 3, flanked by excellent performances to start and close the fest, with gems in between.
Trumpeter Feya Faku has regularly spent time in Europe, stretching his harmonic concepts and performing and recording with leading Dutch and Swiss musicians. One of those he has met in his travels is Swiss pianist Malcolm Braff, whose playing is influenced by his youth in Brazil and Senegal. These two musicians share a sense of complex melodic lyricism, based often on a continuous rhythmic groove with palettes of sound that shift subtly. To this duo is added multiple award-winning Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser, who has impressive dexterity on the trombone and a very fresh approach to harmonic improvisation. Providing the groove upon which this unique collaboration is based are Marc Duby (bass) and Kesivan Naidoo (drums), on June 29.
The Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have in recent years paid particular attention to the phenomenal jazz talent in South Africa and five of the winners from the list of musical luminaries who have won this prestigious prize will play together in Standard Bank Young Artist Quintet on June 30 and July 1. Mark Fransman, visionary on both piano and saxophone, bassist Concord Nkabinde, who has blurred the restrictions of musical boundaries, and drummer Kesivan Naidoo, who will light a fire under any musician, come together, forging a new direction in music. They are joined for the first time by the 2010 Young Artist for Jazz, vocalist Melanie Scholtz. Joining the quartet as guest is the 2005 winner for Jazz, Andile Yenana (piano). Ensembles of the Young Artists have performed – as solo, duo, trio or quartet – in London, Singapore, Oslo, Istanbul, China, Washington, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, bringing to the world the quality of South African jazz.
Reflections in Reverence and Remembrance, also on June 30 and July 1, sees British saxophonist Jason Yarde on stage with South Africa’s most prominent vocalist, Sibongile Khumalo, who performed this work in Britain to great acclaim, supported by Kuki Mncube (vocal), Sifiso Khanyile (vocal), Jason Yarde (sax), Bokani Dyer (piano), Charles Lazar (bass) and Magda de Vries (marimbas, percussion).
The Eastern Cape has played a critical role in the development of a jazz style that is specifically South African, and South Africa’s jazz history is sprinkled with Eastern Cape jazz stars. The province is still home to many of South Africa’s leading jazz musicians, though most have migrated to the bigger centres to earn a musical living. Four of the these musicians have moved to Johannesburg: from Port Elizabeth Feya Faku (trumpet) and Lex Futshane (bass); from King Williams Town Andile Yenana (piano), and from East London Clement Benny (drums). Mdantsane guitarist Lulama Gawulana has been a mainstay on the Eastern Cape Jazz scene for decades, based in the East London area and teaching and performing around the Eastern Cape. Getting his first taste of the big time is a young prodigy from Port Elizabeth, Kyle du Preez, who has played trombone in the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band for three years. The Eastern Cape All Stars, on June 30 and July 1, present a show that features their own compositions but also pays tribute to the music written by Eastern Cape composers over the decades.
After tours and performances throughout Europe over the past few years, Cape Town saxophonist Rus Nerwich has returned to Cape Town where his music is attracting serious attention. Nerwich has a reputation for being an innovative and dedicated musician, committed to using music as a vehicle to uplift, communicate and empower and his music draws from a variety of influences and ranges from the hard-bop Mantras4ModernMan to the funky hip-hop grooves of his house band The Collective Imagination. There is an unmistakable resonance of his Jewish musical heritage, but having recorded in Buenos Aires and performed around the world, he sounds like a citizen of the world. He is supported at the Festival by a heavyweight Cape Town rhythm section of Andrew Lilley (piano), Wesley Rustin (bass) and Kevin Gibson (drums) on June 30 and July 1.
Tribe is one of the most exciting jazz bands in South Africa, playing original compositions that feature the cultural diversity and musical intensity within the band. The members of the band have a mass of individual awards and accolades, but the sum is undoubtedly even greater than its parts, with Buddy Wells (sax), Mark Fransman (piano), Charles Lazar (bass) and Kesivan Naidoo (drums), on July 2 and 3.
The Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival runs in Grahamstown from June 23 to 28 as part of The Standard Bank Jazz Festival (June 21 to July 3). Click on the National Arts Festival advert on this page which will take you to the official website where you can locate the full festival programme as well as booking details, etc.
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