(Reviews from the artSMart team currently in Grahamstown
at the 2015 National Arts Festival)
World-class big
band plays the music of Ann-Sofi Söderqvist. (Review by Keith Millar)
The National Arts
Festival in Grahamstown incorporates the Standard Bank Jazz Festival which in
itself is a very important international event. The Jazz Festival in turn
incorporates the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival.
Top flight jazz
musicians and bands, both local and from abroad are attracted to Grahamstown
every year to take part in this stupendous occasion. In the region of 50
concerts are staged over the duration of the festivities, mostly at the Jazz
Hub which is situated at the Diocesan School for Girls (DSG).
There are also
regular Jam sessions where the musicians get together, later at night, to
entertain, have fun and unwind.
Many of the
concerts are in the form of collaborations between musicians from different bands
and even from countries. These have often led to long-term relationships which have
proved fruitful in the development of jazz music in the country.
A group which has
formed particularly close ties with South African musicians since it first
visited the Standard Bank Jazz Festival 10 years ago is the world-class big
band, the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra. This
ensemble has been in existence for 30 years and comprises 17 musicians who all have
solo jazz careers in their own right. They get together as the SJO to perform
concerts and to tour all over the world.
It was my privilege
to see this orchestra in concert, playing the music of Ann-Sofi Söderqvist. She
is often referred to as Sweden’s answer to Maria Schneider, the American band
leader who graced the festival last year. However, Söderqvist herself is a very
gifted composer and arranger and is the Professor of Composition at the Royal
College of Music in Stockholm.
The concert began
with a lively and fiery number aptly entitled Fire which aptly demonstrated the orchestra’s tight ensemble
playing and lyrical improvisation. The other songs on the programme, all
composed by Söderqvist, included the impressive voice of the attractive and
very talented vocalist Lena Swanberg. She not only sings lyrics but also uses
her voice as an instrument in the orchestra.
Söderqvist’s music
is descriptive, moving and even sometimes quiet emotional. Included were songs
such as A Bien Tot, which is about
love lost, Prayer which was composed
after the massacre of over 60 young people at a Norwegian Island youth camp and
the delightful The Bear Walks in C.
A group of four
South African vocalists joined the orchestra as backing singers for a few of
the songs in a concert which was surprisingly, for a big band performance,
orientated towards the voice. However. the
orchestra did not fail to impress both with its classy, tight big band sound and
its outstanding solos.
At least half the
audience at this concert was made up of attendees of the Youth Jazz Festival. One
can only imagine the benefit these young musicians will derive from being
involved in this wonderful festival.
The Standard Bank
Jazz Festival is a huge and exciting event. A Jazz Music fanatic could immerse
themselves in the activities at the Jazz Hub and not even be aware of the some
500 productions taking place elsewhere in Grahamstown. –
Keith Millar
(For more information on the National Arts Festival click
on the banner advert at the top of this page or visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za)
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