It’s worth trekking to the Grahamstown Festival this week.
? This year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz, Bokani Dyer, has rapidly moved from sideman status to being a composer and leader of his own group. On July 1, Dyer explores a wide-ranging jazz repertoire with Angelo Syster (guitar), Shane Cooper (bass), Ayanda Sikade (drums), Buddy Wells (sax) and Marcus Wyatt (trumpet). On July 2 he helps British saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch map the spaces where hip-hop composition and jazz structures meet in a cross-continental combo featuring Holland’s Anton Goudsmit (guitar), Jeroen Vierdag (bass), South Africa’s Kesivan Naidoo (drums) and Switzerland’s Andreas Schaerer (vocals). Dyer also adds his creative pulse to Kinch’s all-star quartet conversations with Tumi Molekane (rapper), David Ledbetter (guitar), Shane Cooper (bass) and Naidoo (drums) on July 3.
Standard Bank Jazz Festival, DSG Hall and DSG Auditorium, Worcester Street, Grahamstown, July 1 to 3. Starts at 7.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 10pm on Sunday. Entrance is R100. Book at Computicket. Website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.
? Can a body of work that incorporates avant-garde experimental structures, ‘new music” compositions, folk, psychedelia and Kraut-rock accommodate a pop attitude? Berlin-based vocalist Juliana Venter certainly thinks so. The former chanteuse for Nineties cult combo Mud Ensemble is back in South Africa to launch Sunflower Sutra, the album of her new band, Spooky Attraction from a Distance. Recorded in Berlin, Cologne and Scotland, the album was produced by Joseph Suchy, known for his work with Jaki Liebezeit of Can, Bernd Friedman and Mouse on Mars. Expect a polymorphic mix of vocals, guitar noise, cutting-edge electronics and analogue soundscapes that creates an open aural map reminiscent of David Sylvian, Brian Eno and Aphex Twin.
Waiting Room, Long Street (above Royale Eatery), Cape Town, June 5 at 9pm. Entrance is R40.