Cape music picks: January 20 2012
“I am a rebel but maybe one with a cause!” said jazz drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, speaking about the formation of South African big band the Brotherhood of Breath in 1960.
“We tried to run away from all these chains ...
A regular collaborator with Moholo-Moholo, Bonga has spent his career working between London and South Africa. Drawing on a line-age that runs the free jazz gauntlet from Dudu Pukwana to Albert Ayler, he creates music that burns like a wildfire with some surprisingly tender contemplations. Expect bold explorations in improvisation in this rare performance on home soil. Young guns Shane Cooper and Jonno Sweetman will add fuel to Bonga’s experimental fires.
Tagore’s, 42 Trill Road, Observatory, January 26, at 9pm. Entrance is freer than the new South Africa.
■ “Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel,” Jimi Hendrix famously said. Dan Patlansky is not sweating. The range of emotions the blues guitarist manages to summon from his six-string Fender Stratocaster most guitarists never come close to achieving in a lifetime. But then Patlansky is not your average white blues-rock wannabe.
Anyone who has seen him on stage will know why he is regarded as a truly authentic blues proponent. Like his heroes Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, JJ Cale and Jimmy Page, Patlansky is a storyteller. His critically acclaimed albums include Standing at the Station (2001), True Blues (2004), Real (2007) and Move My Soul (2008). Singer-songwriter Natasha Meister will support.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Rhodes Drive, Newlands, on January 22 at 5.30pm. Entrance is R55 to R80.
