Kyle Shepherd guides the SA jazz songbook into beguiling new directions, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play at the Synergy Live Festival.
? “Sometimes it’s classical music, sometimes it’s jazz. Sometimes it’s contemporary, sometimes it’s traditional. But most times the most brilliant or moving artists are the ones who have a vast pool of tradition and history and study, and respect what they’re tapping into.”
This is Kyle Shepherd, a young pianist and composer who knows where he’s coming from. Expect an intimate performance that guides the South African jazz songbook into beguiling new directions when he performs compositions from his South African Music Award-nominated album A Portrait of Home with Shane Cooper (double bass) and Jonno Sweetman (drums). Shepherd combines the creative influence of pianists Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran, as well as saxophonists Zim Ngqawana and Robbie Jansen, with traditional Cape rhythms and Afro-American jazz idioms. Mark Fransman makes a guest appearance on horns at what will be Shepherd’s final concert before he leaves on a tour of Japan.
UCT College of Music, Lower Campus, Baxter Street, Rondebosch, November 26 at 7.30pm. Entrance is R80 or R50 (students and senior citizens). Booking essential. Tel: 072 351 5204.
? With its solid rock backbone supported by some international indie flavour, a sample of hip-hop, a splatter of electro and a side plate of comedy, the Synergy Live Festival is best described as “Oppikoppi in the winelands”.
Like its bushveld brother, it proposes that more is, well, more. With that in mind, the organisers have rallied together 60 local and international bands, live acts, comedians and DJs performing on four separate stages. California leather-jacket hipsters Black Rebel Motorcycle Club revive the American rock ‘n’ roll dream.
Others include Taxi Violence, Van Coke Kartel, aKING, The Narrow, Die Heuwels Fantasties, Foto Na Dans, Prime Circle, Dirty Skirts and many more. Bellville avant-pop pastiche purveyor Jax Panik and machine-trash terminator Haezer deliver the electro irony and ecstasy, whereas Tumi and the Volume are again brought in to “represent”.
Boschendal Wine Estate, Franschhoek, November 25 to 27 at 2pm. Entrance is R440. Book at www.webtickets.co.za. Website: http://synergylive.co.za.