Gwen Ansell takes a look at the high notes and uncertainties of this year’s Guinness Johannesburg Jazz Festival
THE homecoming of two eminent South African jazz performers is the highlight of this year’s Guinness Johannesburg Jazz Festival, running from September 30 to October 1 at the Market Theatre Precinct.
Pianist/saxophonist/composer Bheki Mseleku returns after close to a decade in Europe, bringing with him Young Lion sidemen Charnett Moffett on bass and Marvin “Smitty” Smith on drums.
Mseleku made his recording debut a long time ago in this country with The Drive. Since then, his style has matured without ever losing its roots; combining a delicate, meditative piano style with Trane-ish horn licks — sometimes simultaneously.
Singer Sathima Bea Benjamin — married to pianist Abdullah Ibrahim — has a smokey voice and superb timing: she’s very much a musician’s singer, long acclaimed by New York critics although her five-star album, Southern Touch, was all but ignored in this country. Her line-up for Guinness is likely to include Billy Higgins on drums and either Stephen Scott — Betty Carter’s current piano man of choice — or Cyrus Chestnut on keyboards.
Of the imports, the most musically interesting is likely to be the Paul van Kemenade Quintet from the Netherlands.
Van Kemenade, master of a gut-wrenching, tear-jerking emotional saxophone style, is accompanied by Hans Sparla on trombone, Jeroen van Vliet on keyboards, Eric van der Westen on bass and Pieter Bast on drums.
Their music has its roots in Monk, Trane, Mingus and the blues, but features the quirky tempo changes and risky free improvisation which characterise the contemporary jazz of the European mainland.
Guesting with the Quintet is a local Young Lion: Zim Ngqawana on reeds — likely to be given free rein for his own improvisational talent in this company.
These players aside, the programme is notable for sticking rigidly to the middle of the mainstream.
From the United States comes the Hank Crawford/Jimmy McGriff Quartet, whose LPs — riding the line between hard bop and funk — have been long-time favourites on the Sunday morning stokvel scene.
Much more conservative a stylist is saxophonist and club owner Ronnie Scott, accompanied by the old familiar team of John Critchenson on keyboards, Ron Matthewson on bass and Martin Drew on drums.
A workmanlike and professional team, their choice as a high-price import is a little hard to justify when comparable South African sounds can be heard most nights of the week at Rumours.
Talented arranger John Davis will put together a Guinness Big Band, and other featured South Africans include Johnny Fourie and The Short Attention Span Band with British guest Dave O’Higgins, Dan Chiorboli’s Trade Winds with Brazilian guest guitarist Sergio Dias, festival regulars Jimmy Dludlu and Hotep Galeta, and Sipho Gumede.
This last is supporting an oddity: Madagascan singer Mfa Kera, who can boast a range and improvisational style akin to Diamanda Galas or Cathy Berberian.
However, her current work in Black Heritage, with percussionist Souleyman Toure and electronic keyboard whizz Reinhard Katemann, sounds like nothing so much as Grace Jones meets Djembe: much closer to Euro-rave “Tribal House” music than to jazz.
There are two unfortunate omissions on this year’s festival.
The first is a surprising lack of a workshop programme, suggesting a mean-spirited attitude towards South Africa’s continuing hunger for cultural interchange.
A rigid set-piece festival format does not facilitate interaction and does nothing for the regiments of aspiring jazz students who can’t afford a R60 day ticket.
And there is no showcasing whatsoever for South Africa’s indigenous jazz styles, or for the young and old jazzmen who have been struggling through the years of apartheid to forge a distinctive national voice.
The decision to make Ngqawana a featured soloist came from a Dutch band; not from the festival’s South African organisers. Not exactly “pure genius”.
* Musos looking for workshops and interaction should rather check out Arts Alive. The festival’s jazz piano series coming up in September will provide intensive workshop sessions with Jeroen van Vliet (Netherlands), Jon Jang and James Newton (US) and Chucho Valdez (Cuba), while the Netherlands’ Antillean jazz combo Fra Fra (appearing at Jazz on the Lake) are also holding jazz classes.
The aim of all this will be to share South African styles and compositions with the visitors, as well as learning from them. For details, telephone (011) 407-6953.