Mahluli Mngadi : In your ear
Is Fine Music Radio (FMR) just a cosy club for white classical musical lovers masquerading as a community radio station? Station manager Leslie McKenzie vehemently disagrees. He tells me about the ”more handsome, genuine, less automatic sound” that FMR has been striving for.
He quotes the station’s mission statement which says that FMR’s brief is to entertain a wide community of discerning music lovers through the provision of classic, jazz and other forms of fine music (read world music).
I won’t speak for classical music lovers who get most of the best time slots on the station. But decent jazz comes only after 10pm because McKenzie’s untested profile of a jazz fundi is ”young, active and doesn’t hit the sack till late”.
FMR does air what I call ”cocktail” jazz between seven and eight in the morning. Then there’s Eric Allen’s ”Sunday Rendezvous” every weekday between six and eight in the evenings. The fare is mostly light and easy-on-the-ear jazz. But he must be highly commended for promoting local sounds, even playing rough demos on his show.
To be fair, all the DJs are volunteers lacking that professional touch. Veteran broadcaster Henry Holloway hosts ”Swing, swing and all that jazz” on Mondays and Wednesdays from five to six in the early evening. His playlist is very Eurocentric but it provides nice background music.
Bruce Kadalie who hosts ”Over the Edge” on Mondays at 10pm deserves a mention. Sometimes he has guests who he uses only to choose tracks to play instead of interviewing them. But he still plays the most intelligent jazz on FMR. Then there’s pianist Jac van Poll’s (if he’s in town) ”Jazz-matazz” on Tuesday evenings which is rich in pure, hard be-bop sounds.
So just when will we be able to listen to great classical jazz in the afternoon in Cape Town on FMR? That decision is up to the report from two listening panels which the station has set up — one for classical music, the other for jazz. The panels have been charged with recommending changes at FMR and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
— Fine Music Radio on FM 101.3 in Cape Town