Miles Keylock Live in Cape Town
Since the demise of Mannenberg’s and the ongoing sabbatical of Klaus’s Jazz Club, Cape Town city centre has not had a regular venue devoted to the popularisation of jazz and the showcasing of quality South African jazz talent. Club Salsa’s decision to host Virtual Jazz Reality during August was much welcomed by jazz patrons who prefer their jazz as a more entertaining experience rather than an edifying one.
Fronted by trumpeter Ian Smith, Virtual Jazz Reality (VJR) have variously been described as ”kaleidoscopic” and ”eclectically idiomatic”. Drawing on influences from jazz standards to funky trip-hop, the band succeeds in popularising the jazz idiom as a music of, and for, the people.
There’s possibly no better way to bring jazz to the public than by focusing on material that concentrates on the dance tempos of the Latin- American jazz idiom. VJR’s two sets at Salsa comprised largely of a whole host of Latin and fusion standards – from Antonio Carlos Jobim to Tito Puente, Earl Klugh and Koinonia, the choice of songs were infused with the band’s unique sense of fun and entertainment.
The first set opened with an uptempo version of Coltrane’s Naima, the blend of plaintive horn and funky rhythm section unmistakably echoing the pop- inflected fusion of the later-period Miles Davis bands of Amandla and the like. This is a valid comparison, particularly if one appreciates the pivotal impact that the rhythm section has on the VJR sound.
The lasting suggestion is that groove is what this band is about more than anything else. While highlighting their own instrumental adeptness, Sammy Webber’s Marcus Miller-like basslines and Frank Paco’s textured drumming always allow the various soloists more than enough space to take the music straight to the ears and hearts of their audience.
The appeal of the VJR, though, ultimately lies in the group’s collaborative effort. While the playing is never ”deep” or ”out there” – one audience member referred to the experience as ”kind of like shopping at Edgars” – VJR show that having fun on stage is certainly more than half the fun.
The second set featured the much- acclaimed vocalist, Judith Sephuma. From the moment she sang the first few bars of Shakatak’s Streetlife, the crowd were eating out of her hand. On Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Andrew Ford’s lush piano and keyboard riffs provided the perfect platform for Sephuma’s phrasing which has almost R’n’B shades at times, recalling Natalie Cole or perhaps even a young Nina Simone.
A vocalist of this enormous talent deserves international success. Which is something the audience at Salsa appreciated, going into absolute raptures when she returned for an encore where she duetted with Ian Smith on the Nat King Cole classic, Unforgettable.
Club Salsa should be commended on having the chutzpah to stage jazz evenings on Sundays in Cape Town city centre. The venue’s low-lit, sit-down supperclub atmosphere creates a mood of warmth and intimacy that does much to enhance the experience of live jazz, permitting its patrons enough space to converse quietly as well as watch the band onstage.
VJR’s approach to jazz is refreshingly celebratory. While their sound is not purely commercial, they are accessible enough to do more than merely entertain their audience. Their infectious melange of fusion is high on the good-time groove. Perhaps not one for the jazz purists out there, but consistently engaging, nonetheless.
After almost four hours of exhilarating jazz for a couvert charge of a mere R20, the audience went home feeling thoroughly satisfied. Ian Smith suggested that the group might be moving up to the greener jazz pastures of Johannesburg. So catch them soon, before they’re lost to Capetonians for a while.