Peter Makurube
The best jazz in ages, with a variety and quality that is mind boggling -this is what the 10th anniversary of jazz at the national arts festival promises.
It is a programme paying homage to the growing relationship between European jazz musicians and their South African counterparts, a relationship that began more than 30 years ago. As a result, we have Millennium Quadrant, the cultural fusion headlining this year’s jazz events.
All players involved in Millennium Quadrant’s 1998 tour of the Netherlands will be in Grahamstown: Feya Faku, Jeroen van Vliet, Erwin Vann, Mete Erker and Louis Mhlanga. Only saxophonist Sidney Mnisi will be replaced by Jasper Cook, a long-standing member of the African Jazz Pioneers and a regular member of Jonas Gwangwa’s band. This combination of players should be a top attraction for jazz fans.
Of the South African contingent, trumpeter Faku is the youngest, having only recently released his first CD, Homage, this June. Zimbabwean guitarist Mhlanga and Cook represent the country’s established jazz musicians, bringing a sense of experience to the European line-up that is also relatively young.
Highly rated saxophonist Erwin Vann has worked with top musicians like Joe Lorvano and Steve Coleman. Jeroen van Vliet who first toured South Africa as part of major Dutch band master Willem van Manen’s outfit, Contraband, is an award-winning composer and graduate of the Rotterdam Conservatory. Drummer Hans van Oosterhout was a child prodigy who started playing at seven before getting snapped up by the same prestigious conservatory.
Millenium Quadrant will be playing on July 9 and 10.
New Directions is a project of Steve Dyer, the musical director of last year’s festival hit, Mahube. The band is drawn from a wide variety of stylists, who are also innovative composers. For this concept Dyer found musicians who, as he says, ”do not have much contact with, and influence over, each other”.
This has led to the music being compartmentalised. Among the innovators identified by Dyer are pianist Paul Hanmer whose current album, Window To Elsewhere, is unique indeed. Guitarist Menyatso Mathole is a long-time campaigner who’s played with top bands like 70s icons Drive and later Sakhile. Bassist Marc Duby, former student at the University of Natal’s School of Jazz, has a master’s degree and furthered his studies in Devon, England. Trumpeter George Mari also hails from the School of Jazz, where he has collaborated with many of today’s top jazz arists.
New Directions will, according to Dyer, ”focus on four young South African composers who are familiar with improvisation but are also exploring and incorporating other sounds into their work”. Providing rhythm will be Oliver Mutukudzi’s drummer Tendai Mataure.
New Directions will be playing on July 1, 2 and 4.
Paul Hanmer, Sipho Gumede, Errol Dyers and McCoy Mrubata, Frank Pako, all on the same stage? Well, they are, as part of a show called Afro Jazz All Stars. These musicians are from the same generation and the same stable – Sheer Records – and are currently riding high in their careers.
Afro Jazz All Stars will be playing on July 2.
Then there is the Ngcukana music dynasty that will raid the festival under the collective name The Ngcukana Brothers Show. All members of the same family, Duke plays the trumpet and teaches music like his father did. Fitzroy sings and promotes jazz while Ezra has recorded his feats on tenor sax.
The Ngukana Brothers play on July 7 and 8.
Of the more famous locals, regular festival visitor Jimmy Dludlu’s appearance should generate excitement, since his career is currently on a high. He has just finished a bout in the recording studio and his performance should give audiences a taste of Essence Of Rhythm – the title of his upcoming CD.
Hear Dludlu on guitar on July 4 and 5, as well as on July 2 when he takes part in the annual guitar summit – in the company of more experienced axemen Errol Dyers and Johnny Fourie.
Jazz singer Esther Miller also makes an appearence at the festival after a stint abroad. She’ll treat fans to a repertoire of evergreens and standards on July 7.
Yet another vocalist, Ncediwe Sylvia Mdunyelwa, has been quietly working her way up the ladder. Her backing band includes the likes of East London piano sorcerer, Tete Mbambisa – enough reason to make one walk all the way to Grahamstown for her performance on July 5.
Of all the singers, empress of song and stage, Dolly Rathebe, will be the most accomplished on show. Most curiously, at the helm of major veterans, Elite Swingsters, a band that’s been around since long before Madiba went to prison. They’ll be making local jazz history on July 1.
While dabbling in history, check out the other big name of the Fifties era – the African Jazz Pioneers. Led by Ntemi Piliso, they not only survived apartheid but have seen tastes in music come full circle, and today are busier than ever. See the truly African jazz pioneers from June 29 to July 1.
The youth factor has to be taken into account – and luckily so, because it is only teaching institutions that are able to showcase a dying art, that of the big band. This year the festival incorporates the work of bands from Rhodes University and the University Port Elizabeth on July 1.
In addition to the above, on July 3 the sponsor’s own big band will take to the stage. Known as the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band, it will be conducted by Mike Skipper.
By workshopping young musicians, then introducing them to the big time, Standard Bank is making its contribution felt.
If this is how good things are at the age of 10, can you imagine what’s going to happen when the jazz festival turns 21?!