Q & A
Buddy Wells
Buddy Wells is the award-winning saxman behind the legendary Kusasa, The Truly Fully Hey ShooWow Band and Jimmy Dludlu’s C-Base Collective. He has played and recorded with jazz luminaries such as Winston Mankunku, Joe McBride and Dutch pianist Jack von Poll. His most recent gig was at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
You spent six months this year gigging in Oman. What kind of music is going down there?
The indigenous music is pretty hip, and very African because the Oman empire once stretched into Africa with Zanzibar as its capital. Everybody listens to kwassa kwassa. I was playing jazz gigs at a hotel most nights with a really good band and I had a lot of space to be creative. And it was like a big holiday for me.
>From the solitude of Oman to the North Sea Jazz Festival, how was it?
It really opened my eyes to see so much amazing music happening in one place. The musicians were all pushing the limits and the audiences were being enlightened, and loving it. I watched for three days, 12 hours at a time, and I was a zombie by the third day. Our gig was cool; the Dutch people really loved it and didn’t want to let us go home.
What’s on the burner for you now?
Heads Up Records e-mailed me about a recording with Joe McBride next month for his new album, which he’s doing here, using a whole lot of South African musicians and compositions. He’s just the most amazing musician, he kicks serious ass!
Ultimately I want to record and produce my own music. Right now I’m at a crossroads – I might head overseas, I might move up to Jo’burg, I might stay in Cape Town – but it’s great just to be here now because I think jazz is exploding in this country.
Beyond jazz … explorations in literature?
I’m reading DH Lawrence’s The Rainbow. He’s very intuitive about the interactions between people, and has a knack for explaining quite complicated emotions in a very simple but beautiful way. But it all got a bit much, so I’m reading Trekking Home by Deneys Reitz, it kind of reminds me of the war stories my grandfather used to tell us when I was a kid.
Ear-pleaser of the moment?
I’ve been listening to Tracy Chapman recently, but African music is my number one choice. Salif, Yousour, Papa Wemba, Manu Dibangu. I was blown away by the Irish traditional music while I was there, it’s quite similar to African music in a lot of ways. And I dig guys like 2 Pac and Busta Rhymes, and of course Miles – every now and then.
On the palate?
I eat anything. When I was a kid growing up in Zimbabwe, my friend Sebe and I used to go out into the field and pick bottles full of ground crickets (you have to tap on their holes so they come out ’cause they think it’s raining). Then we’d take them home to his mom and she’d deep fry them. Deliciously crunchy. And the great thing is if you get any wings stuck in your teeth, you can use the hind legs as tooth picks! If I cook for people, I normally do a stir- fry with chicken and herbs and spices in a coconut sauce. Simple and delicious, and besides it’s so hard to get decent ground crickets down here!
Buddy Wells spoke to Iain Harris