The signs were all there — he has a mission. Andile Yenana, the jazz pianist who with Themba Mkhize spearheads the South African assault on the Joy of Jazz, just put the signs into words.
Here are the clues. Andile Yenana releases a first solo album, We Used To Dance in 2003. All this happens around the same time that he is one of the collaborators in the project Voice, a mainstream jazz outfit on the Sheer Sound label.
Voice’s two projects are called Quintet Legacy and Quintet Legacy Vol 2: Songs for Our Grandchildren. The two projects feature the works of other great stalwarts of South African music such as Alan Kwela, Kippie Moeketsi and McKay Davashe.
Then he finds time to produce another of South Africa’s mainstay of jazz, Winston Mankunku Ngozi’s Abantwana be Afrika.
Yenana’s latest project is called Where is the Map? If you still don’t get it then maybe Yenana should spell it out: “We need to preserve the legacy. I see myself as making a contribution to the preservation of that legacy”.
That legacy he speaks of is the country’s jazz legacy. One that reflects the power and the experience of South Africa yet contributes to a timeless culture that first found expression on the plantations of America.
Yenana’s statement may sound mundane, but taking responsibility for what jazz is in South Africa cannot make him too many friends.
We Used To Dance, he says, refers to his years as child listening to his father and older brothers records and the jiving that always accompanied such occasions.
“The Voice concept is very important to me. It says we don’t have to be on stage singing to express ourselves”. In other words, that the instruments they play are their voice.
Where is the Map? is dedicated to the absence of leadership in local jazz and The fact that those who are around — such as Barney Rachabane and Ngozi — are in fact marginalized.
The reigning Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year says the title was overdue.
“I have paid my dues. I look at other 37-year-olds (he turned 37 earlier this month) here and abroad and I think I deserve it when you look at what thay have achieved”.
Despite his age and expertise (he holds a music degree from the University of KwaZulu Natal, Yenana thinks that he and other musicians are still not given due respect.
“Musicians are treated like children in this country. They are always being told what to do.
“Sometimes we are regarded as people who are irresponsible and are not taken seriously. I see it as my responsibility to give an idea of what it means to be a jazz musician in this country.”
As with many other artists here, Yenana feels that there is greater appreciation for his talents abroad than in his own backyard. Voice has just recently returned from Sweden where they played a few gigs.
“We [Voice] were in Sweden recently and the guys there were saying we in South Africa are too generous with the term jazz. I am not saying that I am carrying the flag, but when I picked up the instrument in Zwelitsha township, in King Williams Town, it was to play jazz.
“I was influenced by people by people like Oscar Peterson and Gene Harris on piano and the likes of Frank Sinatra on vocals.”
For Yenana, the legacy left by bands like the Brotherhood of Breadth and Todd Matshikiza is too valuable to be left to left to those whose only joy is the sound that comes from the ringing of a till.
It is a legacy that he along with his mates in Voice, Herbie Tsoaeli, Morabo Morajele/Lulu Gontsana, Sidney Mnisi and Marcus Wyatt find they have to defend in far-away Scandinavia.
Yenana was impressed by the fact that one of their gigs in Sweden was at a club owned and run by musicians.
It is something he would like to see replicated in South Africa.
“Everybody is running a spaza shop. I don’t want a spaza shop. Let us have a supermarket by musicians for musicians. I am not talking here about a musicians’ union, that is for Cosatu.”
If such a project takes off, it could run along with another that the Voice ensemble is planning for the development of musicians.
“We are about to start an institution, as Voice, that will have good books, music library and CDs. Where we will groom kids before they go to universities to study music.”
The Joy of Jazz
The Joy of Jazz opens on August 25 at the Standard Bank Arena. On August 26 and 27 the festival will take to venues in Newtown.
The international line up features, Lee Ritenour, Dianne Reeves, Stanley Jordan, Dave Koz Jeffrey Osborne, Albert Beger, Everett Greene and Rachelle Ferrell.
South Africa is represented by Hugh Masekela, Themba Mkhize, Jonas Gwangwa, Thandiswa Mazwai, Simphiwe Dana, Steve Dyer, Andile Yenana, Zamajobe, Umanji, Kwani Experience, Mzwakhe Mbuli and The Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band.
Africa is represented by Ghana’s Rex Omar and Nigerian Kunle Odutayo.
Dave Koz, Lee Ritenour and Stanley Jordan will play the Cape Town International Convention Centre on August 28 and 29.
For programme details visit www.joyofjazz.co.za