Articles by Seton Hawkins
Mark Ruffin: Bebop Fairy Tales
by Seton Hawkins
Celebrating 40 years as a jazz broadcaster, music producer, and writer this year, Mark Ruffin--perhaps best known as the program director for the Real Jazz channel on SiriusXM --stands as one of jazz's unsung heroes. Countless artists owe their career successes and prominence to his tireless efforts, boundless enthusiasm and advocacy, and encyclopedic knowledge of the art form. While he may be best known throughout the nation for his broadcasting, Ruffin has an equally deep resume as a writer, with ...
read moreMatthew Shipp: Poetic Connection
by Seton Hawkins
It is difficult to describe the impact of pianist and composer Matthew Shipp without descending into hyperbole. A core figure in the now-legendary David S. Ware Quartet, a bandleader with a staggering recording output, a groundbreaking curator for the influential Blues Series of Thirsty Ear Records, Matthew Shipp has also more recently broken new ground at the helm of the extraordinary Matthew Shipp Trio, featuring bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Preparing to celebrate his 60th ...
read moreSisonke Xonti: A Leap of Faith
by Seton Hawkins
Known for years as an outstanding saxophonist and first-call collaborator in a variety of top South African Jazz ensembles, in recent years Sisonke Xonti has rightly earned acclaimed for his own talents as a bandleader and a composer. Notably, Xonti's 2017 debut release Iyonde not only provided a stellar showcase for his superlative horn work, it also showed his thoroughly compelling voice as a composer and his creativity as an arranger. Recently announced as the Standard ...
read moreClaude Cozens: Reimagining Rhythm
by Seton Hawkins
The Cape Jazz sound of South Africa is known to international audiences primarily thanks to the music of pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. However, the music and traditions of Cape Town and the Western Cape run much deeper, reflecting an extraordinary, sometimes contradictory, and exceedingly complex set of cultures and traditions reflected in the area. Within this environment the musician and composer Claude Cozens grew up, first gaining acclaim as a top-call drummer in Cape Town, ultimately forming his own extraordinary trio, ...
read moreSam Tshabalala: Returning Home
by Seton Hawkins
The late 1970s saw a surge of extraordinary musical creativity in South Africa. Driven in part by a changing political climate reflecting the youth-led Soweto uprising of 1976, a younger generation of South African artists harnessed the arts to give voice to a new chapter in the anti-apartheid struggle. Indeed, rising ensembles like Movement in the City, Sakhile, and The Beaters all embodied this post-1976 ethos, both in their messages and in their cross-genre vision for music. Within ...
read moreCarlo Mombelli: Angels and Demons
by Seton Hawkins
One of music's criminally underrated geniuses, South African electric bassist and composer Carlo Mombelli has carved out a most extraordinary performing and writing career in music. Throughout his four decades as a performer, Mombelli has forged one of the most distinctive electric bass approaches in Jazz, established himself as South Africa's most exceptional composer, and has nurtured and developed an inspiring creative improvising and composing scene in Johannesburg. With last year's release of his latest album Angels and ...
read moreAaron Rimbui: Nairobi to New York City
by Seton Hawkins
Kenya is noted for an extraordinary array of musical offerings yet its jazz scene has historically been quite slim. However, Nairobi-born pianist Aaron Rimbui may change that dynamic. Drawing on the musical traditions of Kenya and East Africa, Rimbui has established a singular and absolutely arresting approach to jazz piano. With several solo records under his belt and a recent move to New York City, Rimbui seems poised to emerge as one of the leading figures ...
read moreRonan Skillen: Telepathic Euphoria
by Seton Hawkins
When one thinks of South African jazz, the didgeridoo and the tabla don't immediately jump to mind. Nevertheless, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and engineer Ronan Skillen has made them vital additions to a range of South African ensembles. While acclaimed for his work in the genre-smashing South African ensemble Babu, Skillen has engaged in a wide range of highly influential projects in South Africa and abroad, from the meditative collaboration with Dave Ledbetter, Deep South, to the electronica-infused ...
read moreJazz of the New South Africa, Part Two
by Seton Hawkins
South Africa celebrated its first democratic elections in April 1994, entering a new phase of its history. During that decade, an incredible new array of Jazz artists emerged in the country, exploring Jazz's role in the New South Africa. Playlist Hilton Schilder “Email to the Ancestors" from No Turning Back (Mountain Records) 1:11 Tribe “New Tricks" from Our Language (Ready Rolled) 4:54 Carlo Mombelli and the Prisoners of the Strange “Ethical Sam's Cookery School" from I Stared ...
read moreJazz of the New South Africa, Part 1
by Seton Hawkins
South Africa celebrated its first democratic elections in April 1994, entering a new phase of its history. During that decade, an incredible new array of Jazz artists emerged in the country, exploring Jazz's role in the New South Africa. Playlist Bheki Mseleku “Closer to the Source" from Celebration (World Circuit) 2:03 Paul Hanmer “Meeting of the Women" from Trains to Taung (Sheer Sound) 9:00 Moses Taiwa Molelekwa “Genes and Spirits" from Genes and Spirits (MELT2000) 14:06 McCoy ...
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