Results for "Bokani Dyer"

Bokani Dyer

Bokani Dyer is a multi-award winning Motswana-South African pianist, composer and producer. In 2013, Dyer won the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships competition. His recent career highlights include playing at the opening of the London Jazz Festival (2015), showcasing his Trio at Jazzahead in Bremen, Germany (2016), headlining the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (2015) and an artistic residency at the Bird’s Eye jazz club in Basel, Switzerland (2014). Dyer has recorded three jazz albums - Mirrors (2010), Emancipate the Story (2011 - recorded during his time as Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year) and World Music (2015) which was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the 2016 South African Music Awards

Sisonke 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 ...

South African Saliency: Reza Khota, Carlo Mombelli, Andrew Lilley, and Mandisi Dyantyis

By DAN BILAWSKY

As sure as the sun will shine on Chapman's Peak and the winds will sweep over Table Mountain, South Africa will continue to flourish and birth new music worthy of worldwide attention. The West may typically pay little to no mind to South African jazz and the artists who shape it, but that has yet to ...

Neo Native

By BOKANI DYER

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2018
Track listing: Neo Native; Dollar Adagio; Fezile; Kgalagadi Intro; Kgalagadi; Waiting; Nguni; Xikwembu; Chikapa; Mutapa; Gono Afrobeat; Light; Fola; Oumou.

Dan Bilawsky's Best Releases of 2018

By DAN BILAWSKY

Every little bit of the year 2018 will soon take form as memory--first recent, then distant--but the fine music gifted to us in those twelve months will be forever present, living on in ears, hearts and minds. I had the pleasure of hearing north of 400 albums this past year, and I had the privilege of ...

Mabuta: Welcome To This World

By DAN BILAWSKY

If the eyes are the windows to the soul and a portal opening to reality and closing on dreams, then the eyelids can be seen as the gatekeepers to such worlds. Mabuta--a genre-merging band taking its name from the Japanese word for eyelid--has a keen understanding of that concept. Shane Cooper, the mastermind behind this group, ...

Nicky Schrire: Permission to Be Yourself

By SETON HAWKINS

To follow the recordings of Cape Town-based vocalist and composer Nicky Schrire is to watch an artist evolve right in front of your eyes. With her 2012 debut Freedom Flight, Schrire demonstrated a supple soprano vocal technique and a knack for intelligent arrangements of unusual repertoire choices. Following it up the next year with ...

Thandi Ntuli: On Exile

By SETON HAWKINS

South African pianist, composer, and vocalist Thandi Ntuli entered 2018 not with a bang, but with a thermonuclear blast. At the close of 2017, she had been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist Award in Jazz, anointing her as the latest figure in an incredible lineage of South African ...

Mandla Mlangeni: Born to Be

By SETON HAWKINS

Mandla Mlangeni has been engaged. The South African trumpeter, composer, and bandleader oversees three groups, notably the Amandla Freedom Ensemble and the Tune Recreation Committee. Additionally, his works are marked by an intense effort to explore and connect with social discourse in the country today. Indeed, from the Tune Recreation Committee's naming nod to South Africa's ...

Bokani Dyer Trio: Neo Native

By DAN BILAWSKY

In pianist Bokani Dyer's Neo Native we find a pact between the ideals of advancement and atavism. This rising star on the South African scene and international stage merges modernistic language with traditional streams with this malleable trio, creating a unique signature that's both indebted to his homeland's history and free of clichés. ...