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Ronan 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 ...
Welcome To This World
By Shane Cooper
Label: Afrosynth Records
Released: 2018
Track listing: Welcome To This World; Bamako Love Song; Fences; Beneath The Waves; Log Out Shut Down; As We Drift
Away; Tafattala; The Tunnel
Dave Ledbetter: Diversity and Unity
by Seton Hawkins
Even the most cursory listen to South African music yields an embarrassment of riches in the realm of guitar talents. Indeed, throughout the country's musical history innovative figures have forged a near universe of unique approaches to the instrument, fusing the many musical traditions of Southern Africa with popular styles into a staggering array ...
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 ...
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: African Piano
by Seton Hawkins
Throughout this decade, pianist, composer, and bandleader Bokani Dyer has stood as one of the most formidable and creative keyboard talents in South Africa today. Raised in a musical family--his father is the legendary saxophonist Steve Dyer--Bokani Dyer quickly demonstrated an extraordinary musical vision and identity of his own. Indeed, albums of his, notably Emancipate the ...
Skyjack
By Shane Cooper
Label: Self Produced
Released: 2016
Track listing: Tafattala; En Passant;
Anonymous In New York;
Grandmere Dansant; Black
Box; Flying Without Leaving
The Ground; Sakura; The
Last Rainbow Doesn't Fade;
Freedom Dance.
Skyjack: Skyjack
by Dan Bilawsky
Don't let the name fool you here. There's no hostile takeover at twenty-thousand feet, no violent occupation of a specific vehicle, and no saboteur to wreak havoc on this voyage. Skyjack is a cooperative venture that's about the art of creation and community, not the co-opting of a certain airspace or the pursuit of pure destruction. ...
Bokani Dyer: World Music
by Dan Bilawsky
It's not exactly a secret that the concept of “World Music" isn't all that its name implies. That tag, still in wide use today, became somewhat meaningless a couple decades back, serving primarily as an umbrella category to market any and every form of non-Western music to Western ears. But South African pianist Bokani Dyer sees ...
