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Darren English: Imagine Nation
by Dan Bilawsky
Trumpeter Darren English carries the spirit of South Africa and the entire history of jazz in his horn. On this, his debut album, the Cape Town-born, Atlanta-based English pays tribute to the late Nelson Mandela, matches wits and chops with fellow trumpeters Russell Gunn and Joe Gransden on “Cherokee," partners with vocalist Carmen Bradford on a ...
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 ...
Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2015
by Mark Sullivan
Cape Town International Jazz Festival Cape Town International Convention Centre Cape Town, South Africa March 27 & 28, 2015 The Cape Town International Jazz Festival takes place over two jam-packed nights, on five simultaneous stages. Now in its sixteenth year, it also includes a number of ancillary events during festival week: ...
Abdullah Ibrahim: The Song Is My Story
by James Nadal
Blessed is the artist who has reached the zenith of his craft, and endured to reap the rewards, becoming the wise elder reflecting upon a lifetime of creative accomplishment. Having left an impressive body of work, he still greets the dawn with exuberance and optimism. Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim is such an artist. As a consummate and ...
Kyle Shepherd: Where Dream States Meet Reality
by Dan Bilawsky
The Standard Bank Young Artist Awards program has been shining a light on some of the best and brightest South African up-and-comers in music, drama, dance, film, and other art forms since 1984. Almost from the start, and for the two decades that followed, music was simply represented with one umbrella category when these awards were ...
Abdullah Ibrahim: African Piano
by John Kelman
Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett are widely thought to have represented ECM Records' initial solo piano forays with Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1 & 2 (1971/1972) and Facing You (1972), respectively, but a lesser-known recording from 1969, unreleased until 1973 on ECM's sister label, JAPO, could be considered its true first. Originally released under Dollar Brand's birth ...
Kheswa & Her Martians: Meadowlands, Stolen Jazz
by James Nadal
There has not been a more poignant situation in jazz history than that of South Africa, where the pathetic and deplorable conditions of apartheid made “jazz style music" illegal amongst the native people. This of course made jazz musicians outlaws and heroes, and drove the music underground into the townships, where it thrived despite desperate attempts ...
South African Jazz Reawakens: The Recording Debut of Kheswa & Her Martians
Nowhere do the parallel cultural identities of South Africa and the United States—nowhere does our parallel racial ethos—speak to us more intriguingly than through jazz. The jazz vernacular has thrived in both countries thanks to a visceral connection to abstract truths and cultural realities owned in common by our two countries. If you are hip to ...
Shane Cooper: Oscillations
by Dan Bilawsky
"South African Jazz" means different things to different people; to some, it's music that's smooth and pacifying, produced by artists like guitarist Jonathan Butler; to others, it's the music of icons like pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and trumpeter Hugh Masekela, both of whom became symbols of freedom during the apartheid era; and to a third group, that ...
Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013
by Dan Bilawsky
Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013Cape Town, South AfricaApril 5-6, 2013Music has the power to transport those on the receiving end to another place, but the terms of travel are usually figurative in nature. For four North American journalists, however, the figurative took fantastic form with an offer to visit Cape Town, soak in ...
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