Cape jazz

Cape Jazz is a genre of Jazz, similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character, which is performed in the southern part of Africa. Where marabi is a piano jazz style, this music depends (though not exclusively) on instruments that can be carried in a street parade, such as brass instruments, banjos, guitars and percussion instruments.

The Cape part of the name, refers to Cape Town, South Africa. The leading exponents of this style are pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and saxophonists Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen. These three, together with bassist Paul Michaels, drummer Monty Weber and sax man Morris Goldberg, recorded the seminal Cape Jazz song, "Mannenberg" in the early 1970s. One of the main inspirations behind Cape Jazz comes from the folk songs sung by people descended from the former slave communities living in the Western Cape, known loosely as the Cape Coloured or Cape Malay people. A street carnival parade or Mardi Gras (also called the Coon Carnival) is held each year peaking on the 2nd of January. This event is the culmination of months of musical and dance rehearsal and community-based competitions, by various mostly mix race folk, and was known as "Tweede Nuwe Jaar" "(Afrikaans)". The performers known as Klopse, borrowed the painted faces and bright consumes of the minstrel show style of New Orleans (now USA) and combined this with African and European music which was to be heard in the taverns and night clubs of the port city.

Some of this music is also more recently known as Goema, or Ghoema Jazz, referring to a particular wooden barrel shaped Asian style drum (also known in the Cape as a Ghomma) played by the revelers in the troupes in the aforementioned parade.

There is a new generation of Cape Jazz musicians of which the band called The Goema Captains are a good example. The group features Mac McKenzie and Hilton Schilder who have brought greater improvisational elements to this music. They have literally re-arranged Cape Traditional songs and jazzed them up. Another example is The Cape Jazz Band, an all star ensemble drawing its players from different groups performing in Cape Town. Other leading names in the genre are, pianist, Tony Schilder, guitarist, Errol Dyers and saxophonist, Winston Mankunku.

The first commercial record reference to Cape Jazz is on the label compilation of Mountain Records artists released in 1993. The album collects the work of several of the label’s acts over a 12-year period beginning in 1981. The thematic similarity in the compositions, all of which are original, very clearly illustrates this genre.

In September 2006 a project was launched with a concert promoted by the Arts and Culture department of the South African Government, entitled The Cape Town Jazz Orchestra. This event brought together 16 musicians from all over South Africa to perform arrangements of works by different jazz composers including the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, who also performed at the concert, and a piece dedicated to and inspired by the late Basil Coetzee. Since the orchestra was launched it has changed from being one with performers from the whole of South Africa to a collection of Cape based players. Since 2008 they are known as the Cape Jazz Orchestra under the musical leadership of Alvin Dyers.

An international breakthrough for the genre came when a compilation of recordings entitled, Cape Jazz 3 - Goema, entered the prestige European World Music Charts in May 2008. Until this point this music was seen as jazz though many songs performed by the exponents are jazzed up folk music standards from the Cape and thus justify consideration as "world music". The album contains work from Robbie Jansen, Dollar Brand, Chris McGregor, Basil Coetzee, Errol Dyers and others.

Cape Jazz Collection

In 2008 music researcher Colin Miller together with publisher [http://www.jazz.co.za jazz.co.za] released the first ever sheetmusic collection of Cape Jazz compositions entitled the [http://www.sheetmusic.co.za/scores-capejazz Cape Jazz Collection] . The tunes included in this anthology are but a modest part of the large body of music composed by some of Cape Town's premier jazz musicians. These include Winston Mankunku, Merton Barrow, Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen who, among others, are household names in South African jazz. In more ways than one, they have been the makers and shakers of Cape Jazz. They provided an anthem of resistance, they challenged the Apartheid State through cultural activism and, at some time or another, they kept us dancing through the 1980's towards freedom in the 1990's.

Post-1994 saw the emergence of a younger generation of musicians, equally dedicated to the promotion of local music. Due to a new political dispensation, they had increased opportunities for professionalism in music. Among these are Paul Hanmer, McCoy Mrubata, Mark Fransman and Buddy Wells, whose compositions are also included in the Cape Jazz Collection.

External links

* [http://www.sheetmusic.co.za/scores-capejazz Cape Jazz Collection]
* Basel University [http://pages.unibas.ch/africanmusic/southafricanjazz/]
* SA Edu Site [http://www.eduprop.co.za/GALLERY.htm Coons]
* New York Times [http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/travel/02surfacing.html]
* Birds Eye Jazz Club [http://www.birdseye.ch/pdf/FlyerCapeJazz.pdf]
* Goemarati - the music of Cape Town [http://www.goema.co.za]
* [http://www.mountain.co.za Mountain Records]

ee also

* Kaapse Klopse
* Coon song
* Minstrel Show