kagablog

Music Today fund raising concert hosted by New Music SA 28th March, Howard College Theatre

Wine was sponsored by the Distel Foundation for the Performing Arts and artists performed without charge.

A world renowned (and controversial) film director creates a piece of music which is to be played by a world renowned guitarist and Durban hardly knows of the event!! But I am not complaining, just pointing out the curiously ever baffling Durban audience ethos that absolutely passeth all understanding. The ever sloppy Durban press need to be upbraided, for a large portion of this continuing vexatious situation must surely rest on their shoulders fairly and squarely. Unless of course, that by making this statement I completely overestimate their importance on Durban’s cultural scene and they carry not an iota of credibility anyway. Then of course, one needs to look to the Music Department of the University itself. Have the students all become so jaded that nothing interests them anymore? And then - touchy subject - one needs to look at the racial demographics of the audience: completely White except for a Black couple and no Indians. Are there no black or Indian students at the University? Are Whites the only racial group interested in progressive music, or is this still regarded as a ‘colonialist pastime’?

I was once again struck by the excellence of the acoustics in the Howard College Theatre!

The event was hosted with professional ease by Fiona Tozer who contributed to the evening with her composition “Snapshots for piano and recorded voice” performed by Catherine Morrow. This ‘streetwise’ performance piece began with Catherine, in jeans, T-shirt, unmarked plastic carry-bag with an assortment of musical paraphernalia - not to mention chewing……gum - slopping onto the stage ready for the shopping mall…percussionist in tow. Snippets of overlaid (mostly female) conversations (in various languages) timed to interweave with the inventive piano narrative began and interjected the performance. Underpinning this interplay was the necessity for dexterity interwoven with a ‘chance factor’ (the steel pipes placed on the piano strings) which I found intriguing. Some wonderful melodies emerged between the latter half of the ‘snapshots’. I wondered whether it was not Fiona Tozer’s intention to evoke the sense of travelogue where the shopping mall (more so than the airport) becomes the unifying factor of what has undoubtedly now become a global village.

The next piece I really enjoyed was Andrew Beall’s composition ”Song for Almah” for marimba (Ilse Minnie) and cello (Jennifer Cox). The warm integrated tone of these two instruments wafted across the auditorium with a clarity and perfect pitch that was aurally beyond reproach. I particularly appreciated the rhythm and ‘drive’ within the piece where the two exquisite melodies, never pulling apart yet stretching the boundaries of exploration in parallel universes, sought to transgress those boundaries by locating points of harmony: space creating space, relating with ease through a common time frame, a win-win situation. An enlightening and truly worthy tribute to Almah.

And then there was Syd Kitchen performing Aryan Kaganof’s “Blues for G string”. What I found most ‘contrasting’ about this performance in particular was the musicians involvement with his instrument: a Mervyn Davis custom built wonder guitar with banjo-lyre-like influences that leant to the performance a uniqueness of style that lifted this manifestation into the extraordinary. Here, Kitchen enveloped a refreshing ‘oneness’ with his instrument which transmuted into an authentic link with ‘self’. The performer, thus so well grounded, confidently launches himself into the given framework (the composition) in virtually any direction and succeeds. The interplay of musical improvisation connects with intent and ease of open-minded interplay and the musician gains an energy that he imbibes back into his craftsmanship becoming that rare muscial magus one is indeed privileged to witness. However, the launchpad, so artfully provided by Kaganof (whose own commitment to the four minute event is evidenced by him flying up from Cape Town and spending the afternoon with Syd Kitchen in rehearsal/discussion) took absolute precedence within the integrity of sovereignty, while allowing the artist/performer the utmost freedom of expression: the bluesy tone, subtly framing Kaganof’s oeuvre of melancholy, a pensiveness, with a repeated note, echoing, founding…running through the sub terrain of Kitchen’s skilled foreplay. I was further struck by what has become for me an added insight into Kaganof’s work - whether directing a film, creating a painting, music, acting, organising the Kagablog - his absolute humanity tied in with an innate creative gift: to inspire nothing but the best from (himself and) his collaborators.

this review first appeared on helgé’s website

all photos by fiona tozer
you can see more photos by fiona of this nmsa event here