Recent Jazz #1: The Township Comets
Apr. 10th, 2011 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningI realise I haven’t posted here for a couple of months. OK, three months. I haven’t been doing a lot of things to post about – busy working mostly – but there are a few gigs I’ve been to. So I’m going to tell you about those – starting with the Township Comets.
The Township Comets play the music of Dudu Pukwana, a South African saxophonist who escaped apartheid by living – and playing – in London. He used to play a lot when I was starting to discover jazz, and I was a fan. I took some pictures of him playing back in 1984 or so – one of my favourite jazz photos – but not digitised; I’ll have to change that! But I’ve been listening to Dudu’s music for over 25 years (actually, more: my father took me to a gig in 1974; I hated it, so I don’t think that counts!).
Pukwana died in 1990, but he influenced a lot of the young musicians back then; they’re no longer young musicians, obviously, but some of them still get together to play his music: the Township Comets.
The township bob they play is great fun – lively, rhythmic, slightly anarchic. Dance-based jazz, it is hard to sit still. I saw them on a Sunday afternoon in January at the Vortex, and they played to a pretty full house.
Singer Pinise Saul used to sing with Pukwana; she seemed quite a dominating presence in this band, too – at times brilliant, at others irritating. Jason Yarde takes the saxophone role, Chris Batchelor on trumpet, Harry Brown on trombone and leader Adam Glasser on piano. (I didn’t catch the bass player nor drummer – it wasn’t their usual bass player, Jasper Holby.)
The Township Comets play the music of Dudu Pukwana, a South African saxophonist who escaped apartheid by living – and playing – in London. He used to play a lot when I was starting to discover jazz, and I was a fan. I took some pictures of him playing back in 1984 or so – one of my favourite jazz photos – but not digitised; I’ll have to change that! But I’ve been listening to Dudu’s music for over 25 years (actually, more: my father took me to a gig in 1974; I hated it, so I don’t think that counts!).
Pukwana died in 1990, but he influenced a lot of the young musicians back then; they’re no longer young musicians, obviously, but some of them still get together to play his music: the Township Comets.
The township bob they play is great fun – lively, rhythmic, slightly anarchic. Dance-based jazz, it is hard to sit still. I saw them on a Sunday afternoon in January at the Vortex, and they played to a pretty full house.
Singer Pinise Saul used to sing with Pukwana; she seemed quite a dominating presence in this band, too – at times brilliant, at others irritating. Jason Yarde takes the saxophone role, Chris Batchelor on trumpet, Harry Brown on trombone and leader Adam Glasser on piano. (I didn’t catch the bass player nor drummer – it wasn’t their usual bass player, Jasper Holby.)
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Date: 2011-04-10 06:00 pm (UTC)