“Cinemuse aims to stimulate the South African public’s appreciation for enriching and authentic cinema from all countries around the world. Currently we are only exposed to mainstream American cinema and we believe this has a devastating effect on the development of an authentic South African culture.” Read More

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Derek Gripper’s arrangement of Toumani Diabaté’s “Jarabi” at the Long Street Slave Church in Cape Town (May 2012). This performance sees a 21-string kora composition from Mali finding its expression on a six-string classical guitar at the same venue in which Diabaté performed in 2009. Gripper’s work as a “translator” of the West African kora appears on his 2012 album One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali and is available at New Cape Records on Bandcamp.

Catch Derek Gripper in Gauteng on Sunday 3 February 2013. There’s a “Bach meets Mali” recital at the Brooklyn Theatre at 3pm and the Joburg premier of Music from the Strings of Mali at The Lucky Bean at 8pm. Join the event on Facebook.

The December 2012 edition of the Cape Town Goema Orchestra showcases an expanded version of McKenzie’s “South Atlantic Suite” (which premièred in September 2012) as well as new orchestral works by Ana Strugar, Maxim Starcke, Reza Khota and Keenan Ahrends. December’s line-up also sees the exciting addition of jazz legend Sathima Bea Benjamin.

With paternal roots on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, Sathima Benjamin is a fitting guest at the orchestra’s Saturday evening performances (7.30 for 8pm on 8 and 15 December at the SABC Studios Auditorium in Sea Point). Benjamin, who returned to Cape Town in 2011 after 34 years in New York, will perform her poignant compositions “Africa” and “Music” (arranged for the orchestra by George Werner). Both of these titles appear on Benjamin’s African Songbird LP of 1976, which is being prepared for reissue in 2013 by Matsuli Music.

Sound on Screen Music Film Festival (SOS)
Johannesburg | The Bioscope | December 2012

The third installment of South Africa’s Sound On Screen Music Film Festival is based in Johannesburg for the first time this year! SOS 2012 takes place at the Bioscope during the first half of December and features Mama Goema on Sunday 2 December at 8pm.

Click: Africa in Motion Scotland African Film Festival

Derek Gripper launched the “digital” version of One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali at the South African Slave Church Museum in May 2012. Playful yet poignant, the album sees the unprecedented arrangement of 21-string West African kora music on six-string classical guitar, exploring the compositions of Mali’s Toumani Diabaté (who performed at the Slave Church in 2009). The album also features Ali “Farka” Touré’s “’56,” which is derived from a Guinean revolutionary song. From Conakry to Timbuktu to Cape Town, “’56” speaks of music’s ability to shrink time and space, uniting three seemingly disconnected African states and, coincidentally, a period of 56 years, into a single performance. Night on Earth is being released on CD this month and is available from New Cape Records on Bandcamp.

My involvement with the Cape Town Goema Orchestra began in 2010 with Goema Symphony No. 1, the “happening” that features in the film Mama Goema, which premiered in Cape Town last year. I’m pleased to report that the film was voted best documentary feature at the Tri Continental Human Rights Film Festival in 2011 and has, to the merit of those in and behind the scenes, reached audiences in Portugal, Colombia, Canada, Switzerland and Scotland.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been asked countless times what the film is about. I used to brush these enquiries off by saying that it’s about Cape Town music. If I’m feeling a little cheeky, I say it’s about a shape-shifter from Pleiades who comes to Earth as a punk rocker, reinvents himself as a jazz cat and then decides to be a composer of symphonies. If I’m feeling brave, I say it about goema. But this normally means that I have to spend the next three hours unravelling what the film does more efficiently in 55 minutes.

Nowadays, I say that it’s a film about connectivity. What’s goema? Well, goema is what connectivity sounds like. You see, we used up all the “ubuntu” during the Madiba Years. And we had a good time but now we’re into this stuff that grows in Cape Town. And it’s addictive. But it’s good for you. So it’s Cape Town connectivity but what is Cape Town if not an agent of connectivity on the planet. It’s no coincidence that East meets West in Africa in Cape Town. And no coincidence that what started as a Goema Symphony in 2010 became a Table Bay Concerto in 2011 in is now adrift with the South Atlantic Suite on route to Mali, Serbia and the Eastern Cape tonight, consciously evoking the goema of the 21st century. You can always detect that familiar homecoming sound but tonight’s programme marks goema’s most challenging, expansive and inclusive move ever.

And so, as we look at where we are now, we see Kyle Shepherd connecting with Japan, Ernestine Deane connecting with Germany, Hilton Schilder re-connecting our youth with the music of the bow. We see Achmat Sabera on a South African postage stamp and a Sabera “gummy” on every single continent on the planet. A Goema Roadshow, featuring Hilton Schilder and Achmat Sabera, visited 10 schools from Newlands to Mitchell’s Plain over the last three weeks reminding over 600 learners what Cape Town connectivity sounds like. We also celebrate the third season of the Goema Orchestra with an EP dropped into cyberspace in the hopes that it will reach the hearts via the ears of listeners around the planet.

Photo Credit:  Steve Gordon (www.musicpics.co.za)

McKenzie’s NPO, the Cape Town Composers’ Workshop, showcases budding composers and is the driving force behind the Goema Orchestra. The season will include new works by orchestra members Chantal Willie, Ana Strugar, Derek Gripper and Mandla Mlangeni. A new composition by bassist Chantal Willie explores nuances of jazz, world music and South African music. Strugar, a young Serbian arranger studying at UCT, creates work influenced by jazz, folk and classical music. Cape guitarist Derek Gripper has gained renown as a composer of original music in a variety of folk and classical styles while some of Mlangeni’s compositions and performances on jazz trumpet can also be heard in groups like TRC.

The orchestra’s line-up will feature leading string players Rayelle Goodman and Jürgen Schwietering, woodwind specialist Mike Rossi and jazz pianist Andre Petersen. Concert performances start at 8pm. Tickets cost R100 (students and seniors pay R70 and there are discounts on bookings of 10 or more). For reservations:

Mobile: 072 500 2204
Email: composers.workshop.ct@gmail.com
Facebook: Join Event Page

Achmat Sabera’s “gummy” workshop at Plumstead High School

Hilton Schilder’s bow performance at Grassdale High School

Tweets (Courtesy of Coffeebeans Routes)

* Single-String Technology
* Goema Rhythms
* Cedar High School
* Genuines
* Wittebome High School
* Classroom
* !Xaru
* Tambourine
* Postage Stamp
* Piano

Press

* Athlone News (Wednesday 29 August 2012)

Special thanks to Ruschka Jaffer of the Bright Star Programme (project coordinator), Iain Harris of Coffeebeans Routes (logistics), roadshow stars Achmat Sabera & Hilton Schilder and, of course, the inspiring teachers and enthusiastic learners of Cape Town.