Swiss-based duo Malcolm Braff (piano) and Samuel Blaser (trombone) will take South African audiences on a journey of jazz exploration in June and July during a tour presented by Pro Helvetia Cape Town, the Swiss Arts Council.
The two will perform as a duo and in other collaborative settings during the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, also teaming up with Feya Faku, Kesivan Naidoo, Carlo Mombelli, and Marc Duby They then head to Gauteng where they will gig with South African jazz saxophone maestro Zim Ngqawana at the Bassline in Johannesburg (3 July) and the Nirox Foundation at the Cradle of Humankind (4 July).
Braff and Blaser are considered one of the most interesting jazz duos in Europe. They have a reputation for exploring all the possibilities of their instruments and inviting audiences to discover the amazing marriage of their talents. Combined, their music consists of a rhythmic complexity inspired by African folk songs and a harmony influenced by gospel and American classics.
Swiss-based Malcolm Braff, born in Brazil and raised in Cape Verde and Senegal, is a classically trained pianist. His resume as a bandleader dates back to 1991, when he founded his first jazz trio. He now heads a number of separate formations – including the trio Braff-Oester-Rohrer and the Malcolm Braff Trio. His more recent work includes the album Yay, recorded with Samuel Blaser, and dates with the Erik Truffaz & Malcolm Braff Indian Project. Braff’s playing has been described as “a universal feeling inside him that surges forth during live acts as ecstatically hymnal stories that put his audience into trance-like states” (Europe Jazz).
Samuel Blaser, who was born in Switzerland but splits his time between the United States and Germany, has earned serious attention and praise recently for his daring virtuosity and engaging improvisations. His music has been heralded as being “on the razor’s edge (of jazz), peeling away familiar banality, shaving off comfortable clichés, slicing to the core of true creativity” (Just Jazz).
Braff and Blaser’s major collaborator on their South African tour is Zim Ngqawana, a “new generation” South African jazz legend. Ngqawana is a five-time South African Music Awards winner, who has worked with Max Roach, Abdullah Ibrahim, Yusef Lateef, and Hugh Masekela among others. His music, which contains elements of bop, funk, Indian and Western classical music, samba, tango and vocal chants, is difficult to categorise under generic labels.
With all three on stage, audiences can expect excursions into the avant garde that challenge the mind but also reward the soul.
SOUTH AFRICAN PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Grahamstown – Saturday, 26 June (9pm): Inventions for Five (Blaser), Jazz Festival
Grahamstown – Saturday, 26 June (10pm): African Vitality (Braff), Jazz Festival
Grahamstown – Sunday, 27 June (7pm): BraffBlaser Duo, Jazz Festival
Grahamstown – Tuesday, 29 June (7.30pm): Feya Faku/Malcolm Braff (incl Blaser), Jazz Festival
Johannesburg – Saturday, 3 July (10.30pm): Braff – Blaser – Zim, Bassline (Tickets: R100 - available from Computicket and at the door)
Cradle of Humankind – Sunday, 4 July (4pm): Braff – Blaser – Zim, Nirox Foundation (Tickets: R50 - available at the door)
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