FILM REVIEW: CUNNINGHAM. HE REFUSED TO be known as ‘avant-garde’, but set fire to every dance cliché and rule that you can think of, in his outstanding and bold repertoire, answerable to no one. This was Merce Cunningham, celebrated in Alla Kovgan’s beautiful film, Cunningham, which features on […]
TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN ELIOVSON. TALENT IS A strange thing. Sometimes it flashes its feathers with an incendiary focus that is too wild for its environment. Jazz guitarist and master-musician Stephen Eliovson was a performer who had the talent and wisdom to harness that fire, but alas, he held […]
SONG REVIEW: WASHED AWAY. A TALE OF frustration and confusion, to say nothing of gender bewilderment in a desperate quest for love, young South African performer Yahto Kraft’s second single, Washed Away, released on 1 August 2020 brings together lyrical story telling that is a perfect vehicle for […]
FILM REVIEW: AMADEUS AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE. THE CURIOUS FLAW in this almost mythic tale of maverick talent, jealousy and the celebration of mediocrity, is how it is hinged on ostensible fact. Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus took some fuzzy hearsay around the life and death of 18th […]
TRIBUTE TO TONY BIRD RESEARCHED BY CHELSEA BARTON. THE SINGER/SONG-WRITER WITH the courage to apologise to Africa, who knew how to sing the songs of its landscapes, Tony Bird brought wisdom and activism to local youth before it was fashionable to do so. Considered by British music journalist […]
TRIBUTE TO MANU DIBANGO BY ELIZHAN DUVENAGE. CAMEROONIAN SAXOPHONIST, PIANIST, vibraphonist and composer, Manu Dibango, fondly known as Papy Groove, played an important role in innovating jazz in the last several decades. He was celebrated for his own brand of Afro-jazz, and cherished for his 1972 dance album […]
TRIBUTE TO VENTURA ROSENTHAL RESEARCHED BY MISHKA OLIVIER. NONA VENTURA ROSENTHAL, a brilliant musician and a true treasure to everyone who met her, gave a friendly and popular profile to the notoriously difficult-to-play harp. She succumbed to breast cancer, which she had battled since 2014, on 6 November […]
TRIBUTE TO MAUREEN DONNE BY HENRICO GREYLING. A HONEYED VOICE, overflowing generosity and someone who lit up the lives of others with her blissful spirit, Maureen Donne was an exceptionally talented jazz vocalist and tap dancer who not only conquered South African stage, but also showcased her masterful […]
FILM REVIEW: VOËLVRY — THE MOVIE. THEY WERE MORE than just angry young Afrikaans-speaking men. Musicians of the ilk of Johannes Kerkorrel, James Phillips, Koos Kombuis, Bernoldus Niemand, Willem Möller and others had the edge that could force change in a country locked down by blind racist imperatives. […]
SONG REVIEW: UGLY. The goosebumps start with the first few lyrics. They don’t stop. Yahto Kraft may be just 18, but he has the sensibility, the cojones and the focus to take on the flaccid stereotypes of this world with complete clarity. And win. His debut single, Ugly, […]
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