The formidable Tune Recreation Committee is busy hotfooting it around the country with a Venue Circuit Tour in Cape Town, Joburg and Durban. The quintet features Clement Benny on drums, Nicholas Williams on bass, Keenan Chas Ahrends on guitar, Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet and special guest Mark Fransman on alto saxophone, flute and accordion. The unit is also set to perform in this year’s 18th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
This Cape–based TRC tornado takes original tunes and tweaks them with nods to their influences – which embraces vibrant underground drum and bass and Balkanology.
“Interrogate, indulge and assimilate’
Fusing imported sounds they export these with their own flavour – either going into a ghoema -tinged feel, or just improvising around the melody. The T.R.C hopes to be “a playground for the interrogation, assimilation and extended extemporization from the canon of South African jazz heritage”.
The TRC is one of the numerous projects Mandla co-ordinates as bandleader, trumpeter and composer. To date the band has steadily attracted a devout following amongst jazz aficionados as an ensemble committed to building a musical bridge between the past, present and future. With music as the mediator of their message, they are “in constant dialogue with the ever-changing stories of our time- performed out in stages of constantly fluctuating musical trends. We prescribe to interrogate, indulge and assimilate as a collective the wide range of emotion which collides in a melting pot of histories, beliefs and aspirations of an upwardly mobile generation that seeks to define itself in response to the paradoxes that confront us.”
The ensemble seeks to embark on an extended SADC tour from May to June.
Also diarise to see them at the upcoming Jazz Fest in Cape Town at the CTICC. They are supported by Concerts SA.
Where, what when:
Tuesday, 14 Feb, 8pm,True Italic Restaurant, 15 Bree St, Cape Town, Entry R50 (http://www.trueitalic.co.za/contact-us/)
Wednesday 15 Feb, 8pm, The Crypt, Wale St, Cape Town Entry R150 (http://www.thecryptjazz.com/contact.html)
Thursday 16 Feb, 7.30pm, Great Wizzoo Lower Burg Rd, Rosebank, Cape Town(https://www.facebook.com/GreatWizoo/)
Friday 17 Feb, 8pm, The Orbit Jazz , 81 De Korte St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Entry R150 (http://www.theorbit.co.za/contact-us/)
Saturday 18 Feb, 11pm, The Chairman 46 Mahatma Gandhi Rd, Durban Entry R150 (http://www.thechairmanlive.com/ – bookings)
Links:
https://soundcloud.com/trc-tunerecreationcommits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtiqro2LdqE
Note: Cover picture: Ignatius Mokone
WS
