A South African jazz evening with Adam Glasser and Pinise Saul
The LondonJazz TransLATES series celebrates South African music on 23 May with a performance by Pinise Saul, Adam Glasser and Eugene Skeef
LondonJazz TransLATES is a monthly music series at London cabaret and performance venue The Crazy Coqs on Friday nights from 10.30pm.
Each session of the series celebrates the directness of expression and communication that vocalists can achieve when performing songs in their mother tongue. Think of the series as hassle-free travel for people who don’t have the time to plan, or to take a weekend away. Order a drink, house lights down, and you’re taken – in the mind – straight to a foreign country and connected directly to the emotional heart of a different culture.
The series is devised, and the singers and songs will be introduced and explained by jazz journalist, Sebastian Scotney, editor of LondonJazz News.
The May date in the LondonJazz TransLATES series celebrates South Africa.
Vocalist Pinise Saul is one of the foremost living exponents of South African jazz, with a distinctive sound and approach forged from a combination of her rural Xhosa roots in Port Elizabeth and the influence of the vibrant township music scene of the ’50s and ’60s.
Saul has been based in London since the mid ’70s when she arrived as a key member of the Johannesburg originated musical Ipi ‘Ntombi. It was here that she began to tour, compose and record with the band Zila, led by fiery ex-Blue Note alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana.
In 1985 South African pianist and harmonica player Adam Glasser joined Zila for several years playing gigs on the London scene as well as forays abroad to Spain, Sardinia and Italy, recording the album Zila 86 in 1986.
This was the beginning of a creative partnership between Glasser and Saul which has lasted to this day. Saul was a key composing contributor and performer on two Adam Glasser albums: Free at First which won a Sama in 2010, and Mzansi, nominated at the 2012 Samas. Since 2009 Pinise has been vocalist with the Township Comets, a London based band formed by Adam Glasser and Chris Batchelor exploring the music of Dudu Pukwana and more broadly SA Township Jazz, who will be heard this year at the Brecon Jazz Festival.
Pinise Saul and Adam Glasser will be joined on Friday 23 May by the extraordinary South African percussionist, composer and poet Eugene Skeef.
Book on www.brasseriezedel.com/crazy-coqs/londonjazz-translates-adam-glasser-and-pinise-saul/11162330
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