Kyle Shepherd :: South African History !X (2012)

Kyle Shepherd’s music is not only a form of personal expression but also reveals bright collaborative sparks with his trio and guests and is seeped in South Africa’s collective consciousness. A compelling performer and articulate interviewee, Kyle appears in the film Mama Goema (2011) and underlines how deeply Cape Town’s music is connected to the “goema lifestyle” of our city’s inhabitants. Co-produced by Profoundly South African, the above video formed part of a value exchange with the filmmakers. It accompanies the launch of South African History !X (2012), an album in which Kyle unravels the matrix of social and historic influences that inform his compositions.

“X in mathematics represents the unknown. For my generation of young South Africans, large parts of our history still remain unknown. Many of us are, however, committed to knowing ourselves through knowing our country and the truth around its history. Like all my work, this still remains a sincerely musical statement, with the music also offering a path to self-discovery.” Kyle Shepherd

Jou Ma Se Goema :: Film Teaser

Cape Town came about as a result of its location and the subsequent historic forces that were visited upon it. What emerged is a city with cultural and linguistic characteristics drawn from the disparate influences of Western Europe, Maritime Southeast Asia and Southern Africa (amongst others).

While Cape Town’s musicians take inspiration from the natural wonders that surround them, they inhabit an African city in the process of negotiating how it projects itself to the rest of the world. A place of musical diversity, modern Cape Town seeks to rise above tolerance to pursue meaningful cultural integration. This challenge is reflected in Cape Town’s oldest manifestation of authentic musical culture, Tweede Nuwe Jaar and the Coon Carnival.

The Carnival’s rhythm, Goema, initially a term describing the drums used in the minstrel parades and subsequently the name of the characteristic Cape beat that emerged from these drums, was adopted as a Cape Jazz idiom in the 20th century and has been interpreted through Rock, Hip-Hop and Electro in recent times. Modern usage of the word reflects a growing re-appraisal of Klopse culture and a new movement that defines Cape Town’s “sound” by the inventive blending of cultural influences.

(This teaser evolved into the documentary Mama Goema)