At Encounters :: On the Edge | Between Heaven & Hell

On the Edge | Isy India Geronimo | South Africa | 2012 | 44min

An indictment of the way homeless people are treated by South African police, On the Edge confronts audiences with the unsettling reality of life of the streets of inner city Johannesburg. The film also underlines the vulnerability of disenfranchised foreigners to human-rights abuses and even sees filmmaker Isy India Geronimo, an American lawyer chosen for a clerkship at the South African Constitutional Court in 2011, being incarcerated on an immigration offence as retribution for bringing the police to task. Geronimo's personal narrative frames the film but her Constitutional Court experience and legal knowledge as well as her own experience of being an "outsider" in South Africa sadly remain on the margins. And while the film gives a voice to victims and advocates the support provided by NGOs and churches, the behaviour of the SAPS is passed off as the institutionalised legacy of the SAP.

Between Heaven & Hell | Clifford Bestall | South Africa | 2012 | 48min

In 1989, songwriter Johannes Kerkorrel implored listeners to give their hearts and uncertain futures to Hillbrow. If Between Heaven & Hell is anything to go by, these are the commodities that the notorious inner-city Johannesburg neighborhood is still trading on. Commissioned by Al Jazeera Witness, filmmaker Clifford Bestall's story is pivoted on a boxing gym, a former champ turned trainer living its basement, two women boxers under his wing and a night-club owner cast as fight promoter. And then there's Bernice, an elderly Jewish lady as tangentially connected to the narrative as she is to the people in her neighborhood. As the title suggests, Hillbrow emerges as a place of exile where survivors strive for the dangling carrot of deliverance.

Achmat Sabera :: Hand-Crafted Cape Instruments

Although artistic license renders Achmat Sabera as a youthful man sans spectacles and wispy grey beard, it is fitting that a craftsman who occupies the humble wings of Cape Town’s dazzling carnival should be inadvertently celebrated by our national postal service. Based on a photograph by John Edwin Mason, 2011’s “Ghoema Drum-Maker” postage stamp was part of a series exploring historic links between South Africa and Indonesia.

2010 and 2011 brought much due attention to Achmat Sabera and his craft. On the heels of appearing in Mason’s book of photographs and short essays entitled One Love Ghoema Beat: Inside the Cape Town Carnival, Achmat Sabera was featured in Iziko’s Ghoema & Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town exhibition at the Castle of Good Hope. He also shared his trade secrets on camera, directing the creators of the documentary film Mama Goema through a behind-the-scenes journey of the drum-making process.

Like the hand-crafted instruments he creates and services for discerning minstrels, Achmat Sabera is a Cape Town original. He has donated drums to Mac McKenzie’s Cape Town Goema Orchestra as well as multi-instrumentalist Hilton Schilder and welcomes their application in any musical pursuit. Like any old-school artisan, however, he isn’t inclined to dabble in the arena of modern communications and digital ditribution. Until he does, if you’d like to invest in a Sabera “gamie,” you'll have to climb into the Cape Town goema wormhole and follow your ears.

Derek Gripper :: One Night on Earth (2012)

In a culture bent on compartmentalising its musicians, guitarist Derek Gripper is a slippery character. Here’s a guy who understands that a pigeonhole is not an enclosure but rather a place that a bird comes back to when it’s not busy flying. And why not come back to it? After all, if you don’t understand how a box works, how can you possibly think outside it? And who said anything about coming back to the same box? And perhaps some strategic wall removals won’t bring the whole structure down. Or will they? I guess these are the risks one has to take to bottle the sound of water or catch fish in a tangled net.

Coming on the heels of 2011’s The Sound of Water, which the guitarist self-effacingly describes as an album “that didn’t win a SAMA award” while neglecting to claim kudos for its nomination, Derek Gripper launched One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali at the Old Slave Church (Long Street, Cape Town) on Saturday 12 May 2012. Both playful as well as poignant, Night on Earth sees the unprecedented “translation” of West African kora music to solo acoustic guitar and features the compositions of Mali’s legendary Toumani Diabaté, who performed at the same, sublime venue in 2009. The album also features compositions by fellow Malians Ali Farka Touré and Ballaké Sissoko as well as French cellist Vincent Ségal.

Although this thrilling and highly-accessible instrumental outing merits attention, Derek Gripper seems less concerned about courting mainstream criticism than using the democratic tools of new media to build a community around his innovations. Released on his home-spun label New Cape Records, Night on Earth forgoes hard copies in favour of digital distribution on a “name your price” basis. Moreover, downloadable guitar tablature scores are available on Derek Gripper’s personal website, which also provides other useful guitar resources and explains his Montessori-inspired method of guitar training. “The only difference between the music of Bach and the music of Toumani Diabaté,” writes open-source advocate Derek Gripper, “is that Toumani’s music does not exist in the type of score format that allows another musicians to actually play the music themselves.”

Photo (First Edition CD Album Art) © Bernard Descamps

Tete Mbambisa :: Black Heroes (2012)

It’s an arresting image, the extreme close-up portrait that graces the cover of South African jazz legend Tete Mbambisa’s Black Heroes (2012), his sixth commercially released album. Insomuch as the frame, and by extension the recording, can barely contain the immensity of the subject, it is a fitting accompaniment to this raw and immediate solo piano set recorded at the University of Stellenbosch in August 2010.

The album’s charm lies in the unfettered composure of Mbambisa’s performances. Stripped arrangements dispense with ensemble, stage and spotlight and gather listeners around the piano with vocalisations and foot stomps adding intimacy and grit. Black Heroes pits nostalgia against the blues but it’s ultimately the redemptive power of music with soul that wins.

Black Heroes is produced by Jonathan Eato, curator of the JISA (Jazz in South Africa) Project, which aims “to develop a critical understanding of jazz in South Africa that is informed by the thinking of the musicians who make the music.” The album’s liner notes are lovingly assembled, featuring archive photography and a comprehensive discography. All rights to the compositions and recording are held by Bra Tete and all revenue from CD sales goes directly to him.

Tete Mbambisa at the Black Heroes album launch in Cape Town

22 April 2012 | UCT College of Music | Photo © Calum MacNaughton

Bruce Langhorne :: Tambourine Man (2011)

“Back there was something ELSE!” writes Bob Dylan in a 2004 handwritten note reproduced on the inner sleeve of Bruce Langhorne’s 2011 solo release Tambourine Man. “Like they say,” Dylan continues, “it was better to be in chains with friends than in a garden with strangers.”

The “back there” of Dylan’s message refers to New York in the 1960s, where Langhorne forged a reputation as one of the most important session guitarists of the emerging folk-rock scene. Toting a Turkish frame drum around the studio, he inspired the song “Mr. Tambourine Man” and features prominently throughout Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home (1965). “Friends” included the likes of Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Peter LaFarge, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie and even Hugh Masekela. Check the credits for Bra Hugh’s signature 1968 single “Grazing in the Grass” and you’ll find Bruce Langhorne on guitar.

Although he composed film scores in the 70s and 80s, Tambourine Man is essentially Bruce Langhorne’s first solo album in a fifty year recording career. It’s an eclectic set that reflects a myriad of world influences traversing Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s also laced with the kind of devilish humour that could only come from a man who invented an African Hot Pepper Sauce. Be sure to check out Langhorne’s slow maskanda treatment of “Mary Had a Little Lamb“ (replete with slide bass, spoken word bridge and blues harp in lieu of accordion).

Big up to George Madaraz and Debbie Green of George-Green Studios for producing and many thanks to Maureen Nathan (who attended the CD launch in the US) for bringing an autographed copy back to Cape Town. A friend of the Tambourine Man and a champion of South African music, Maureen Nathan watched Mama Goema with Bruce Langhorne in Los Angeles. Bruce sent this wonderful message back to the Goema Orchestra:

“Clothe the Naked

Feed the Poor

Keep on Playing Together”

Mama Goema :: Spine Road High School

There’s nothing like getting to watch a film at school! 136 Grade 10s at Spine Road High in Mitchells Plain got to kick back and enjoy Mama Goema at their Tuesday morning assembley after the Freedom Day long weekend. There was, naturally, a pedagogical spin to the screening as learners were encouraged to consider Cape Town’s ever-growing film industry as a potential career choice. Moreover, the learners were reminded that they don’t have to look any further than their own communities to tell compelling stories that the rest of the world wants to hear. And they also missed 10 minutes of Maths (sorry teachers)!

“The movie was quite interesting. There were various types of intruments and that was gevaarlik.”

“The movie did rock! I learnt about all the different instruments and how musicians act funny.”

United Opposition Parties :: Secrecy Bill Meeting

A creative journalism piece documenting the United Opposition Parties' public meeting concerning the "Secrecy Bill" on Saturday 17 March 2012 in Khayelitsha. Excerpts of speakers from the participating parties and weaved together to reflect a shared position on the issue at hand while Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose Inkatha Freedom Party plays a key role in bringing opposition parties together, concludes proceedings by evoking the spirit of a new movement.

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

Ernestine Deane & The Vision

Ernestine Deane’s multi-faceted artistic trajectory has seen her fronting the electro combo MoodPhase5, a group that propelled Cape Town sound into the “naughties” with the millennium masterpiece Steady On (2000). A softer solo release, Dub for Mama, appeared in 2007 and she has crafted moving, socio-historic performance pieces in recent years. Her current trio, Ernestine & The Vision, blends rhythm with soul and features percussionist Brian de Goede and Texito Langa on drums. Deeply inspired by Cape Town and its people, Ernestine appears in the music documentary Mama Goema (2011). Co-produced by Profoundly South African, the above video formed part of a value exchange with the filmmakers.

Cape Town Motif :: Conrad Hicks

Cape Town has long projected a single dimension to the international community, flaunting its natural beauty and presenting a caricature of its rich culture. While mountain and sea are undeniably Cape Town’s principle hooks, the picture is incomplete without exploring their intrinsic link to the creative pulse at the city’s heart.

Motif is a prospective web-doc series seeking funding and/or co-production to showcase twelve creative Capetonians and allow viewers to experience the city through their craft. Creativity in Cape Town is not driven by a collective manifesto or common goals but there is a clearly distinguishable “motif” in the city’s creative emissions. All it takes is twelve creatives for the pattern to emerge. A broad range of creative disciplines will be presented with a view to traversing socio-economic, gender, ethnic and national lines. The widest possible lens is applied to reflect the city’s contemporary multiplicity.

Against the backdrop of Cape Town being selected as World Design Capital 2014, our pilot “webisode” features one of our city’s many extraordinary creative talents. Conrad Hicks, a blacksmith who works in the iconic Bijou building in the suburb of Observatory, shares his thoughts on the overlapping worlds of toolmaking and sculpture. A Profoundly South African co-production, this video was created by Matthew Carkeek, Calum MacNaughton and Ian Naidu for Inner City Media.