Naspers: Offending Jazz Article
This article was thrown out by Naspers' People's Post because of Jansen's comments, his association with a "club of ill-repute" -- the West End in Rylands -- and the fact that it mentions Jimmy Dludlu, a black man, in a community paper targeted at "coloureds".
ROBBIE COMMENTS ON DLUDLU'S SAMA SUCCESS
by David Robert Lewis
JIMMY DLUDLU'S ability to arouse local audiences with his jazz guitar while tapping into our nation's "quest for Africanness" resulted in two SAMA awards this year. Dludlu's amazing 'nouveaux jazz' recording, Corners of My Soul, raked in the South African Music Awards trophies, for being the country's "best jazz album" -- giving the musician the additional honour of "best male artist". Being celebrated as a "jazz great" at the '12th Annual MTN-sponsored SA Music Awards' is no mean feet, and laying claim to any of these astonishing titles is obviously a boost for one's career -- one's ego as well as sales.
Dludlu however was in Mocambique and unavailable for comment, but he spoke to the press via his record label; "To me, winning the SA Music Awards means a lot. It means that my peers, the music industry and people in general are acknowledging that I am making a contribution to South African music and culture. I am very honoured to receive this acknowledgement, and to be making this contribution". Translation -- Dludlu was over the moon and still jolling to the tune of King Tokyo three weeks later.
Winning a SAMA is considered by some to be the ultimate accolade in the music industry (more than 800 entries were received for this year's awards and the competition was tougher than ever.)
However, speaking from his Cape home, local Goema king, Robbie Jansen, criticised the industry celebration: "To me the SAMA award reminds me of the Sarie awards of the Apartheid era --"Se Ma So" awards. I wish there was awards for nice players, thoughtful and conscientious play, people who play with feeling, for people with compassion, another type of award, not a popularity award." Jansen's criticism comes after years of being sidelined as a "Cape artist" whose national appeal is rather to jazz aficionados -- the educated few who are interested in his trademark alto saxophone and vertuoso flute playing -- not the mass consumption of larger audiences, drawn by the much younger Dludlu and his jazz guitar.
Although, Robbie's album, Nomad Jez was nominated for a SAMA, it didn't make it. No surprise, since sales have a lot to do with the award. Jansen travelled to Johannesburg specially for the blue chip, prize-giving ceremony, "I went up there, everybody is pretending to be somebody else, I didn't see any artists, just a whole lot of pretenders, a different tribe I guess, it's not 'who are you?', but 'what are you wearing'.
Musicians of Jansen's calibre are usually loathe to say anything about the music industry, but Jansen is an exception. After nearly suffering a fatal heart attack last year, he made a come-back and defied all the odds with an album that is by some accounts, one of his finest and most accomplished.
"It's unfortunate I didn't get the award, if I did I would have gotten it. Cheap words I guess. The prize money would have been welcome." After some encouragement, and despite warnings by his producer not to talk to the press, Jansen commented on Dludlu's prize feat: "We have a lot of George Bensons, I'm not saying Dludlu is George Benson, but you know what I mean." Our very own Jazz maestro, despite losing out to the competition, has a soft spot for the 'Man from Mocambique', and voiced sympathy for fellow nominees who, like him, didn't make it: "Dludlu plays a nice guitar, but the piano player, Andile Yanana, (who was nominated for his 2005 album Whose Got the Map along with Judith Sepuma's New Beginnings) is also a very good player, I would have thought the award would have gone to him. Sipho Hotstix Mabuse also thought so," he told the Post.
Be that as it may, Jansen is not sorry he went for this years SAMA. "I like making music, to get a nomination was good, but there's obviously a lot of politics, it's not just black-or-white, it's about record companies -- big companies who submit a lot of nominations get priority; music politics is awkward, it's very hard to see yourself clearly."
Jansen is obviously not taking his defeat lying down. Along with fellow musician Glen Robertson, he is busy developing new talent and young jazz artists and says "through People's Post, we can reach out to them." As for the perennial problem of defining the indefinable, the fearsome 'holy music', the gospel called jazz; Jansen let us all in on a family-business secret: "What is jazz?" he inquired, "it is improvised music. Jazz is music you investigate, you do things to it, you nurture it, you get some new flower, you create a new sound."
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO END PREJUDICE IN SA PUBLISHING
ROBBIE COMMENTS ON DLUDLU'S SAMA SUCCESS
by David Robert Lewis
JIMMY DLUDLU'S ability to arouse local audiences with his jazz guitar while tapping into our nation's "quest for Africanness" resulted in two SAMA awards this year. Dludlu's amazing 'nouveaux jazz' recording, Corners of My Soul, raked in the South African Music Awards trophies, for being the country's "best jazz album" -- giving the musician the additional honour of "best male artist". Being celebrated as a "jazz great" at the '12th Annual MTN-sponsored SA Music Awards' is no mean feet, and laying claim to any of these astonishing titles is obviously a boost for one's career -- one's ego as well as sales.
Dludlu however was in Mocambique and unavailable for comment, but he spoke to the press via his record label; "To me, winning the SA Music Awards means a lot. It means that my peers, the music industry and people in general are acknowledging that I am making a contribution to South African music and culture. I am very honoured to receive this acknowledgement, and to be making this contribution". Translation -- Dludlu was over the moon and still jolling to the tune of King Tokyo three weeks later.
Winning a SAMA is considered by some to be the ultimate accolade in the music industry (more than 800 entries were received for this year's awards and the competition was tougher than ever.)
However, speaking from his Cape home, local Goema king, Robbie Jansen, criticised the industry celebration: "To me the SAMA award reminds me of the Sarie awards of the Apartheid era --"Se Ma So" awards. I wish there was awards for nice players, thoughtful and conscientious play, people who play with feeling, for people with compassion, another type of award, not a popularity award." Jansen's criticism comes after years of being sidelined as a "Cape artist" whose national appeal is rather to jazz aficionados -- the educated few who are interested in his trademark alto saxophone and vertuoso flute playing -- not the mass consumption of larger audiences, drawn by the much younger Dludlu and his jazz guitar.
Although, Robbie's album, Nomad Jez was nominated for a SAMA, it didn't make it. No surprise, since sales have a lot to do with the award. Jansen travelled to Johannesburg specially for the blue chip, prize-giving ceremony, "I went up there, everybody is pretending to be somebody else, I didn't see any artists, just a whole lot of pretenders, a different tribe I guess, it's not 'who are you?', but 'what are you wearing'.
Musicians of Jansen's calibre are usually loathe to say anything about the music industry, but Jansen is an exception. After nearly suffering a fatal heart attack last year, he made a come-back and defied all the odds with an album that is by some accounts, one of his finest and most accomplished.
"It's unfortunate I didn't get the award, if I did I would have gotten it. Cheap words I guess. The prize money would have been welcome." After some encouragement, and despite warnings by his producer not to talk to the press, Jansen commented on Dludlu's prize feat: "We have a lot of George Bensons, I'm not saying Dludlu is George Benson, but you know what I mean." Our very own Jazz maestro, despite losing out to the competition, has a soft spot for the 'Man from Mocambique', and voiced sympathy for fellow nominees who, like him, didn't make it: "Dludlu plays a nice guitar, but the piano player, Andile Yanana, (who was nominated for his 2005 album Whose Got the Map along with Judith Sepuma's New Beginnings) is also a very good player, I would have thought the award would have gone to him. Sipho Hotstix Mabuse also thought so," he told the Post.
Be that as it may, Jansen is not sorry he went for this years SAMA. "I like making music, to get a nomination was good, but there's obviously a lot of politics, it's not just black-or-white, it's about record companies -- big companies who submit a lot of nominations get priority; music politics is awkward, it's very hard to see yourself clearly."
Jansen is obviously not taking his defeat lying down. Along with fellow musician Glen Robertson, he is busy developing new talent and young jazz artists and says "through People's Post, we can reach out to them." As for the perennial problem of defining the indefinable, the fearsome 'holy music', the gospel called jazz; Jansen let us all in on a family-business secret: "What is jazz?" he inquired, "it is improvised music. Jazz is music you investigate, you do things to it, you nurture it, you get some new flower, you create a new sound."
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO END PREJUDICE IN SA PUBLISHING
posted by ethnopunk @ 5:32 AM
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