{"id":66102,"date":"2016-03-16T18:47:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T16:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/theres-a-new-wave-of-jazz-sweeping-south-africa-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2016-03-16T18:47:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T16:47:37","slug":"theres-a-new-wave-of-jazz-sweeping-south-africa-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/theres-a-new-wave-of-jazz-sweeping-south-africa-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s a new wave of jazz sweeping South Africa | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Carlo Mobelli on the bass<\/span> Christo Doherty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of South Africa\u2019s foremost jazz musicians, Carlo Mombelli, has just released his 12th studio album, \u201cI Press My Spine to the Ground\u201d. He is a bassist and composer who also teaches at the music school of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. His album features Kesivan Naidoo (drums), Mbuso Khoza (vocals) and Kyle Shepherd (piano). The Conversation Africa\u2019s arts and culture editor, Charles Leonard, spoke to him about the album, its cover and how to juggle being a musician with being an academic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Where does the title for your new album come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I once worked in Paris with a composer called Jean-Louis Mechali \u2013 he is from Morocco originally. An Arab told him once that when there is a really dark sky he loves to watch the stars. In your darkest moments, when you\u2019re really feeling down, only then can you see all the bright stars in the heavens. I took that concept and wrote a poem about it, \u2018I Press My Spine to the Ground\u2019.<\/p>\n

So I wrote this piece of music based on that and I got broadcaster Brenda Sisane to recite it for me.<\/p>\n

I was affected by sound design when I first heard actress Sophia Loren talk in a movie \u2013 I love that woman! \u2013 and the music came on. When the music is there and this dialogue happens with the music, I\u2019ve been brought to tears many, many times just for the combination of the spoken word and this music\u2026!<\/p>\n

Why this specific band on your new album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I like about Kesivan is when you want wind and whispering, he gives you whispering. On this album he\u2019s painting. He\u2019s not playing ding-ding-ka-ding \u2013 he\u2019s painting! When we are playing a fixed rhythm he\u2019s painting.<\/p>\n

Here he\u2019s playing more horizontally, not vertically. Vertically is an up and down groove, horizontally \u2026 well, he\u2019s constantly stirring and mixing colours.<\/p>\n

And, of course, Mbuso. He\u2019s got no music education in the formal way. He\u2019s got lots of music education but he learnt his music growing up on the mountains of KwaZulu-Natal herding cattle \u2013 giving a song to each cow, listening to the Zionists (members of the South African Zion Christian Church), listening to the Shembe\u2019s songs. He grew up inside music\u2026<\/p>\n

I give Mbuso an idea of what the song is about. So there\u2019s a song called \u201cPicasso\u2019s Dove\u201d \u2013 it is a song about peace. So Mbuso would take the theme and improvise.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Kyle who\u2019s a very spiritual musician when he plays. His mother was the violinist for Abdullah Ibrahim and he would be sitting at the rehearsals listening to Abdullah Ibrahim play \u2026 as a little boy. You can hear it in his playing, but he learnt violin, so he\u2019s basically a self-taught pianist.<\/p>\n

I experiment a lot with the way I play the bass, manipulate the sound of the bass and the frequencies, I don\u2019t want to play bass in a conventional way.<\/p>\n