MULTIMEDIA Projects
In the midst
Justin Keep
The business end of an accompanying trombone in Muneeb Hermans' Tuesday jam session at the legendary Touch of Madness jazz bar in the heart of Observatory.
Hilton Schilder's ever-busy hands light up his show at The Gossip Lounge one fateful Friday evening in Vredehoek.
A tuned guitar stands waiting and ready for the next time it's needed as it waits out a trumpet solo.
The business end of an accompanying trombone in Muneeb Hermans' Tuesday jam session at the legendary Touch of Madness jazz bar in the heart of Observatory.
Much with how listening to music requires a tuning of the ear, watching music performed live requires a tuning of the view. We cannot take in the detail of everything at once and shift between elements of audio-visual, absorbing them with scrutiny.
This photo essay aims to replicate that feeling of sitting surrounded by live music, with all of its movement and intimacy, and darting your eyes between moments of musicians creating their art. It snaps between close moments from two separate performances, each rich in their own intimacy.
Whether that glancing is catching a blurred glimpse of a piano solo or gazing into the vibrating bell of saxophone screaming into the room, these photos want to put the eye in extreme closeness to the aspects of sound- making to replicate that snatching of focus.
In between these is in equal part the presence of the musicians themselves, from hand movements to facial expressions or posture changes becoming statements in themselves. Ultimately, this photo essay encourages viewers to listen with the eye, and envelope themselves in the midst of that.
A Touch Of Madness
WANGA CHARMA
An auditory story of an experience at one of Cape Town's oldest and most established Jazz Bars - 'A Touch of Madness' in Observatory.
Exploring and probing about people's experiences, motives and attitudes about the bar and the genre of 'Cape Jazz'.
Click play on the left to dive right in to the crowds and characters that filled this legendary spot on busy eve.
A history of cape jazz
loki de pontes
What some call "Cape Jazz" is a difficult concept to define. For some it brings back memories of dark jazz clubs in the dead of night, for others bellowing orchestras in well-lit arenas.
Yet for most it has a specific connotation - a feeling. Part joy, part sadness, part anger, part celebration. A feeling of home.
Click here to view a condensed history of a sound, a place, and a people.
"Cape Jazz--Whatever That Means"
an interactive article summary
JOZI HARTY
Benjamin Jephta is an artist, musician, composer, and educator born and raised in Cape Town & its sound.
He is best known for his latest album Born Coloured, Not Born-Free, a powerful exploration of what it means to be labelled as "Coloured" in modern day South Africa and his personal experience with this term.
For a fun summary of our article on Jephta and his thoughts on Cape Jazz, click on the buttons scattered throughout the poster on the left.