Steve and Bokani Dyer rekindle the sounds of exile
|||Helen Herimbi
A father and son will be in musical conversation in a new collaboration. Veteran jazz artist Steve Dyer and Bokani Dyer, the wunderkind who is establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with in jazz, will pair up to collaborate on a show called Dyer-logue at The Orbit in Joburg on Friday and Saturday.
Although The Bokani Dyer Quintet performed with Steve in 2012 and they’ve put on a once-off show in Cape Town, this particular show is entirely collaborative and not just a featured guest spot.
A clearly elated Steve (saxophone, flute, guitar and voice) tells me: “We’ve never done anything like what we’re going to do.” Steve left South Africa to avoid military conscription in the 1980s and settled in Botswana for a number of years. It was here that Bokani (acoustic piano, keyboard and voice) was born 30 years ago. It’s fitting then that Botswana plays a role as if it is a character in their Dyer-logue.
“I was in Botswana in the ’80s and in 1986 he was born,” Steve explains.
“There was a song I did for him when he was born, called BA from Durban Way. So we’re going to do that. We’re going to just rekindle the ideas of the time.”
“In April 1985, there was something called Freedom Melody and that brought together a whole different array of South African sounds. Bheki Mseleku happened to be in town. There was Hugh Masekela’s band, Kalahari. There was Jonas Gwangwa’s Shakawe. There was Dolly Rathebe, Dorothy Masuka.
“There was this whole cultural hub going on and we’d like to recreate some of that. In June 1985, there was the Botswana Raid (where the South African Defence Force attacked the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe military wing) and we have to deal with that in some way as well. Basically, (this show) is a chronological journey through time through music. It’s going to be half of his compositions and half of mine.”
Bokani is also particularly excited about this collaboration.
“We were speaking about it for the past couple of years,” he says. “We wanted to put together something where we collaborated as creative forces. Like, a balanced thing where we both had equal input into the idea and the project.
“Even though I’ve been influenced a lot by him, I think we have different musical sensibilities,” says Bokani. “It’s cool to have a thing where we have an equal footing in terms of a creative input so we can complement each other musically.”
While Bokani, a 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz and South African Music Awards nominee, is following in the footsteps of an activist and respected muso, his father beams when he says: “There’s something new and fresh in what (Bokani is) doing that broadens my perspective as well.”
I ask them if there are plans to travel around the country with Dyer-logue or maybe even to release a joint album. Both are keen. Steve says: “I look at his character and see it in the music as well. He’s always up for anything. He treats life with immediacy and I think that, for an improvising musician, is pretty cool.”
Although Steve wants to perform this confirmed Dyer-logue first before committing to others, Bokani says: “I would very much love to explore (taking Dyer-logue elsewhere). It’s not like new material has been created specifically for this thing. So it would be interesting to see if we actually started a project and wrote the music together from the beginning.”
Catch Dyer-logue at The Orbit on June 10 and 11. Tickets are R150 at the door.