Events

Soundscapes between township jazz and chamber music – an imaginary journey to the origins of South African jazz.

Paul Hanmer has been a leading voice in the jazz scene of the new South Africa since the transition to democracy. His music, however, hardly fits a single genre. Trained in classical music, the pianist moves between jazz and chamber music, composes and arranges for a broad range of formats from the duo for two tubas to the requiem for orchestra. His works display the colours of the Eastern and Western Cape, of traditional instruments and songs. They are carried by the rhythms of the Cape Carnival, the Marabi jazz of the 1920s, and the Mbaqanga (townhip jive) of the 1960s creating a soundscape that seeks to unite a nation with many cultures and harmed by racial division.

Together with the legendary trumpet and flugel horn of Feya Faku – another great name of the South African scene – Hanmer creates a sound that from the first note captures and carries the audience to southern Africa. They are supported by Fabian Gisler on bass, who already in his youth was captivated by the jazz from South Africa, the sensitive and dynamic drummer Paul Amereller, and Robert Pickup on clarinet, who partnered on Hanmers duo album «Morning into Evening» in 2021. A high calibre string quartet composed of Jonathan Allen, Daniel Kagerer, Natalia Mosca, and Andreas Plattner of the Zurich Opera House adds a further dimension to this prominent jazz quintet and creates a dense soundscape.

In cooperation with the bird's eye jazz club