NEWS RELEASE
GUELPH JAZZ FESTIVAL
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On Sunday, June 18, at 8 p.m., at Silence, Ellwood Epps’s Montréal quintet Togetherness! will play brilliant, joyful pieces by South African composers like Abdullah Ibrahim, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, and Sean Bergin, plus those – like Don Cherry, William Parker, Misha Mengelberg, and Ellwood Epps – inspired by them. The music is steeped in the alchemical blend of gospel, swing, and extended improvisation that informed the ‘Township Jive’ tradition including kwela and mbanqanga, as well as their synthesis with UK free jazz epitomized by Chris McGregor’s wonderful Brotherhood of Breath.
The concert is also a musical reintroduction to the city by new Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF) Artistic Director, Scott Thomson, who recently announced his programming for the 2017 Festival. The fundraiser in in support of the GJF as well as its partner-venue, Silence, 46 Essex Street. Tickets are $15 each and are available at the door.
Togetherness! was formed through a chance meeting of musicians from Cape Town and Montreal. When Ellwood Epps, Scott Thomson, Louis-Vincent Hamel, and a few other musicians first met, they found a mutual love for the underappreciated treasure of jazz music springing from South Africa. From there, they assembled a band, performed in the summer of 2016, and are presently on a mini-tour of Ontario cities.
The roots of South African kwela and gospel are intertwined with jazz and the avant garde, with limbs and branches growing out to touch the world through the migration of its players and the openness of its sounds. The band consists of Epps on trumpet, Thomson on trombone, and Hamel on drums, plus Brodie West on alto saxophone and Wes Neal on double bass.
Visit www.guelphjazzfestival.com for more information.
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