Rhodes University Music Department provided guests with an unusual treat in the form of a Jazz Ensemble Concert on Friday evening. First year students under the direction of Lydia vom Hagen and Jared Lang put together an exciting programme of jazz music for their end of the year exam.
Rhodes University Music Department provided guests with an unusual treat in the form of a Jazz Ensemble Concert on Friday evening. First year students under the direction of Lydia vom Hagen and Jared Lang put together an exciting programme of jazz music for their end of the year exam.
There were ten individual performances featuring a range of crooner favourites from Farai Morobane singing Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love, to Edward Pepperell’s rendition of Harry Connick Jnr’s Drifting and Sphamandla Dlakwe performing the more recent Everything originally made famous by Michael Bublé.
Jazz does not have to be American as Melissa Radebe and her back-up singers showed with a distinctly South African piece, Ndawo Yami written by Zamajobe Sithole. The singers were ably supported by a three piece band with Michelle Krummeck and Elisha Mudly alternating on the piano, Verena Lourenço on bass and Richard Miles on the drums.
Overall the show was a huge success as the understandably nervous, but highly talented students presented well rehearsed performances to an appreciative audience rocking the packed Beethoven Room on campus. At the end of the show, members of the audience discussed their favourites – mine was the delicate looking Farai Morobone with a voice that is anything but fragile.
Her slightly slower than usual version of The Look of Love enabled her to include a scat section showcasing a gorgeous voice that is just made for the blues. While the students were assessed on their individual performances, the highlight of the evening was when they all came on stage together to form a choir to sing harmonies to Paul Simon’s ‘Born at the right time’ under the direction of a dancing Lydia vom Hagen.
