Veteran Cape Town-born drummer Brian Abrahams thrilling jazz lovers playing serious South African sounds with Afrospace Interchange in Melbourne.
In a variation of a very old joke, a man walks into a bar . . .er, no, a music lover walks into a bar . . .actually it’s not a “bar” bar. It’s a record bar.
And the music from within in the bar is so c-o-o-l. If you know your South African music you’d recognise the strains of Winston Ngozi Mankunku’s Yakhal’Nkomo, Jonas Gangwa’s Shebeen, and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Calypso Mind. So jazzy cool. Some record bar huh?
What makes it cooler (if one can call it that) is that the sounds are coming from a live band – not discs on a turntable in the record bar. And here’s where it gets weird: the record bar is on busy Brunswick Street, in Fitzroy in Melbourne – more than 10,000km away from its roots
Part of the crowd at Old Plates record bar In Fitzroy, Melbourne, listening to great jazz music from South Africa.
Yep, in a pokey little record bar called Old Plates, every Wednesday night in Melbourne for the last three years, some of the most exciting jazz musicians in the city entertain the crowd with some vibrant African jazz sounds. And much of it is South African jazz.
To say the man who walked into the bar (yeah, me) was gobsmacked, is putting it mildly. It was akin to walking into a dark dingy place in District 6 where they played jazz in the Sixties (think Naaz, think Zambezi). Dimly lit with candles; patrons standing shoulder to shoulder taking up every available space; patrons eating and sipping on their drinks. They only thing missing is the smoke haze. People have to hang out on the pavement outside to do that whilst still listening to the music.
How then does a group of musos living in Melbourne serve up three hours of quintessential South African sounds and leave their audience wanting more?
There is, of course a very strong South African connection in drummer Brian Abrahams and bassist Zvi Belling.
Afrospace Interchange — or part of the line-up — at Old Plates record bar pumping out their cool jazz sounds.
Brian’s career started on way back in the Sixties when he played in clubs in and around Athlone and Cape Town. Then he choofed off north to seek fame and fortune on the burgeoning resorts bordering apartheid South Africa. That’s where he met and played with the late Howard Belling, father of Zvi, opening the Royal Swazi Hotel. He then headed to the UK where he played with Russell Herman and other expat South African musos.
Now Brian lives in Melbourne and has teamed up with Zvi to be part of a group called Afrospace Interchange. Not bad for a bloke who will be celebrating his 79 birthday this year. The pianist is Patrick Jaffe, who was a student of Howard Belling, on guitar is Leon Stenning, Ron Romero on sax, and Nick Ryan-Glennie on trumpet. That’s the core of the group. But they have kids who jam with them and last Wednesday I counted 11 all contributing to a tune. I couldn’t see the pianist or guitarist – and I was a mere 2m away!
“Man, this group is something else,” Brian says. “I’m playing with a bunch of kids but they are so professional. They inspire me.
“Patrick doesn’t have a South African background. He’s just an Aussie but you’d swear he’s from back home.”
Kasinda Faase . . . playing with Afrospace Interchange.
Last week flautist and saxophonist Kasinda Faase, who has a classical background, came along and she thrilled the crowd with her feel for the South African sound
Brian says emphatically: “Brother, I am more than 50 years older than her. I am in awe of her. She got her head around the South African stuff pretty well. We have a core group of eight players but sometimes as many as five more will find a space near the band to contribute.
Afrospace Interchange has been gigging around Melbourne for some time now and enjoys quite a following. The gig at Old Plates is special for them, says Brian.
“We have been doing it for three years now, every Wednesday night. It started as a try out for the owner and it just blossomed from there. Now you have to come early to make sure you get inside so that you can see the band otherwise you’re listening to it out in the garden at the back or on the pavement in the street!”
Afrospace Interchange will play at the Miriam Makeba tribute “Mama Afrika” at the Melbourne Recital Centre next Saturday, 7 February.
The group has recorded an album which was released in May last year. The album, naturally, is called Old Plates. Tracks include African Marketplace and Tsakwe (both Abdullah Ebrahim compositions), Lulu In Adderley Street by SA trumpeter Feya Faku, Old Plates by Pat Jaffe, Suzanna and Curious Anomaly by Brian Abrahams,
Buy your copy of Old Plates
For a short while there, I felt I was back home in Cape Town. Cool vibe.
Afrospace Interchange . . . Melbourne’s top jazz group playing cool South African sounds.
BLOG EDITOR’S DECLARATION: This article has been prepared with absolutely no help from any AI platform.
MUSIC LEGENDS OF CAPE TOWN 