26 May 2024

Bassist Shaun Johannes must have reckoned he had a head for figures when he opted to study economics and commerce at varsity. But that head for figures figured it all wrong.  His heart was playing another tune. The BCom degree was shelved and he started a Bachelor of Music.

And that has changed the course of his life!

Now, barely into his 40s, he already has a career highlights reel that puts performers, who have been in the game for decades longer, well into the shade.

He has a pretty interesting take on some of those highlights: “I’m just a boytjie from Bellville who has taken a shit at Trump Towers in New York. I’ve lived in a 5-star hotel in Mumbai for five nights only to perform for one evening. I’ve directed Bruce Springsteen’s horn section. I’ve had stroopwaffels outside Paradiso in Amsterdam. I’ve bought LPs in Moscow and had a very cold beer with the principal cellist of the St Petersburg Orchestra…”

Throw in mixing with US jazzman James Moody, Sting’s keyboardist David Sancious and jamming with guys like Joe Sample, Cyrus Chestnut and Alex Acuna and one can see the “boytjie from Bellville” has more than just a bit of street cred among his peers locally.

Those are highlights of his world travels. Back home his achievements could fill a book.  Where would one start?

Let’s start with what he is busy with now, research towards a PhD dissertation that looks at the musical remnants (if they exist at all) of the Khoi people and its prevalence in the music genres of Cape Jazz and langarm.

“The Khoi are the descendants of first people on this planet as proven through DNA testing and scholarly anthropological studies. Throughout my music career I never had any particular schooling in the music of my people as a descendant of the Cochoqua of the Louwskloof region (present-day Mamre/Darling) and nobody could explain to me what ‘Coloured Jazz’ was yet every time I played some songs, they just resonated with me in ways that I could not identify and/or qualify to any specific musical characteristic,” Shaun says.

“This continued throughout my career as a performer and music scholar. More tragically, I would learn that the general information by musicians and scholarly study surrounding genres associated to coloured/Khoi people such as ghoema, vastrap and sopvleis was a combination of either misunderstood, misrepresented or non-existent. I am, therefore, trying to generate a musical chronology of sorts akin to that of well established, academically and otherwise, music genres such as American jazz.”

Deep stuff but necessary stuff. The people should know.

Shaun’s life is now steeped in music but there was no indication as a child that it would be his calling.  His mother was a teacher and his father worked for Kodak and BP.

“The only known musician on either side of my family was my dad’s brother, Cyril, who spent a few years playing saxophone in a big band,” he says. “Other than that, I used to love sitting next to my father in church and listening to him sing hymns.

“I was a ‘late bloomer’ and only started getting interested in music around the age of 12 at Montevideo Primary where I would watch my friends play. I enjoyed class music with Mr April who played piano and accordion. He’d teach us hymns and old-German folk songs.

“I used to try to memorize what people played and worked out the notes by ear. My mom saw my interest and bought me a Casio CTK-100. It came with some sheet music to The Sound of Music and had lights that would show me where the notes were. She took stickers and placed them on the keyboard and I would learn how to play the notes and associate it to what the sheet music said. I eventually realized that if you turn the music onto its side, it read like the keys played … and then taught myself how to read music and with the help of lights and my ears, figured out basic music theory. My crafts would be honed at church where I spent years playing for Sunday School, some church services, concerts, etc.”

His playing in the church was a huge influence because it taught him theory and practical applications of it across genres.  His music teacher at Rhodes High, Charmian Ball Rowe, and neighbourhood organist Roy Benjamin nurtured his interest although he never took any formal lessons from either of them.  At the end of his school career, he took a few lessons at The Jazz Workshop under noted Cape Town musicians, Merton Barrow and George Werner.

Shaun’s meeting with pianist George Werner proved to be a seminal moment in his development. Of that, he is sure. It led, along with local jazz saxophonist Ezra Ncgukana, to the establishment in 1999 of the popular Little Giants jazz band made of teenage local talent.

“I’m spectacularly biased towards the Little Giants because its existence changed my life forever,” Shaun says emphatically. I was a founder member with George and Ezra. Little Giants was and still is the incubator of so many notable musicians in South Africa and is a truly inspired institution run by some magnificent people but none more so than George Werner. He has offered up so much of his time and arguably career opportunities to make room for so many kids to give them a life not often thought possible. Mine is such a life.”

Little Giants played at the National Youth Jazz Festival in 2001 and Shaun was selected as the youngest member of the first National Youth Jazz Band which toured nationally and recorded an album. “That was my first involvement in travelling to play music and to record at the age of 18.”

It also allowed him to rub shoulders with the likes of veterans like Mike Campbell, Darryl Andrews and Mike Rossi who were connected with the South African College of Music.

“At the end of End of 2001, I left my BComm degree and headed to the College of Music without any formal music training/accreditation behind my name. On the strength of my audition and them hearing me play/discuss music, they allowed me into a B. Mus Degree.

“I’ve been a touring musician for over 20 years with 12 of those years spent as a lecturer at SACM with a Masters in Music Performance (cum laude) degree and now in the second year of my PhD in Visual and Performing Arts degree at North-West University.”

Given those 20 years of playing and the 12 teaching aspiring musicians their craft, Shaun, by anyone’s reckoning should be well qualified to provide a critical view of the local music scene, particularly in regard to artists trapped in a ’70s time warp, audiences being undemanding and radio stations pumping out the “same ole same ole”.

“The Cape Town music scene is very promising in terms of the high standard of musicians that abound,” he says. “I’ve been so lucky to see the exponential growth of some of our young legends in the making who put so many of us to shame on musical ability alone. But I’m equally concerned at the lack of drive and hunger they should have and be striving for.

“These young musicians don’t have the shackles of apartheid to worry about and have the internet at their disposal with platforms such as Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube that increase their otherwise local gig audience to a global one instantly and basically at no cost to themselves. They should be applying for jobs, bursaries, education opportunities and/or contacting artists they aspire to play with directly via their social media links.

“The bulk of the older musicians, my age and up, are definitely stuck in an ‘old world’ mentality of eking out a living going from gig to gig and standing in line with cupped hands to venues, promoters, etc. Their presence as players and musicians within our industry is valuable and needs to be heard locally and abroad so that the younger generations can see what longevity despite hardship can look like. I think specifically of people such as Alvin Dyers, George Werner who have been around since the 1970s and are still gigging and creating music of a high calibre.”

“Radio stations should be doing better but most likely will not. Their revenue is generated by listenership and pushing local content is not a big money spinner for them with jazz music being even less so. Audiences who attend venues for live music are God’s people in my biased opinion because they directly put food on our tables and keep our kids clothed.

“However, not every audience wants to be informed and is as discerning a listener as one would hope for. A happy compromise could be met at gigs which I personally tend to favour.

“Whenever I have the privilege of getting to play gigs with my dear friend and Cape Jazz icon Ramon Alexander, we often play a repertoire derived from original compositions, compositions by local artists we like, a handful of jazz standards and some pop/smooth jazz/fusion covers we like playing. Depending on the venue and occasion, we will lean more towards pop/fusion covers and only original compositions at a festival but at a small jazz venue, like the one we met at, we lean towards originals, traditional jazz and fusion.”

In spite of his strong feelings about playing music that identifies strongly with his roots, Shaun has no qualms about listening to other stuff.  He has a taste for blues, pop/rock, jazz and gospel. “I love listening to all of it! I am blessed to have an appreciation for all music. While I do have my reservations about some things like current hip-hop, rap and so forth, I am open to learning about anything. If I had one day to live, my playlist would include music from the The Temptations, Tony Schilder, Luther Vandross, Chopin, Joe Lovano, The Roots, Dapp Thoery, Crowded House, Cat Stevens and Lionel Richie!”

Shaun’s entire life is centred around music and creating it . . . He says when he’s not playing music, he’s producing it, composing it, arranging it and researching it. “Ironically, I’m almost never particularly creative as I’m regularly creative. But every so often I’d be inspired by a song, riff, phrase, sound that I hear in my day that would spark an idea for an arrangement or a horn line that I can use in something. My ‘happy place’ as a musician is when I am ‘in service’ with my music creation. I often compose and arrange music more when I don’t have a heavy performance schedule, but I make music anytime and anywhere the mood grabs me. I’ve always got a phone or tablet handy that I record voice notes and sometimes tracks`.”

I have only seen Shaun perform once and that was in a jazz joint called Urban Soul in Muizenberg with Leslie Kleinsmith and Ramon Alexander. The place could only seat about 20, the rest had to listen outside on the pavement. He has also played on big stages with the likes of Johnny Clegg, George Benson, and Katherine Jenkins. And, with Jonathan Butler, an internationally acclaimed performer who came from humble beginnings, had no real formal education, and had the added obstacle of learning to play his guitar as a left-hander.

Yet, the boytjie from Seventh Avenue, Belgravia, in Athlone left a very young boytjie from Bellville with one of his most enduring memories. “I have a clear memory of my mother driving me to creche in 1989 one winter morning and hearing Lies by Jonathan playing over the radio. That moment of me listening to his singing and that guitar solo left such a memory for me that has always hounded me,” Shaun recalls. “Decades later I had a moment of utter euphoria as we start playing Lies at the Grand Arena to over 5000 people and I look to my left at Jonathan with the biggest grin on his face as few tears rolled down my cheeks.”

An interesting dynamic . . . one has carved out an international career using innate talents, the other just as talented, has varsity degrees and working on a doctorate. What does Shaun Johannes think of it, those standout musos legends of the ’60s who made it on talent alone?

“I cherish every one of them and wish tertiary institutions would make more use of them within their education,” he says emphatically. “In my tenure at SACM, the emphasis on SA jazz has been mostly non-existent and the information they have is purely academic with very few of the staff having been performers within the genre. The world’s greatest music pioneers, players and innovators had no tertiary education as it related to music. They learned from performing with others and over time became custodians of music theory, performance and history by virtue of years. Whether the information they possess be deemed suitable for tertiary education or not, I feel that any insight offered by our musical progenitors should be shared with students across the globe.”

Could Shaun Johannes, with his varsity education, learn from Jonathan, or did he teach him a thing or two?

“University can’t teach you how to perform your music. It can’t teach you how to feel and convey your music, heart and soul when you play. Books can, at best, describe what you should do and even go so far as to instruct you how to get it done but it could never allow you to experience it before you go out there. Mr Butler gave me some great insights into playing 100 per cent at every show and making every moment meaningful for the audience that was a great thing to be reminded of and see in his performances. Since we were playing his music, there was very little I would be able to tell him about the hit songs he writes.”

Has ghoema matured enough to be labelled as a distinctive genre? “Inherently my generally anti-establishment nature makes this question a problem,” he says with a derisive laugh. “Who determines if a genre is ‘enough’ in any way?! But I do understand why you would ask in this way. While I don’t know who determines these things or am an authority on ghoema, it is my contention that the validity of the existence of a genre like ghoema is that it has been around long enough and has sufficient repertoire to establish its content. I feel that to understand what ghoema refers to in musical characteristics is more important. By ghoema, are you referring to the rhythm exclusively or another musical trait?

“My understanding is that when people reference ghoema, they are referring to the rhythms that make up the genre generally in the same way that people talk about Brazilian samba. A great deal of research has been published on ghoema and it IS a distinctive genre which has been in existence since the time after the establishment of Cape Town as a refreshment post by the VOC in 1652.

“Ghoema is a creole music genre, primarily rhythm-based, born from the fusion of musical influences developed in the time of slavery in the Cape by people from Malaysia, Indonesia, Jakarta and Southern Africa. The ghoema rhythms are played on primarily on ghoma drums fashioned from pulling dried-out animal skins over large gourds/wooden drums. I feel that this is as close to a definition, without a playing example, as one can get.”

Get it?  Got it.

It’s obvious Shaun isn’t just a bassist. He plays in bands and orchestras, does arrangements, produces, and has had roles as the musical director.  It is the last one that he enjoys most.

“Being the MD is the equivalent to being the captain of a soccer team: you have to be the first and last on the pitch; you must be overly prepared and make sure your team knows everything necessary; you have to inspire those around you to work hard and be proud of themselves and their contributions to the greater good; you have to push, cajole and argue your way into their hearts and minds so that the team can be the best they can be. I probably enjoy the current MD role in shows, productions because it must be so multi-faceted, and I love that it enmeshes my old-school musicianship with new music production technologies.

“My larger goals now would be to get more music onto television and films as well as generate a larger catalogue of library music while continuing to make music live and in studios.

Shaun has no illusions about his financial prospects and a comfortable retirement if he continues to ply his trade as a professional muso in SA.  Should he have stuck with economics and commerce?

“No, I will most likely have to work until the day I die. But it is an occupation like no other. On one day you can get paid your entire month’s income in one afternoon; you can travel across the globe to perform music, get paid for it and be housed in five-star hotels you could not otherwise afford; you meet your heroes and go to places you’ve only read and dreamt about; you meet so many people who would not have crossed your path otherwise and you’re the better for it.

“I am, however, very concerned about my livelihood if I’m unable to physically perform music which is why I’ve always suffered the cost and effort but ensured that I have investments and policies in place to look after myself and my loved ones.”