Young star fires up the stage

[caption id="attachment_39854" align="alignright" width="250"] KYLE SHEPHERD[/caption]

WHAT a jazz lineup! Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz Kyle Shepherd hit the piano with band members Feya Faku on flugelhorn, Shane Cooper on double bass, Buddy Wells on saxophone, and Claude Cozens on drums in a steaming-hot performance on Friday night.

The word "passion" has become such a cliché with anyone and everyone professing a "passion" for what they are peddling, whether it is T-shirts, coffee or air-freshener, but these five musicians take "passion" to a whole new level.

Whether or not they were aficionados, jazz lovers were blown away by the talent and passion on the DSG stage, with all the band members seemingly lost to the moment, in the moment.

Ahead of the festival, Shepherd said he was looking forward to "the honour of playing my music with the great Feya Faku and Buddy Wells".

Shepherd doesn't play the piano, he seduces it with the burning intensity of a tortured musician (think Edward in Twilight intense). Not a selfish band leader, Shepherd gives plenty of opportunities for other instruments to shine.

Even if you don't know the difference between a trumpet and a flugelhorn, Faku's passion is absorbing and the musician who filled the Opera House in Port Elizabeth last month was in full throttle again on the flugelhorn.

As for another former young artist award winner for jazz, Cooper, well, his fingers must have been bleeding from the speed and intensity at which he played the double bass.

Cozens throws heart and soul – not to mention body – into the drums and the tall quiet man in the quintet, the immensely experienced Wells on the saxophone, is just so chilled.

And it was hard to keep cool in the over-warm hall (organisers turned the heating down at Maria Schneider's request for her show – another amazing performance! – the following night).

On one of Shepherd's new numbers, Flying Without Leaving the Ground, I thought the stage would explode or burst into flames it was that intense.

Shepherd moves his whole body and even lifted the legs of his piano stool off the stage.

It was a smokin' evening and if you don't already know what makes jazz musos so damn sexy, catch the next Kyle Shepherd concert.

He is on again tomorrow night at 7.30pm at the same venue of the DSG Hall, with Shane Cooper on bass and Jonno Sweetman on the drums. To those who say the festival is too pale: come to the Standard Bank jazz programme. This attracts perhaps the most diverse audience of all the shows. And the jazz – and the music lineup in general – are the best sellers at the festival.

The young Cape pianist, saxophonist, composer and band leader started his festival career 10 years ago as a member of the Standard Bank National Schools Big Band.

Winning this award will propel Shepherd further down the track of what one would imagine will be international success. Flying is just one of 21 tracks on his new double album, Dream State, its recording made possible due to the sponsorship that goes with the young artist award. - Gillian McAinsh

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