South African Jazz Stories - EP 3: A Brief History of Tananas - Steve Newman

Описание: Tananas founder Steve Newman takes us down memory lane ….

Tananas, a South African band formed in 1987, originally consisted of Mozambican bassist Gito Baloi, drummer Ian Herman and guitarist Steve Newman. Their music was a rich fusion of jazz, Mozambican salsa and township jive (mbaqanga). Their improvisational and rhythmic sensibility established them as one of the most original and compelling groups that emerged in South Africa in the late 20th century.

The individual band members were Gito Baloi (bass/vocals), Ian Herman (drums) and Steve Newman (guitar). Baloi, a Mozambican, had been playing with Pongola, and Herman had been drumming with Cape rockers The Genuines.

Tananas used to be essentially an instrumental band allied to jazz but unmistakably African at heart. In the group’s latter stage the recordings included more vocals by Mozambican singer and bass player, Gito Baloi, who sang in Shangaan, Tsonga and Portuguese.

Long regarded as South Africa’s most gifted drummer, Herman took up an offer of work in the United States. In New York he worked with luminaries such as Paul Simon and George Duke, later settling in San Francisco. He returned only briefly, to record with Peter Sklair and Paul Hanmer’s band, Unofficial Language. In 2000 Herman got a call from Newman and longtime Tananas manager Kerry Friedman, imploring him to come home and make a new start with Tananas. The trio joined the WOMAD tour and finally began to receive some international recognition.

Unfortunately, the annual reunions stopped when Gito Baloi was shot dead while returning home from a performance in Johannesburg in April 2004.

Steve Newman is an acoustic guitarist, who performs solo and in collaborations with many diverse musicians. His trio Tananas (with the brilliant Ian Herman on drums and the late great Gito Baloi on bass and vox) was in it's heyday, one of the most widely travelled South African acts. Tananas has played concerts and festivals in Australia, Singapore, Canary Islands, Spain, UK, US (WOMAD Festivals) and a WOMAD Special Projects tour of the UK with The Drummers of Burundi and Zimbabwean musician Chartwell Dituro. They also played the first World Music festivals in Japan (Konda Lota) with Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita, Danyel Waro and many more in Tokyo. They toured Sweden twice. The second tour included Vusi Mahlasela. French tour included Nancy Jazz Pulsations (festival), Mela World Music festival, and the New Morning (Prestigious Music venue in Paris). The Hong Kong Jazz Club. Other countries include Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, and of course South Africa.

As a soloist, Steve has played in the UK (including Sydmouth Folk Festival, Glastonbury, WOMAD, Bromyard, Loughborough festivals), the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Seychelles, Namibia and South Africa.

Steve Newman
https://stevenewmanacousticguitarist....
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Grateful thanks to:
Leila Kidson and Vivek Rendall of OCTOPI
https://octopi.co.za/
SAMRO Foundation
https://www.samrofoundation.org.za/
BASA - Business and Arts South Africa
https://basa.co.za/

Please visit the South African Association for Jazz Education (SAJE) website for more information: http://www.saje.org.za/
Instagram: @sajejazz
Twitter: @sajejazz
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