From the album "Who's Got The Map" (2005)
"Music has been the mission of pianist Andile Yenana's life since he was born in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape in 1968.
"My dad, Felix Thamsanqa Yenana, had a huge collection of music, ranging from jazz to Motown, all the forms of urban black music. My brother also had discs, and I grew up listening to their records and singing along."
His father's memories, as well as his music, helped inspire Andile's career.
Yenana senior had been a student at St Peters College in Rosettenville, a school with a strong church-music tradition, where fellow students had included trumpeter Hugh Masekela. (Andile, too, sang in a choir during his schooldays.) "Already, around nine, my old man had opened my eyes to the world of the arts. Because of that heritage, there's no way I could be older in this genre of jazz."
Andile secured his teaching diploma from Fort Hare University before taking up B. Mus studies under Darius Brubeck at the University of Natal, Durban's pioneering School of Jazz and Popular Music. There, he discovered the professional music scene around Durban's clubs, and struck up a firm friendship with two other highly focused music students, saxophonist Zim Ngqawana and trumpeter Feya Faku. "They paid attention to their varsity work, and I admired that."
As well as gigging with both his new friends, Andile also formed a jazz outfit band at UND called "Inside Out". He used to play with Concord Nkabinde, Dumisane Shange, Mfana Mlabo, etc: "Those were the happiest days," he remembers.
The friendship with Ngqawana turned into a (so far) 11-year gig, when Andile moved to Johannesburg and joined the reedman's quartet. Though the personnel around them has changed over the years, the tough teamwork between sax and piano has endured through all five of Ngqawana's albums, starting with San Song, recorded during an exchange visit to Norway in 1996.
But right from the start, Andile's career has involved a range of projects and collaborations that have taken him far beyond the conventional jazz small group.
Since they met in Durban in 1991, he has collaborated with saxophonist Steve Dyer and other musicians on pan-African music projects under the title Mahube, with which he has performed across sub-Saharan Africa. He has acted as arranger for vocalists Sibongile Khumalo, Gloria Bosman and Suthukazi Arosi among others, and produced albums for other instrumentalists. Andile won a SAMA as Best Producer for his work with the legendary Winston Mankunku Ngozi on "Abantwana be Afrika". He has also played in the Afro-pop band of guitarist Louis Mhlanga. In mid 2005, he opened for Dianne Reeves at the Johannesburg Joy of Jazz Festival. He has deliberately tried to work with anyone interesting who approaches him: "It helps broaden my scope."In 1996, Andile and Zim visited the US as part of Black History Month, the first of three visits to Chicago he has made. On the latest, in 2002, fellow musicians gave him the trademark skull-cap that now graces all his stage shows: "It's special to me."
Andile also played with Zim in the UK as part of a well-reviewed 1997 collaboration project that performed at the Royal Albert Hall, and at the Nantes Fin de Siecle festival in France.
From the late 1990s, his other main project was the band Voice, a collaboration with Sydney Mnisi, Marcus Wyatt, Herbie Tsoaeli and drummers Lulu Gontsana and Morabo Morajele. They called themselves Voice, because "we don't have to sing on stage to express ourselves: our instruments are our voice."
continue here: http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=86
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Phil Ranelin - Time Is Running Outby oporopolist3,992 views
Beautiful.
theseeker61 2 years ago 3