Bokani dyer is a Motswana-born, award-winning pianist that has won the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship as well as opened the London Jazz music Celebration. He is actually also the leader of a triad along with bassist Romy Brauteseth as well as drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko.
Dyer’s music is a wealthy mix of impacts and also ideas. It integrates elements of a variety of categories without ever before coming to be contemporary or disorderly.
His Life
Bokani Dyer is an award-winning pianist as well as composer that merges conventional African rhythms with jazz. His compositions are defined by complex tunes as well as stirring tunes which have astounded target markets all over the world. He has done with worldwide greats like Shabaka Hutchings as well as Jason Moran and also local stalwarts like Feya Faku, Shane Cooper, Sisonke Xonti and also Pal Wells. More about the author
Birthed in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Dyer expanded up listening to the likes of Dab Metheny, Khadja Nin and Oliver Mtukudzi, whose popular music was played in his family members home. As he aged, he joined the radical multi-disciplinary fine arts aggregate Medu in Botswana where he performed as well as generated films, staged gigs, placed fine art shows and carried out artistic sessions.
Observing Medu, Dyer moved to Johannesburg where he gained an undergraduate’s level in popular music coming from the Educational institution of Cape Town. During the course of his time at the tertiary company, he created surviving relationships along with a range of musicians that are actually today collaborators with him in one kind or an additional featuring bassist Shane Cooper as well as vocalist Sakhile Moleshe.
After finishing his researches, he launched his 1st self-released album in 2010, complied with through Emancipate The Story in 2011. In 2015, he captured Globe Popular music with a quintet including leading South African entertainers consisting of tenor saxophonist Feya Faku, pianist/composer Jonathan Jephta, drummer Buddy Wells and also bassist Shane Cooper. His trio album Neo Indigenous was actually released in 2019 as well as acquired a SAMA nomination for ideal jazz music cd. He additionally released Kelenosi, a totally single cd created under pandemic health conditions in 2020.
His Popular music
The Motswana-South Black pianist and author Bokani dyer is actually a pressure to become surmised along with in jazz. Technically proficient past his years, he is likewise creative and also innovative in a wide array of jazz styles. His songs attracts from an extensive series of effects and is embeded in tradition while welcoming modern suggestions and opportunities.
The proclaimed multi-hyphenate’s newest launch is an extensive cd called World Popular music, his very first for the renowned Gilles Peterson trace on Brownswood Records. The file follows up student standout Emancipate the Account, and develops on it, blending a collection of vast impacts to make an anti-genre document along with an unique identification of its very own.
Along with the cd, he unites veteran stars like drummer Hassan Khan and saxophonists Linda Sikhakhane, John Swanson and also Robin Fassie-Kock, along with much younger bloods like trumpeter Sthembiso Bhengu and also bassist Tendai Shoko. The outcome is actually a hypnotic fusion of thought and emotional machinery.
In 2014, he was actually selected for a Pro Helvetia funded artist post degree residency in Switzerland where he met artists Donat Fisch, Stephan Kurmann and Norbert Pfammatter who joined him to create the Bokani Dyer Swiss Quintet. The ensemble went on to play at the opening of the Greater london Jazz music Festival as well as toured South Africa along with jam-packed series in King William’s Town, Johannesburg and also Maputo.
His Albums
For Bokani Dyer, a pianist and author, the music is at the centre of his world. He makes jazz songs along with aspects of electronic, R&B, Afro-Latin and classic. His style is at once ingenious as well as elegant, as affirmative as it is inquisitive.
He has presently launched 5 albums – his launching, Mirrors, in 2010, adhered to by Emancipate the Story in 2013, Oscillations in 2014 as well as 2015’s Globe Popular music (which was actually nominated for best jazz album at the South African Popular Music Awards), and also a trio recording, Neo Indigenous, which succeeded the award in 2019.
The new document, Radio Sechaba, was released on digital, CD and also 12″ plastic layouts on the 12th of May 2023 through Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings tag. The album concentrates on nation-building and unity– motifs that are actually near to his heart, provided his origins in a Botswanan neighborhood in expatriation from discrimination.
The 14-track offering components metaphysical meditative instants, uplifting spirited gouges as well as a cutting-edge mix of musical designs– stirring tricks and vocals, jazz-funk as well as Afrobeat collision, punchy horns and also more. Besides his own playing, he enlisted an all-star hue for the treatments, including trumpeter Sthembiso Bhengu, saxophonists Linda Sikhakhane and Steve Dyer, guitarists Alder du Toit and Keenan Ahrends, bassist Tendai Shoko as well as drummer Tinotenda Dambaneunga. Pair of innovation songs coming from the album – Resonance of Honest Truth along with its West African gouge as well as petition to follow your reality, and also Go on with its own phone call to relax as well as take a breath– established the tone for this exceptional document.
His Tours
Bokani Dyer is just one of South Africa’s most acclaimed jazz pianists, and also he consistently travels internationally. Atrioventricular bundle features a range of international as well as SA entertainers, including bassist Shane Cooper, saxophonist Sisonke Xonti and vocalist Sakhile Moleshe. Having devoted his very early years in Botswana, where he met a lot of his present collaborators, it’s not a surprise that his songs draws motivation coming from a rich as well as diverse ancestry.
After graduating from UCT, he joined powers with drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko to form a triad which debuted at the 2016 SA National Arts Festival. The band additionally explored Switzerland in 2015, playing crammed receive Basel, Zurich, Bern and Wintethur.
In the same year, he was chosen to conduct at the distinguished Jazzahead display in Bremen as well as took place to create saxophonist Sisonke’s debut cd, Iyonde. He is additionally the maker of a regular slot at The Track Jazz Club in Johannesburg, the Jazzafrika Heritage Procedure, which celebrates the work of recognized and also developing SA jazz authors.
The band is an impressive power to be actually surmised with on stage and the interplay in between them goes over. It is actually to Bokani’s credit rating that he can easily collaborate the get-up so properly, but additionally offer room for specific participants to radiate, as is actually the instance when he opens his collection along with the ballad Vuvuzela or even on the challenging bop tune Secret Details.
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