Ekhaya on wooden shoes

What is identity? What is Zulu, Boer, Nederlander, Xhosa, what is cultural identity, heritage, what is ‘love for your fatherland’, what is nationalism.

Can a Dutchman do a Gumboots dance, and a Zulu a clog dance? Is a concertina a South African instrument, is a Mbira one? And what about barrel organs, carillons, is 16th century recorder music Zulu heritage? How is our identity made, what symbols are used to construct and manipulate it and what happens if you use those symbols in a completely different context?

POW Ensemble addresses these questions in its new South Africa project EKHAYA, with special guest Sazi Dlamini.

EKHAYA is a dazzling show in which South African tunes, saxophone madness, scratching, sparkling improvisations, recorder virtuosity, Dutch traditionals, soundscapes, and disordering songs melt together. The computer plays the role of mediator between all these elements, sometimes merging them together, and occasionally colliding them with each other, leading to original and often surprising combinations.

The performers are:

Sazi Dlamini (Durban, RSA) Special guest - umakhuweyane, umqangala, mbira, flutes, voice and percussion

Erik Bosgraaf (NL) - recorders, live electronics

Guy Harries (UK) - voice, flute, computer

DJ DNA (NL) - turntables, computer

Luc Houtkamp (NL) - computer, live electronics

Ard Heinkens (NL) – sound design

Ekhaya will be premiered at the eMusic festival in September 2010:

22 september 17:30 Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, Durban

24 september 19:30 eMusic festival, Durban

26 september,  17:00, Arts Alive festival Johannesburg

27 september 19:00 University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg

Ekhaya is financially supported by NewMusicSA, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa, and Fund for the Performing Arts, The Netherlands.

Sazi Dlamini

Sazi Dlamini has composed and recorded more than fifty original pieces of music employing self-made, indigenous Nguni and other African musical instruments. His works and collaborations to date include Inkwishi – a work for jazz big band in the maskandi style, Yinkosi Yeziziba and Jiwe for a string quartet, ugubhu bow and percussion (with Juergen Brauninger), Destiny (with Ndikho Xaba and Madala Kunene) and Technodiaspora: An Internet Master Class Performance (with George E. Lewis, Douglas Ewart, J.D. Parran, Ndikho Xaba and Madala Kunene) and soundtrack for documentary films, children’s educational TV, dance and theatre.

Watch our Youtube page “Ekaya on wooden shoes”  with lots of nice videos of all performers!