Interview: Shane Cooper

© Michael Ellis - snapkamera.com

I am truly grateful that I have been blessed to meet some of South Africa's finest musicians and Shane Cooper is certainly on the top of that list. Bass player, composer and producer, Shane, is definitely someone to watch in the South African music industry. He has recorded with many other well-known South African musicians including Melanie Scholtz, Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer, Rus Nerwich, Zim Ngqawana and Dan Shout (to name a few). He was a member of the Indian fusion quartet 'Babu' and South African quintet 'Restless Natives' (both were based in Cape Town).

After watching Shane play numerous times at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, it was then no surprise to learn that he was selected as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz in 2013. I have not heard any other player make a double bass sing like he does, and when he plays his solo's you will involuntarily sit up and watch his every move. Being at the Grahamstown jazz festival specifically, you are inundated with jazz music (obviously that's the point) for almost a full week, it's easy for a person to become overwhelmed and for their ears to get 'tired'. But every time Shane plays, it is almost as if the audience is awakened by his tone and style, then entranced and taken on a musical journey of the story he is 'telling'.

Thankfully those of us living in Cape Town are privileged to see him play at venues such as www.thecryptjazz.com and Straight No Chaser Club  and occasionally the Nassau Centre.


Check out what Shane had to say about wining the Standard Bank Jazz Young Artist award (2013).

Shane's debut album 'Oscillations' recently won a SAMA (South African Music Award) for best album. It features many other brilliant South African musicians and was co-produced by Carlo Mombelli and Shane himself. You can purchase the album through this link: https://itunes.apple.com/za/album/oscillations or Look & Listen Stores or http://www.homegrownmusic.co.za/artists/view/shane-cooper/

Shane receiving his SAMA - City Press

Click this link to get to know more about Shane and his music: www.shanecoopermusic.com. 
Check out this awesome article on Shane ins Rolling Stone SA: http://www.rollingstone.co.za/albumsrev/520-shane-cooper
Also read this review on Shane here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/oscillations-shane-cooper.
Shane also released a triple album with Restless Natives in 2013. You can get hold of it by going to this link: www.homegrownmusic.co.za/restless-natives.

A man of many talents, Shane also writes and performs electronic dance music check it out here: www.cardonspokes.com
Follow Shane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cardonspokes

If you are following my blog, then you will already know that I have been trying to get an understanding of what is 'Behind the Music'.  I am asking musicians about what they have to say about their career's, especially within the context of the South African music industry. 

This is what Shane had to say in answer to my questions:

When and how did you start playing your instrument/s?

I started playing piano when I was very young, and eventually switched to guitar.  When I started high school I was asked to play bass in the school jazz band so I started learning to play bass for fun.  I developed a love for the instrument very quickly and it became my main musical focus after that.

Did you have any formal training, and if so where?

I studied jazz performance at UCT.

What inspired you to take up your art form as a career?

Playing music became my favourite hobby when I was still in school, so I decided to try make it a career.

What does your current career entail? (Can you give an idea of a day in your life?)

It's a mixture of practising my instrument and practising with bands, composing music, recording / producing, playing shows, and doing lots of boring admin stuff too.

How did you (and do you) approach being in the music industry in South Africa?

It's very difficult in South Africa because we don't have a lot of venues to perform in, and we only have a few big cities that we can tour to.  Also travelling within the continent is very expensive, so we are limited in terms of performance options.  As a result we have to work hard at trying to get international exposure so that we can get gigs abroad and keep performing as often as possible.

What do you most enjoy about your career?

 I get to make music everyday, it's the best!

If you could, what would you change about the music industry?

I wish we could still make money from selling records in the digital age.  That money goes back into making more albums, but it's very difficult to have that cycle running these days. I'd also like people to be more willing to pay proper cover charges for live shows.  In 2014 I still see people complaining about paying R40 to watch a live band, which is crazy.  I also wish music equipment was cheaper in SA, most products are almost double the price they are in Europe and the USA.

Do you enjoy what you do now? 

I'm loving it.

What are your plans for your future?

I'm writing new music at the moment, and also producing tracks for some singers.

Disclaimer: Please note that non of the images in this post belong to me and they have been credited as far as possible.

So much Saxophone: 2014 National Saxophone Symposium

On Monday my little heart nearly exploded with excitement at the beginning of a full day dedicated to the saxophone. Yes, that is true, 12 hours of talking, listening and playing saxophone really happened at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parrow. 

Organised by Karendra Devroop, Matthew Lombard and Liam Burden through UNISA this FREE Saxophone Symposium took place in Durban on 9 April, Pretoria 12 April and Cape Town 14 April. 

Karendra Devroop opening the symposium.

Karendra Introducing Apollo Saxophone Quartet

The morning started with a British Apollo Saxophone Quartet. They opened with an avant guard work.

Apollo Saxophone Quartet

This is just a clip of them tuning, lol.

Karendra ntroducing Artvark Saxophone Quartet

Artvark's moto is 'Away with the chairs! Away with music stands! Artvark moves! So as you will see they perform everything from memory, as most jazz musicians do, but they also walk around a bit while playing.

Then about 50 participants joined the quartets in a mass saxophone piece. It was truly exhilarating as we all, from very young to old, beginner and expert played 2 pieces together. I have never in my life felt so…I’m not even sure how to describe it in words, so, happy to be playing with other saxophonists. There was no judgement of anyone in the room. You were all in the same boat.

Victor De Freitas, owner of Musicraft, and his team were offering free saxophone services and advices throughout the day.

We could choose if we want to go to more jazz or classical focused workshops. For the first sessions I went to the jazz classes, and for the second sessions I went to the classical ones.

Artvark giving a jazz workshop.

Mike Rossi giving a workshop on sound production

There were then a few more performances.

Matthew and Liam playing some classical music.

Liam and colleagues from Hugo Lambrechts

Mike Rossi playing a Blues

Karendra playing a solo, supported by Artvark. 

The classical workshop given by Rob Buckland. Discussing technique and answering our questions. He has written a book called 'Playing the Saxophone', which can be ordered through Astute. I believe you can also download it through them.

Rob Buckland from Apollo Saxophone Quartet

Sans Souci girls. They were taking to long to pose.

Then, in the evening concert, we were all brought on stage to do our mass piece. It was so much fun. I loved playing with all those people.

What a winner of a day. I am so inspired and encouraged by all the things I learnt and some of which I was also reminded.

SAJE Jazz Workshop - Gordon Vernick

This blog post is going to be two-fold. My thoughts before and after I attended the SAJE Jazz Workshop. The workshop was aimed at classically trained teachers who are now expected to teach jazz by the South African education department. I attended because even though I studied jazz, my knowledge is not ingrained in my playing. So I feel that I am not fully equipped to teach jazz to the best of my ability, especially when it comes to improvising (I will explain more about that below). But when we learn how to teach something we often improve on that skill. So it's really a vise-versa kind of situation. 

My thoughts that I wrote down before last weeks workshop

Below are two things that I have learnt about myself recently:

1. I get bored very easily, keep me busy.

2. I want to be busy, but I don’t want to use my brain too much.

These too conclusions are the reason, I have decided, that I can’t really improvise. I have the knowledge of how to do it, but I don’t have the patience, to firstly listen to other people improvise. Secondly, I don’t want to actually practise the stuff. I get bored. Even though I know that there is so much exciting stuff and I really want to be able to play the stuff, I want to shred, but I don’t want to have to memorise stuff or do the work. It’s too taxing on the brain. 

So, who cares!? 

Well, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO IMPROVISE!!!!! I want to be constantly stretching myself and developing as a musician. So, this is my mountain. How do I climb it? I don’t know.

I’ve decided that going to this workshop is my last attempt at getting to this. I need motivation, and I need a programme, but I don’t have anybody to be accountable to and it’s much easier to clean the house and do laundry than think. Either, I have to banish the dream of being a competent improviser, or, I have to get over myself and come up with a plan. I am going to have to climb this mountain with one foot in front of the other and not take any steps back. I have to refuse to let my brain get tired and rather take bite size chunks that I can manage, and then see what happens. Maybe this blog will help me be accountable? We’ll see, watch this space.

My thoughts after the workshop

Below are two things that I learnt at the workshop:

1. Jazz is constantly changing.

2. So many other people haven't got a cooking clue what jazz really is.

So I always look at people like Dan Shout, Mike Rossi and Marc De Kock. Those cats  play a mean horn and they can certainly improvise! I know they have done the work, but I look at them and think, "sho, I have a long way to go". After hearing the questions that some of the people asked and hearing what Gordon Vernick had to say, it was like "sho, I actually know this stuff...I just need to go home, LISTEN to more music and practice". And really is that such a difficult thing?

So I have been listening to so much jazz this week and it has been so incredibly refreshing. My brain has not gotten too tired and I realised that this really is the kind of music that I want to play. Gordon also gave us all a whole lot of really useful material, which I'll definitely put to good use. I also found it encouraging (although intimidating) that Dan Shout, Marc De Kock and Terrence Scarr were at the event. Saying that you are always able to learn more and also learn new useful ways to teach.

I would like to write more about Gordon Vernick, but that will have to wait for another post. He really is an inspirational man. 

Gordon Vernick
(please not that this picture does not belong to me)