Vuma brings second album to life
IN ASSOCIATION with Concerts SA, Vuma Levin presents the national tour of his second studio album, Life and Death on the Other side of the Dream.
Matching his virtuosity, Levin will be surrounded by an impressive array of locally based and international musicians. The five performances in Joburg will feature Levin, Bernard van Rossum (UK/Netherlands), Xavi Torres Vicente (Spain), Peter Auret, Benjamin Jephta, Bokani Dyer and Marcus Wyatt.
In Cape Town, the five performances will include Bernard van Rossum, Andre Petersen, Shane Cooper, Jonno Sweetman and, of course, Levin.
Lastly, for the Durban leg of the tour, Levin will do a special duo collaboration with renowned pianist, Neil Gonsalves.
Asked about this album launch tour, Levin says: “This music is, on the one hand, a personal reflection of the last seven years that I’ve spent in the Netherlands in a kind of self-imposed exile away from home. On the other hand, it is a broader reflection on the crises of the post-apartheid South African self at home, in the diaspora and in an age of globalisation.
”Finally, by presenting a series of songs that are deeply hybrid in nature the album is an attempt to implicitly respond the commodification and fetishisation of African art and the ‘single story’ told about South Africa and its people in the West.”
Levin makes use of digital samples and prepared instruments and fuses contemporary jazz, rock, hip hop, pop and South African musical forms such as marabi, goema and Nguni-Sotho choral and gourd bow song. All of this hopes to capture and articulate the unique sonic landscape of South Africa and its people whilst still being sensitive to our place as agents in a global order.
Beginning his studies in jazz at the age of 18, Levin received lessons from guitar legend, Johnny Fourie. He completed a National Diploma at the Tshwane University of Technology going on to be presented with the best Guitarist Award (2008). In 2009, he was selected as the guitarist in the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band, which culminated in a performance at the Grahamstown Jazz Festival and later at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival.
Levin attended the prestigious Conservatorium Van Amsterdam where he graduated and earned the Non-EU Talent Scholarship to finance his masters study.
In 2015, he was selected as a finalist in the Dutch Keep an Eye: The Records awards. In 2016, Levin won the national leg of the Keep an eye Jazz awards.
Levin has released two solo albums – The Spectacle of An-other and Life and Death on the other side of the dream .
The Vuma Levin South African National Tour is supported by Concerts SA through the Music Mobility Fund, a funding mechanism which offers opportunities for South African musicians to undertake live music tours.
Concerts SA is a joint South African/Norwegian live music development project housed within the Samro Foundation. For more information please visit our website http://concertssa.co.za, follow @ConcertsSA on Twitter at twitter. com/ConcertsSA or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/ConcertsSA.
Cape Town – Alma Café. Wednesday May 10, tickets R180. Address: 20 Alma Rd, Rosebank, Cape Town. Bookings: 021 685 7377/ jono@almacafe.co.za