Hitting the right notes on the edge of wrong
Reimagining jazz is what Carlo Mombelli and Jeroen van Vliet do best, writes Carlos Amato
CARLO Mombelli is one of South Africa’s hottest jazz bassists — and the country’s hottest player of modified sewage pipes, industrial cheese mixers and Harley Davidson exhaust pipes.
The Pretoria-born Mombelli sees the secret musical talents of mundane things and his home is crammed with surreal instruments made from recycled objects.
One of his finest inventions is a pair of tin cans connected by a narrow steel spring that produces an epic roll of metallic thunder. “I became interested in springs because of desk lamps,” said the frenetic Mombelli, 53, a senior lecturer in music at the University of Witwatersrand. “I used to sit and write music, and when I touched the spring on my lamp I thought: ‘ Jassis, that sounds nice!’ So I started putting pickups in them and recording them.”
Telkom is not advised to play Mombelli’s music to its “call-waiting”
We’re going to have this modern, trancey hip-hop, plus this freestyle chamber music
queue: he is not in the business of sedative jazz. Always slaloming between harmony and discord, between melancholy stillness and ribald frenzy, Mombelli’s sound is voraciously experimental. “I always like to play at the edge of wrong . . . just about to fall off,” he said. “All my playing is based on things that happen by fluke — beautiful things that come out of mistakes.”
Mombelli’s superb phrase for the sensation of good jazz was borrowed by the Edge of Wrong — an experimental music festival in Oslo, Norway, at which he often performs. “They do some wacky stuff there,” said Mombelli.
Tonight at Lucky Bean restaurant in Melville, Johannesburg, and on Tuesday night at the University of the Witwatersrand Great Hall, Mombelli will revisit the edge of wrong with his ever-mutating band, the Prisoners of Strange. The quintet will comprise Dutch pianist Jeroen van Vliet, drummer Kesivan Naidoo, tenor saxophonist Sydney Mnisi and vocalist Mbuso Khoza. If you go, beware of neural disorders: the Prisoners blew several punters’ mental gaskets at this year’s National Arts Festival.
“We’re going to have this modern, trancey trip-hop, plus this avant-garde freestyle chamber music that we do, plus Khoza’s traditional Zulu chanting on top,” said Mombelli. “We’re going to come up with something a little different. And Kesivan is a flippin’ animal. He’s so dynamic. It’s like wind — and suddenly there’s a storm.”
Khoza is a sensational recent addition to the Prisoners. A few years ago, he was living under the M1 bridge in Newtown.
“He learnt to sing while herding his family’s cattle at the age of five in the KwaZulu-Natal mountains,” said Mombelli. “He used to call the cows with chants and clicks.
“And then he picked up on Zionist Christian Church spiritual music, and came to Joburg and lived under the freeway bridge next to the Bassline and tried to get people to hear him sing. Finally [jazz producer] Themba Mkhize heard him and gave him a chance. Next thing his record won the Metro FM listeners’s jazz record of the year award last year. He’s got a Salif Keita-ish style, but with Zulu inflections.”
Mombelli also raves about Van Vliet, a bewitchingly subtle pianist who has played with Feya Faku, Louis Mhlanga, Eric Vloeimans and Charlie Mariano. They first met at a gig in the Netherlands in 2008 and exchanged CDs.
“I tried to find a way to play together again. The show is half of Jeroen’s music and half of my stuff. It fits beautifully.”
Mombelli’s sound comes from Yeoville — he cut his teeth at legendary ’80s venues such as Rumours, Jameson’s and the Black Sun. And he cherishes the memory of his jazz education as a bandmate of the late, great guitarist Johnny Fourie.
So how strong is the South African jazz scene? “I think it’s moving forward,” said Mombelli. “But there’s only a handful of really good musicians, like Kesivan and Mark Fransman.
“They’re really, really good,” interjected Van Vliet. “And productive.”
“And the rest — well, they’re the ones who win all the Sama awards!” said Mombelli. “But at least a real musician won the last Sama: Herbie Tsoaeli.”
Mark that down as a win for the edge of wrong.
To hear Mombelli and Van Vliet at Lucky Bean tonight, phone 011 482 5572. To book for the show on Tuesday night, go to strictlytickets.com or phone 011 717 1376