BREYANI and Melanie Scholtz!

So this has been a GREAT week so far. I've been to see 2 shows. 2 GREAT shows! Keith bought tickets for David Kramer's Breyani showing at the Baxter Theatre. Now though David is one of my favourite South African performers, I was slightly put off after seeing Songbook. It felt under-rehearsed and seemed as though all the big names in the production were competing with each other for attention! So when Keith came home with these tickets, I was not impressed...

On Monday night we went off to the Baxter. I didn't know what to expect: I didn't bother to research the production. So we sit down, and the stage looks......plain...... There was a cut-out of Table Mountain, a few umbrellas, a rug and a couple of chairs! I was NOT impressed. So the lights go down, and Donveno Prins enters with his sax..... What a great sax solo, and a beautiful opening to a STUNNING show. David had chosen to showcase music styles that are unique to Cape Town in a simple setting: no staging, no fancy set, no fancy costumes...... BIG risk there! The one thing that was FANCY was the cast:

A 10-piece band includes Camillo Lombard on piano accordian and Gammie Lakay on acoustic lead guitar. Donveno Prins, who wowed audiences in The Kramer Petersen Songbook and 3 Wiser Men, plays saxophone. Former member of DNA Strings Jacques Steyn plays mandolin and bass. Veterans of klopse bands Howard Links and Charlie Rhode play banjo, mandolin, and guitar, taking the moppie, the vastrap, the ghoemaliedjie and the tiekiedraai to new heights. From the stages of musical theatre and Malay Choir competitions, Loukmaan Adams sings and beats the ghoema drum. The much loved Sonskyn Sisters, Ruth Hector and Elspeth Davids sing their hearts out with a combination of cherished Cape standards and folk songs as well as material written especially for this production. David Kramer plays MC and drops in a song here and there!

This is such a FEEL GOOD production. These amazing musicians present a top notch historic journey through our culture musically. A celebration of CAPE TOWN music! The highlight for me was the Sonskyn Sisters. Those two women can darem sing 'n man op 'n traan! The lady who sang Calvinia had me in tears!!! If you can manage to get tickets, go and see this production!!!!

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I went to On Broadway last night to watch my best friend Melanie Scholtz's Carols Go Jazz. 

CAROLS GO JAZZ is a programme of soulful jazz-inspired traditional Christmas carols and carefully-chosen contemporary festive songs featuring Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for jazz, 2010 - Melanie Scholtz.

As Mel's coach, I was involved in preparing her vocally for this programme of work - but I had NO INVOLVEMENT in the arrangements! These were all inspired by Melanie's brilliant musical mind. Each carol was approached with a different feel that made the carol interesting and exciting, but never once did she cheapen the carol or lose the intention created by the composer. My favourite arrangement was the last number of the show: I shall not reveal what it is now! But the introduction (which seemed to be a good 3 mins long) was an exploration of eastern modes and a semi-skat by Mel over a lush roll by the band that just went on and on BEAUTIFULLY! The build-up to the start of the carol was AMAZING! When the carol started, there was a little giggle of delight from the audience when they realised which traditional piece it was. The gentleman behind me (who sounded like he had gargled gravel before the show started) could not stop singing along the whole way through! The gent in front of me was moving with delight: he was so excited!!! On a slightly different note: during the break his wife bought a cd of Mel's. She read the thanks page out loud to hubby. So she got to the line where it said my vocal coach Jeremy Quickfall. So wife pauses and says: I've heard that name before. I think he may be well-known. I know who he is. She didn't recognise me!

Anyway, the highlight of the concert vocally was Mel's O Holy Night. It takes a very brave singer to attempt the National Anthem of Xmas Carols live. She did a stellar job.

So my advice for today: GO AND SEE MEL TONIGHT!!!! AND MAKE A PLAN TO SEE BREYANI. What a great lead up to Christmas.....

Is it really so difficult to be yourself???

It's 08h49 on a Wednesday morning. I'm sitting here at home alone. I have finally started standing up for myself in my personal life. It's a good feeling! Problem is, now that I have all this free time I don't know what to do with it. It really is funny. All I ever wanted was time for myself to do the things that I want to do. Seems I have been living for others so much that I have forgotten what it is that makes me tick. Or maybe it's just that - since I've stopped doing things for myself - my desires have changed. I used to love going to the movies. So last night I took out my credit card, went online, saw where Narnia was playing in order to book a ticket to go and see it! Once I got to the button that said checkout I had lost interest! How sad is that? What does that say about me? Have I become such a wimp that I cannot do anything for myself anymore?! Have I become so used to the pattern of my life that I've lost all sense of excitement and adventure? I mean, you can hardly call a movie adventure, but still....

Why is it that we surrender ourselves, our lives to those we love? Are we so desperate for affirmation that we will sacrifice our very souls for approval? The answer? YES! It is sad, but true. I see this daily among my students. The stronger personalities impose their ideas and ideologies onto the weaker more vulnerable students. There are leaders, and there are followers. Leaders need to choose whether they will lead their followers on a path of self-discovery and integrity, or whether they will lead them on a path of destruction and corruption. The latter, unfortunately, is the FUN option. It is much easier to keep control of your group if you are putting others down in the process. I have digressed.....

Back to our loved ones. I have been thinking about relationships (all kinds) for a while now. I believe that the problems we encounter with our loved ones are due to lies and secrets. Little things, like not saying we are unhappy about something that just happened, keeping things from them, adapting ourselves to suit their needs..... These little dishonesties create patterns and can lead to resentment, and I'm telling you: resentment is the beginning of the end of any relationship! Try as you may, resentment lingers long after the event that caused it.

So my healthiest relationships are my most recent ones. The ones where, from the beginning, I took the risk of losing my potential friend because I would be brutally honest from the word go. Saying what I feel when I feel it. No censorship. Approaching the relationship with the thought: if you cannot cope with who I am now, you will not be able to cope with me after a few years! I discussed this with one of my more reserved friends the other day (yes I have those), and he asked me if I really believed that people would be drawn to me if I showed them the true me all the time. He used the saying no man is an island to drive his point home. My response: by showing my friends my true self, our relationships have grown and intensified. That's the truth. I love my friends' hearts! If their habits change, and I truly love their souls, the love will continue. If the change of habit reveals more of the TRUE SOUL, our love will intensify! It makes sense to me.....