Adam Glasser’s SA Jazz Sextet feat. Byron Wallen (incl. Tribute to Hugh Masekela)
Specially formed for Brecon Jazz Festival 2018, this group brings together for the first time in collaboration, South African pianist and harmonica player Adam Glasser with trumpeter and master improviser/composer Byron Wallen, both of whom share a long and deep connection with township jazz and more specifically a working and a personal relationship with the late Hugh Masekela, to whom they will pay tribute with a selection of his lesser known township jazz anthems.
Although Bra Hugh’s music legacy spans a truly pan african range of styles and grooves, the group’s material draws on lesser known compositions associated with the trumpet legend’s inimitable brand of township jazz from the iconic early sixties album ‘Jazz Epistles Verse 1’ up to the present day.
“This approach should make fruitful and stimulating listening since many of the most well known compositions associated with Bra Hugh were not actually written by him but for him from Grazing in the Grass (composed by Philemon Hou), ‘Blues for Hughie' composed by south african alto sax legend Kippie Moeketsi and Caiphus Semenya’s sombre anthem ‘Bo Masekela’ says Glasser whose father composer Stanley Glasser was the musical director of the 60s SA musical ‘King Kong’ where he and Masekela worked together at length.
The band lineup includes the brilliant tenor saxophonist Josephine Davies, the dynamic cutting edge drums and guitar pairing of Corrie Dick and Rob Luft ( who has gigged and recorded regularly with Glasser over the past 4 years) and recently graduated bassist from Royal Academy of Music Daisy George.
