24 Bulletin Thursday June 25 2009 ENTERTAINMENT
Blood on the Path,Harvey Tyson,Springbok PressReview: Brian Joss
Faction,a blend of fact and fiction, is aform of literature that uses real peopleor events as essential elements in anotherwise fictional story – and often theresult is disastrous.Not so with Bloodon the Path:A Saga of the Founding ofSouth Africa 100 years ago,written bythe former editor of The Starnewspaper.
The story covers the period from1880 to 1930 and it has all theelements of a thriller.There is the“Green Face” treasure that causestrouble between Andrew Whitfield andhis stepbrother,Yusuf,who leavesAndrew for dead in the vast Kalahariwhere he is rescued and befriended bya Bushman, /Xam.
There is forbidden love across thecolour line,unrequited love and murder.
It grips from page one,whenAndrew watches as his stepfather,Henry Whitfield, is killed in a whalingaccident in False Bay in 1883, to thefounding of the Native NationalCongress, today known as the ANC, inBloemfontein in 1912, to the GreatDepression of 1928 and a surprisingclimax in 2012.
Andrew lives in no-man’s land:Heis a Malay and his stepfather waswhite, a well-respected man in the
fishing village who counted among hisfriends the white liberal John XMerriman,Uncle Johnnex,one of themany real personae who feature inwhat Harvey Tyson calls history in novelform.Other people include WilliamSchreiner, prime minister of the Cape;Cecil John Rhodes, the first empirebuilder; Paul Kruger;General Jan Smuts,later prime minister,who gave theinvading British a torrid time; thefounders of the ANC Pixley ka Semeand John Dube,and many others wholeft their larger-than-life footprints onthis southern tip of Africa.The story istold through Andrew,a fictionalcharacter, a news reporter on the Star,whose editors included the blunderingRJ Pakeham; Francis Dormer – who
rescues Andrew from jail – andIrishman Sam Moneypenny,allcharacters who made their mark in thethen brash mining town ofJohannesburg and further afield.
Blood on the Path also digs intolittle known episodes in our turbulenthistory: Pickhandle Mary who was realenough; the anarchist Wobblies; authorOlive Schreiner,whose outrageousviews would probably today even raisea few eyebrows and Deneys Reitz, theintrepid Boer leader whom Andrew, theKhaki,meets when he joins theCommandos,mainly as an observer.
The best way to describe Blood onthe Path is as a “Back to the Future”scenario,because it gives an enthrallingview on how South Africa’s future wasformed.
Although most of the dialogue isfictitious, it has the ring of truth mainlybecause of Tyson’s research andunderstanding of his subject.
It is a sweeping saga , so don’t beput off by its 542 pages; it will tug youalong page by page to its climax.
It is well written and you will soonfind yourself caught up in theadventure and as historian,ProfessorGuy Willoughby writes in the foreword:“Unless we recognise where we comefrom, in all its squalor as well as itsglory, it will be harder and harder toimagine ourselves to be one people.”Good historical novels bring history tolife and Tyson has managed to do thatin a most interesting way.
Don’t miss it.
■ Read of the week
KAREN WATKINS
The multi-talented pianist, singer, com-poser and alto sax musician, KyleShepherd, says: “Beautiful music is the
core of my life, it comes from within.” This very serious 21-year-old is unsure of
when he started playing the violin. “I thought I was eight, but my mum
insists I was five,” he said, referring to vio-linist Michele Shepherd.
He spent about four years under the tute-lage of Terrence Carr, who was involved withimprovisation with the band Tanana’s, ofwhich Steve Newman was a member.
“It’s awesome and we knew he’d do well,”said Mr Carr who was playing with the bandBlacksmith at the Alma Store on Sundaynight. Kyle moved on to the Hugo LamprechtSchool of Music under Madelein vanRooyen.
“Next came a strange time,” said Kyleand, without elaborating, he describes howhis mum was teaching at M7 College ofMusic in Cape Town. “I was around musi-cians like Abdullah Ibrahim. It was a timewhen my receptors were wide open and Iabsorbed much, but nothing happened for awhile.”
Aged 15, he learnt the piano. “It came eas-ily,” said Kyle adding that the violin is thehardest instrument to learn. It was aroundthis time that he found improvisation.
“If I hadn’t, I would have stopped playingmusic. They say we jazz musicians can neverplay something twice,” he laughed.
He went on to spend a year concentratingon learning the sax.
In 2005, he won an award for the best orig-inal composition in the inaugural FMR/Pickn Pay Travel awards. Three years later hisfineART Quartet performed two of his orig-inal compositions in a virtual Jazz Conversa-tion with students from the Juilliard Insti-tute for Jazz Studies in New York, as part ofthe Cape Town International Jazz FestivalProgram.
In November, he and Theo Lawrencestarted fineART Music, and in January hecut his debut CD of the same name.
Kyle acknowledges the importance of for-mal music education. However, he has cho-sen to step outside it to follow a path, “inwhich I learn directly from the creators ofthis art form,” he said, referring to what helearnt in a few months with Johannesburgsaxophonist Zim Ngqawana.
And while Kyle’s compositions reflect amodern approach to improvised music, heunashamedly displays his cultural music tra-ditions, drawing on the unique rhythms, har-monies, and melodic devices of what he calls“music from home”.
Described as “slam poetic minimalist re-imaginings of Afrikaans volksliedjies andMuslim calls to prayer and to goema groovedeconstructions”, he offers tribute to Abdul-lah Ibrahim and Ngqawana’s philosophy of“Zimology”. “My concept is summed up inthis poem of mine,” said Kyle, explaining thealbum’s title.
“fineART is the soil in which the seed ofcreativity manifests itself/This is musicfrom home/Why wouldn’t it be?/Whyshouldn’t it be?”
And it’s this Proudly South African tradi-tion that audiences can expect to hear in hissolo concert at Welgemeend on Saturday.
And as for the future: “To keep playingand take South African jazz further into thecountry and to the world,” said Kyle.
As for advice to budding musicians, hesays, “You have to be dedicated. You have toplay a lot. If I’m not playing, I’m thinking ofplaying. The mind is 90% of playing. We allbattle with this when we’re young, we’re notgeared to this dedication, everything comestoo easily. So for me it’s full-time dedication,I don’t really have time for anything else. It’sa path of devotion and I live my life for it.”
Kyle Shepherd will be performing at Wel-gemeend, Jan van Riebeeck High School onSaturday June 27.
Tickets are R80, R60 for students and pen-sioners. To book, call 072 351 5204.
‘My path of devotion’
■ Beautiful music is the core of life forsinger, musician and composer KyleShepherd, it comes from within.
Music bursariesEntries for the R20 000 bursaries for classi-cal and a jazz musicians, between the agesof 18 and 28, in the Pick n Pay/Fine MusicRadio 101.3 Music Awards close on TuesdayJune 30.
A free public concert will be held onTuesday July 28 at the Baxter Concert Hallwhen three finalists in each category willcompete for the grand prizes. The bursariesof R20 000 for the winners in each categoryallow talented young musicians to gain
broader knowledge and experience. Run-ners-up also receive an award.
Past winner Kyle Shepherd will performwhile the judging is completed.
The awards have also recognised localtalent such as Justin Kravitz, AvigailBushakovitz, Esthea Kruger and Christo-pher Engel, who are all now making theirmark on the music scene.
Entry forms are available from FMR101.3 or online at www.fmr.co.za. Enquiries:021 401 1013.
Toastmasters’ anniversary
Peninsula Toastmasters will be celebrat-ing their 30th anniversary on ThursdayJune 25, with a dinner the Tafelberg Tav-ern, Roodehek Terrace, Gardens, from6pm to 9.30pm.
The cost is R75, including dinner.Guests and friends are welcome. RSVP byemail to Craig: [email protected] call 082 789 3899 or 021 407 4637 (b).
Memorial concert
The Rotary Club of Cape Town presents aMemorial Concert in honour of the lateAlderman Dick Friedlander, former mayorof Cape Town and district governor ofRotary District 9350, with the Cape Phil-harmonic Orchestra under the baton ofCorvin Matei, in the City Hall on TuesdayJune 30 at 8pm.
All proceeds go towards the refurbish-ment of the conductor’s dressing room inthe city hall and towards providing a bur-sary to a deserving second-year music stu-dent at a local university.
The programme consists of Rossini, theThieving Magpie Overture; Mendelssohn,Violin Concerto in E minor Opus 64 (thirdmovement) with soloist Michael Duffett;
Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No 3 in C major(first movement) with soloist Megan-Geof-frey Prins; a performance by the CapeTown Trash Band; Johann Strauss II,Tritsch-Tratsch Polka Opus 214, conductedby a guest conductor who successfully bidfor this honour; Haydn, Toy Symphony inG with special VIP soloists; andMendelssohn, Symphony No 4 in A majorOpus 90 (‘Italian’).
Tickets for stalls and balcony, R150; plat-form, R75 platform; bays which seat nine,R2 000 each.
Book at Computicket.
Jazz concert
On Saturday June 20 at 7pm there will bea concert of soothing jazz songs with big-name artists at the Forge, 12 WindsorRoad, Kalk Bay. (there will be no parkingon this road.) Featured will be Jenie Oliver(vocals), Alan Cameron (piano), BasilMoses (double bass) and Jack Momple(drums). Tickets are R60 and refreshmentswill be available.
Bring your cushions and business cardsfor a lucky draw. For more information orto RSVP, email [email protected] or072 424 5663.
Booking is essential as space is limited.
What’s On
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