Lee Thomson is a Cape Town based trumpet player who is well known for his cross-genre ventures and performances in bands like Hog Hoggidy Hog, Mix n Blend, We Set Sail, and Kesivan and The Lights, amongst others. He also sessions for Goodluck, Toya Delazy, Grassy Spark and many more.

Lee holds a degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Cape Town, and was a member of the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band. He regularly tours the world with his various projects, having played to audiences across Europe, India, Mexico, Reunion Island and South Africa.

We caught up with Lee to ask him a few questions in the lead up to his performance at the October edition of the First Thursdays Sessions.

Image by Laura Mccullagh

Let’s start at the beginning. Where did your love for music begin and what lead you to pursue the trumpet? I was always drawn to music as far back as I can remember, obsessed with choirs and the drums. My love for the trumpet started when I was lucky enough to see Hugh Masakela for the first time at Kippies in Joburg with my dad and my stepmom. That coupled with an opening trumpet slot when I was 14. My first teacher was Trumpet legend Ian Smith. He really inspired me to practice and take the instrument seriously.

You have a degree in Jazz Performance from UCT, but you’re also well known for performing in bands that fall outside of the jazz genre? How did the one lead to the other? For me music is music. If it moves me I aim to explore it. Jazz is definitely home base and has given me the tools to dive into all sorts of genres. I really do enjoy the variety both musically and culturally. From Jazz to Punk to Electronic music. I find being able to contribute across genres extremely satisfying.

Image by Gregory Franz

What is your experience of being a musician in South Africa right now? I love being a musician in South Africa. I get to play with world-class musicians on a weekly basis. I also get to play a lot of varied gigs which keeps things interesting. The jazz scene is thriving in Cape Town and there’s a real sense of community happening. You can see great jazz at least five times a week. I’m a full-time musician and don’t do anything else to make a living.

You recently came back from Europe where you performed at a bunch of shows and festivals? How would you compare playing abroad to playing locally? Going to Europe is as much about gigging as it is checking out new music and meeting new people. I look at it as an inspiration top-up. It’s different in the sense that there’s just more of everything. More festivals, more venues, more artists and more audience. Being there affords me the opportunity to check out my musical heroes and to collab with my peers. It also reaffirms that we have a world-class scene here in South Africa.

Image by Laura Mccullagh

What advice would you give to young jazz-influenced musicians looking to break into the local and international jazz scene? Travel a lot, stay humble, practice and always be open to new things!

Who’s doing interesting stuff on the local scene that you’d recommend checking out? I’m really enjoying the Unity Band and really love what Mandisi Dynatyis is doing. If you haven’t checked them out please do! Really exciting stuff!

Image by Laura Mccullagh

Top 5 desert island albums (of any genre)?
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Felix Laband – Deaf Safari
Pat Metheny – One Quiet Night
Dave Douglas – Poses
Bonobo – The North Borders

Where can people follow your musical movements and find more of your music?
https://www.instagram.com/leelips
https://www.facebook.com/leethomsonband

Lee Thomson will be taking the stage together with Jason Reolon on keys and Jonno Sweetman on drums at the fifth edition of the First Thursdays Sessions on Thursday 3 October 2019. The performance starts at 9pm, followed by a vinyl set by DJ Mighty from 10pm. Upstairs at the Gin Bar, 64a Wale Street. The Spring season of the First Thursdays Sessions is presented by Maker’s Mark Bourbon Whisky and produced by Thursdays Projects.
 Event staging provided by LEVO Staging & Audio.

Tefo “Talking Drum” Mahola is a young up and coming multi-talented drummer, pianist, arranger, composer and poet in the world of music hailing from Gugulethu, Cape Town.

His ear for music, love for playing new ideas and constant hunger for pushing to newer levels brings about a truly fresh and cooking sound. His music career has barely started, having already done tours and festivals like Rocking the Daisies, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Oslo Jazz Festival and Muizenberg Jazz Festival to name a few, playing with many musical greats.

Tefo was recently chosen in a program by the EU called MAISHA, where 6 Africans and 6 Europeans were chosen in an intense 2 week collaboration between cultures and indigenous instruments with the end goal of putting together an album and performing live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2019. He has recently toured in Hungary with Fatime and her Kolibri in July, visiting all the cities in and around the country.

Although he plays in many styles and genres, his most enjoyed genre to play is jazz. His compositional work depicts that of jazz with all influences of music incorporated within. Tefo Mahola performs original music accompanied by poetry and stories.

We asked Tefo a few questions in the lead up to his performance at the First Thursdays Sessions.

Where did your love for playing music begin? And how did you end up on the drums? It all started in primary school when I started acting and doing dance, I later changed schools to one that focussed on music, where I discovered a piano. In high school, I auditioned for the piano and was asked if there was another instrument I’d love to try out, and little 13 year old me saw the drum set and it was love at first sight.

You’ve played at the First Thursdays Sessions before, with Keegan Steenkamp back in June. It’s always great to see jazz musicians popping up in different bands and projects. Who else do you play with regularly or what other groups or projects are you a part of? I play with bands such as MSMF, a fresh upcoming jazz quartet with my good friends, also with Thembelihle Dunjana, Malek and the THUNDERTONES to name a few.

The Talking Drum Clan is something a bit different – mixing jazz and poetry. How did the project come about? It was actually a sound I was looking for, and through life I’ve been grateful to come across and play with musicians who’ve helped me get to this point. I’ve also had a strong influence in my family with many poets, visual artists and musicians of all styles.

We hear you have some new music coming out soon. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Yes, I have an album that I am currently busy writing before hitting the studio with my 7 piece band. It’s all really compositions of mine that I’ve written this year, and it’s been a long time coming I guess since I’ve been writing and have tons of songs. I feel that the tunes I’ve already written will rather be released in forthcoming albums and rather have a beacon of where my life is this year, which is why I’ll be featuring new compositions.

What is your general experience of being a jazz musician in South Africa in 2019? It’s quite a lot. It’s a bumpy and happy sad journey filled with beautiful faces and experiences, and I’m grateful for the fact that I’m in this industry. This year has and is still promising a lot for Jazz and I’m excited to be a musician at this time.

What advice would you give to young jazz-influenced musicians looking to break into the local and international jazz scene? Believe. Be grateful. Be positive.

Who’s doing interesting stuff on the local scene that you’d recommend checking out? Unity band is doing great, and lumanyano himself being a drummer and friend of mine is really inspiring me to get out and record, as he’s recently released his new album. Check him out!

Top 5 desert island albums (of any genre)?
Kind of blue – miles Davis
Brian Blade – body and shadow
Mama’s gun – Erykah Badu
John Coltrane – my favorite things
Christian Scott – yesterday you said tomorrow

The Talking Drum Clan will be taking the stage at the fourth edition of the First Thursdays Sessions on Thursday 5 September 2019. The performance starts at 9pm followed with a DJ set by ROASTIN’ RECORDS from 10pm. Upstairs at the Gin Bar, 64a Wale Street. The First Thursdays Sessions are presented by Maker’s Mark Bourbon Whisky and produced by Thursdays Projects.


Rosie Mudge is an artist based in Cape Town. She’s our selected visual artist for January’s Official Warm Up at The Gin Bar. You’ll be able to see some of her work and catch her DJ set from 6pm to 8pm. We asked her a few questions. Read on for what she had to say.

 

You work as an artist but you also have a ‘day job’. How do you balance everything and manage your art-making practice?

RM: When I left art school I got a job working at my brothers furniture factory. At first I worked part-time and had a lot more time for art. I had a studio and went to it almost every afternoon for a few years. At this stage in my art-making process I was experimenting with new techniques – focusing on my enjoyment of materials like nail-polish, body glitters and make-up – there was no end result in mind. The work I made during that period was truly repulsive to most of the people I showed it to. Even my family couldn’t find anything to like about it. But it satisfied a part of myself, and I kept going. I was also balancing being a curator, with transitory exhibitions put on through Jnr (a project space I co-developed) and curated a number of group shows as well as Mitchell Messina’s first solo exhibition, Mitchy! As my role at the furniture factory grew and developed, I took on more responsibility and physical time for art-making became harder to get. I gave up my studio and started working from the factory after closing hours. As my work has transformed, the techniques I developed lent themselves to an industrial space, and so this ‘balance’ has become less of a dichotomy and more of an absorption – one into the other and visa versa. I am continually ruminating on ideas and have works in progress which I have been thinking about for well on 5 years now. There’s a lot of time and I try not to put too much pressure on myself to finish works in a restricted timeline. They get finished as and when that happens.

Much of your work is produced with automative paint and glitter glue. How did you end up working with these rather unconventional materials?

RM: I felt massively burned out when I graduated from art school. My previous academic inspirations were all bitter, and my previous techniques felt forced, disingenuous and part of a greater machine of art production, rather than anything to do with myself. So I decided to do a 180 turn and start from the beginning. As it happened, I placed my personal beginning around the age of 12, sitting in my bedroom alone, making things up, playing with polly pocket (yes, still at 12), writing diaries, listening to music, experimenting with make-up and nail polish – enjoying my own solitude, imagination and development of self expression. So, after art school, I spent a few years playing around with materials that inspired me back then, trying to get back into the magic of childhood. After a few years things started to clear up in my mind and I was driven to scale up the visuals I was making. I experimented with manufacturing larger quantities of nail-polish, but then I discovered that automotive paint and nail polish share very similar properties. I loved thinking about those two materials side by side – the tiny, precious nail polish bottles in the hands of girls (and other) vs the industrial automotive paint in the hands of men (and other). On top of this, the enormous tubs of glitter-glue are too good to be true! It’s the real “dip your whole arms in it’ experience.

 

 

In your recent solo show at SMITH, ‘In my room with Mazzy Star’, you refer to your room as a space of psychological safety and creativity. Obviously there’s a specifically domestic or psychological reference there, but the space in which art is made is an equally interesting factor and often one that is hidden from the public. Where do you produce your work and how does it affect what you make?

RM: I guess that in that name I was referring to the psychological space of the mind (your personal, private ‘room’). Although I don’t produce my works in a bedroom, or even a private space, I felt that this analogy speaks to the personal experience of creating things, a private relationship between artist and artwork. Because my current art-making practices are toxic I have to kit myself out with full protection: eye mask, respiratory mask, gloves, fully clothed, sports shoes. Added to that are my playlist and headphones – and I really am blocked off from everything around me. The production process is very physical and gruelling. I usually work for 8 hours at a time without stopping. The music I listen to draws out emotions which feed directly into the works. This goes on and on – it’s very special personal time for me.

How do you find working as an artist in Cape Town – down here at the bottom of the world?

RM: I have no idea what it’s like to be an artist in any other place, I’m not sure being elsewhere would help but I guess I find it difficult here. To feel on the one hand free and at liberty to make what you chose or whatever comes to you, without needing to define yourself, or your practice or outline your own mind. And to have that contrasted by the desire to belong to something, the desire to be understood or related to, to connect to people in conversation… it’s a constant internal battle. I suppose this does not directly relate to Cape Town, but this is how I feel about being an artist in general. If I were at the top of the world, I imagine that it would either be a lot harder, with the saturated markets and art frenzy, or maybe a lot easier as there is more art writing that happens there and two-sided conversations might occur more fluidly.

 

Do you have any advice for people trying to start out in the world of art-making?

RM: Firstly, get a job which gives you enough money to act freely financially with your art-making. It doesn’t have to be in the art world and it doesn’t have to be creative. I have found my ties to a world outside my own creation very energising and the income means that I do not pressurise my art into being successful – it can be a wonderful failure. Having a lot of responsibility outside of your own practice does mean a lot of work, but having less time encourages me to make better use of the time I do have. It also helps me to think quickly in the moment, and ruminate outside of the moment.
Secondly, get involved. Put the ideas you have into practice in any way you can, and try not to rely on the positive affirmation of other people for the valuation of yourself and your art.

Top 5 ‘desert island’ albums?

RM:
MGMT – Congratulations
Of Montreal – The Sunlandic Twins
Beach House – Depression Cherry
Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

Where can people find you online and find out more about your work?

RM:

https://www.instagram.com/rosiesmudge/
http://www.smithstudio.co.za/content/rosie-mudge
https://rosiemudge.tumblr.com/

 

Catch Rosie Mudge at the First Thursdays Official Warm Up at The Gin Bar, 64a Wale Street. She’ll be doing a DJ set from 6pm to 8pm, with an exhibition of some of her work up as well. The party goes on until late. The First Thursdays Official Warm Up is produced by Thursdays Projects in partnership with Maker’s Mark Craft Bourbon Whisky. 

Jaco Haasbroek is an illustrator and designer based in Cape Town.
If you’ve ever seen The Good News headlines on lampposts around town you’ve seen some of his work. He’s our selected artist for this month’s Official Warm Up, taking place at the Gin Bar on First Thursdays.
We asked him a few questions.

You are a man that wears many hats – DJ, Illustrator, ‘Newsman’, amongst others – How would you describe yourself professionally?

JH: I guess professionally I’m an illustrator & art director. The majority of my ideas manifest themselves through illustration, so this has become the main source of income for me. I enjoy making things and the creative process. Most of my work is concept driven and I have a great love for simplicity. Side projects develop organically from the random ideas I have and can take on a variety of forms, but these tend to be love projects and don’t necessarily pay the bills.

What was your path to getting to where you are now? Did you always imagine doing the kind of work that you do?

JH: I’ve always wanted to be an artist. My idea of what that means and entails has changed, but the overarching goal or theme has remained. I took art as a subject at school, studied Fine Art at Stellenbosch University where I discovered a love of design and a more independent way of making art. Upon completing my degree I worked in advertising for two and a half years. This helped me view the creative process from a more concept driven side. It consisted of a lot of problem solving through creative thinking and I really enjoyed this approach. I went freelance for a couple of year after that and worked as a designer in two different jobs. I took on these jobs when financial stresses became a bit overbearing. Most recently I worked at Made by Radio as an illustrator and art director and this proved to be an invaluable experience that pushed me to improve my own craft and broaden my skill set. After almost two years at the studio I am now working freelance again.

Humour plays a big role in your work. Where does that sense of humour come from?

JH: I honestly don’t know. I think it’s the sixth sense that we are all born with.

Can you tell us a little bit more about “The Good News”. What is the story behind that story?

JH: The Good News is an ongoing series of fictional, light-hearted and generally positive newspaper headlines that I put up in and around the city. The concept came about when I was driving home and spotted a ‘STOLEN’ pet poster. It’s quite sad when someone loses a pet and the idea popped into my head that by simply adding ‘OUR HEARTS’ at the bottom of the poster it would completely change its meaning and give it a positive spin. This idea then evolved into the fake news posters, which rely on the use of wordplay to celebrate the little everyday victories. I’m allowing the project to develop organically but would also like to expand the concept to include more than just the headlines. Possibly a publication of sorts.

Any advice for people starting out in the creative industries?

JH: Trust your gut. When it feels right, go with it. Try not to compare yourself with others. The internet is a great resource, focus on the ways it helps you to showcase your work. Put yourself out there. Know that it takes hard work and patience to get to where you want to be. If you put in the work, and you keep at it, the rewards will come. Sometimes you need to take on work you might not want to, but short term sacrifices will help you reach those long term goals.

Top 5 ‘desert island’ albums?

JH: The Strokes – Is This It
Radiohead – Okay Computer
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Justice – †
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground

Where can people follow you and your projects?

https://www.instagram.com/haasbroek/
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodnewsza/
https://www.instagram.com/winehundredbucks/

Catch Jaco Haasbroek at the Official First Thursdays Warm Up. He’ll be doing a DJ set from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, with an exhibition of some of his work up as well. The Official First Thursdays Warm Up is produced by Thursdays Projects in partnership with Maker’s Mark Handmade Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky.