Kalk Bay Theatre · Cape Town
Bokani Dyer was raised in a world exposed to various musical traditions. His father, Steve Dyer, is a prominent jazz musician who has built a legacy of humanity through his art, honouring the ideals of Ubuntu . This history and lineage has influenced Bokani’s work, and continues to guide the ways in which he approaches music today.
With Bokani Dyer Trio - Traditions , he looks at the music he has inherited, the music that has shaped his ear, and asks what happens when those traditions are carried into a new time and place. For the first time, most of the repertoire are covers, reimagined through the intimate language of the piano trio.
For Bokani, this project looks at what has been passed down, understanding where it comes from and finding new ways of re-imagining the music. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m interested in new, novel ways of approaching the songs, leaning on the established traditions that have come before and seeing how I can present them in an interesting way.”
This is particularly evident in the album’s focus track, “African Piano: Inxembula”. A traditional Xhosa folk song famously recorded by legendary uhadi player Nofinishi Dywili and The Ngqoko Wom