Today (Thursday) we had a late start: an 11:30AM call for lunch with some local jazz musicians/educators. That meant that getting a good night’s sleep (for once) then partaking of the incredible hotel breakfast buffet. Among the hundreds of items available, I found upuma and vegetable curry. The perfect way to start the day!

During lunch we got a chance to hear about the vibrant jazz scene in South Africa and its ties to both the US and Europe. Of the countries on our tour, South Africa has, by far, the strongest and most important jazz tradition. Hugh Masekela and Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), among others, are well-established and well-respected international stars. Ironically, I plan on going to hear Hugh Masekela in Evanston just a few days after returning to Chicago.

From lunch, we went to the SABC3 television studios for a sound check. We will be appearing tomorrow on expresso, a live TV show that airs between 5:30 and 8AM. Because of the early start, it was necessary to get set-up today.

This was followed by the day’s main event: a masterclass with the Delft Big Band. Delft is a township area on the outskirts of Cape Town that is underprivileged and lacking in resources. Band director and founder, Ian Smith, has done a wonderful job with the participating young men and women. The group first played a few of their charts for us with the last one being an arrangement of Chick Corea’s Spain. With Greg standing in as conductor, we worked on this for most of the allotted time focussing on bringing out details of phrasing and dynamics, but also talking about and working on other aspects of ensemble playing.

We finished with performances for the group by the quartet with vocalist Adelia Douw and trumpeter Lorenzo Blignault, who will be appearing with us on expresso, then a performance of Bebop by the quartet alone.

It was only afterward that we realized that this was our only opportunity to work with the band. Our tourbook had given us the impression that we would be working with them for several days leading up to a final Sunday performance. Apparently those plans never fully took shape. It is a nice group of young people and I hope that we can work with them again sometime.