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Andile Yenana

ANDILE YENANA Music has been the mission of Jazz pianist Andile Yenana's life since he was born in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape in 1968. His father’s house music memories helped inspire his music career. "Already, around nine, my old man had opened my eyes to the world of the arts. Because of that heritage, there's no way I could be older in this genre of jazz." When he began learning piano, it was with a mission. "When I picked up that instrument in Zwelitsha Township, it was to play jazz." Andile did his B. Mus studies under Darius Brubeck at the University of Natal, Durban's pioneering School of Jazz and Popular Music. There, he discovered the professional music scene around Durban's clubs, and struck up a firm friendship with two other highly focused music students, saxophonist Zim Ngqawana and trumpeter Feya Faku. The friendship with Ngqawana turned into a (so far) 11-year gig, when Andile moved to Johannesburg and joined the reedman's quartet. Though the personnel around them has changed over the years, the tough teamwork between sax and piano has endured through all five of Ngqawana's albums, starting with San Song, recorded during an exchange visit to Norway in 1996. But right from the start, Andile's career has involved a range of projects and collaborations that have taken him far beyond the conventional jazz small group. He collaborated with saxophonist Steve Dyer and other musicians on pan-African music projects under the title Mahube. He has acted as arranger for vocalists Sibongile Khumalo, Gloria Bosman and Suthukazi Arosi among others, and produced albums for other instrumentalists. He has also played in the Afro-pop band of guitarist Louis Mhlanga. In 1996, Andile and Zim visited the US as part of Black History Month, the first of three visits to Chicago, he also played with Zim in the UK as part of a well-reviewed 1997 collaboration project that performed at the Royal Albert Hall, and at the Nantes Fin de Siecle festival in France. From the late 1990s, his other main project was the band Voice, a collaboration with Sydney Mnisi, Marcus Wyatt, Herbie Tsoaeli and drummers Lulu Gontsana and Morabo Morajele. He has done other work, too, contributing to the score of the Aids documentary "Shouting Silent", and even acting as music director for a TV game show Lilizela Mlilizeli. In 2002 he released his debut album, We Used To Dance.

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373
Album Review

Andile Yenana: Who's Got the Map?

Read "Who's Got the Map?" reviewed by AAJ Staff


South African pianist Andile Yenana first attracted attention as a sideman on Zim Ngqawana's early recordings, where his McCoy Tyner-ish playing served as a perfect complement to Ngqawana's Coltrane-like energy. In 2002 Sheer Sound released his debut, We Used to Dance, which drew upon these themes. But it would be a mistake to categorize Yenana as a modal player locked in that mold, because he's capable of much more. His followup, the mostly quintet album Who's Got the Map?, offers ...

229
Album Review

Andile Yenana: Who's Got the Map?

Read "Who's Got the Map?" reviewed by Seton Hawkins


The odd title of pianist Andile Yenana's second album as a leader, as he writes, “depicts the space I am in--call it my voice, expression, interpretation of a reality transformed into compositions." While that's a mouthful, the album succeeds in this respect. A disheartening trend in some South African jazz is a common desire to fashion a “global village" sound: so many styles are referenced and used that the result becomes impersonal. Yenana never succumbs to such problems. ...

196
Album Review

Andile Yenana: We Used To Dance

Read "We Used To Dance" reviewed by AAJ Staff


From its very first notes, pianist Andile Yenana's debut record flows with song. The opener, “Wicked Whispers" (a highly ironic title), introduces all four members of his quartet in a lyrical chorus soaring above gentle swing. Yenana's stated intent with this record is to fuse the sonorities of jazz with the culture and ritual of South Africa. His musical heroes (Winston Mankunku, Abdullah Ibrahim, Chris McGregor, Hugh Masekela, and Zim Ngqawana) represent the high points of this sort of cross-cultural ...

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