Cape Jazz Guide - Jazz culture in Cape Town

CAPE JAZZ GUIDE

• musicians
  • Mac McKenzie
  • Robbie Jansen
  • Hilton Schilder
  • Jonathan Rubain
  • Kyle Sheperd
• articles
  • Jazzing the 7 seas
  • One Jazz riff after another...
  • Cape Town Jazz Safari
• venues
  • option 1
  • option 2
• Discography

Meet Kyle Sheperd personally on the Cape Town Jazz Safari.

Kyle Sheperd

Kyle Sheperd, 20, started playing violin at the age of nine. He underwent a classical music education at school and by the age of 15 switched to the instrument he is identified most with now, the piano. "I grew up close to Abdullah Ibrahim. I used to go to his concerts. My mom used to tour with him in ’94, playing the violin and then worked as a teacher and administrator at his music school M7. I’ve been in rehearsals since a small age, since I was in my mom’s womb!" Kyle admits that his mother being a musician and a vast music collection in the house helped in growing musically and eventually choosing music as a career. Other sounds and genres that he imbibed were the local sounds of the Cape Malay choirs, Klopse bands, Nagtruppe, Christmas bands, that got fused with American jazz idioms, and African music, from Angola and elsewhere. The musicians Kyle has most been influenced by are Zim Ngqwana, Hilton Schilder, Robbie Jansen and Mac McKenzie. "I find the traditional recordings of music Zim and Hilton have done, very interesting. These sounds are highly advanced!"

Two years spent at the College of Music at the University of Cape Town, left Kyle dissatisfied with academia and he opted for self-study and working under the tutelage of Hilton Schilder, Steve Erasmus and also Zim Ngqwana.

He plays the saxophone, violin, the uhadi mouth bow and all sorts of percussion instruments.

For the past four years, Kyle has grown with his music, performed outside South Africa and composed pieces for his Trio and Quartet. "I love to perform! Musicians are the only people allowed to express their moods, their states of mind," Kyle said. He admits being attracted by avant-garde artists and has collaborated with experimental artists, pairing pre-recorded electronic music with lightning and visuals.

The Kyle Sheperd Quartet, with Buddy Wells on sax, Chantel Willie on double bass, Claude Couzens on drums and Kyle on piano, sax and uhadi mouth bow was chosen to take part in the Jazz Conversations with Juilliard just before the Cape Town International Jazz Festival took off in late March this year. The talent of this up-and-coming jazz musician impressed Professor Hotep Galeta, who was panel member during this extraordinary real time musical conversation. "It was contemporary, innovative, South African and good kudos for us!"

Listening to Kyle play in the room where he practices and keeps all his instruments, a sort of musical den, in his mother’s house in Rondebosch East, one is transposed to a metaphysical realm. "Music is not only about notes…Musicians venture into the unknown. It’s scary but we’ve become used to it," he said.