Full Circle Digital Magazine October 2013 | Page 15

M U S I C

•

T H E

By Nkuthazo Dyalvane

Today, an obvious response on
how fresh our South African AIR is,
would be to relay statistics, spew
fact in educational immodesty about
carbon emissions, footprints (CO2),
and looking to the horizon of carbon
tariffs and overall pollutants. I could
write about this, but I’d rather....
start at the beginning.

A I R

W E

S P E A K

Leslie Javan One of SA’s most
treasured songwriters.

In fact, the amazing thing about
survival is that unborn babies are
prepared in advance by being
able to recognize sounds while
snorkelling in mom’s womb.
Reacting with twitches and kicks,
sometimes grooving in response to
familiar voices or favourite songs,
and other times, sudden loud
or sharp sounds frighten them
like scary fish. We recognise our
mother’s voice and her heart beat,
learning the environment before
we even see it, by hearing sounds
vibrating in amni-party tempo.
Sounds that travel through the AIR,
created with continuous and regular
vibrations, are recognised as music.
This melodic flow of AIR takes us
back to the safety of the womb,
where our spirit can once
again be rejuvenated.

L E S L I E

J A V A N

Growing up in SA as an orphan would have
had its challenges for Leslie Javan, but living
with different families as he grew up, gave
him exposure to the different cultures of each
family, and this has profoundly influenced the
music he creates.
From a young age he studied various music
styles, from Classical to Folk, Blues, Jazz,
Rock and Synth, and this has led to him
seeing himself as a composer of the
World Music genre and Eclecticism.
SA audiences are rarely treated
to solo performances, but will
know Leslie’s work through songs
written by him for radio, TV and film
soundtracks. His instrumental work
and performances are better known
in European countries, and he has
performed by invitation at music
festivals worldwide.

The attitude towards a subject
such as AIR has certainly been
commercialised, yet taken for
granted by most. Nothing may be
thought of this precious vital-forhuman-function and existence, until
we fail to inhale and exhale with
ease, heading perhaps toward our
final demise.
A Mother is coached to…
Bbbbrrrrreeeaaatttthhhee!...while
naturally ousting her baby from
the tropics of her womb. AIR is
the necessary requisite for life, and
breathing the inherent mechanism
that signals that we’re alive, having
emerged from our amniotic paradise.
This first sound is the symphony of
divinity to any mother’s (h)ear(t); she
hears the distinct need for comfort
vibrating from little lungs; having
taken in this foreign intangible, AIR.
She then differentiates between
each cry to attend to her child’s
every royal need.

•

The Delta Trust initiated a Cape
music project focusing on exploring,
preserving and honouring the
origins of Cape music. Influences by
indigenous Khoe and San traditions,
European folksongs, slave cultures
and more modern global dynamics
were explored, and integrated. The
Delta Optel Band was created, and
today is known as Delta Bluestars.
Recently a smaller brass ensemble,
the Delta Langbroek Band, was
begun for more advanced players.
A women’s choir, the Delta
Soetstemme, perform tradit ional
material and songs by Leslie Javan.
Local primary school children
are also offered song writing
workshops, where they are taught
for example that their ancestors
said things in song that they dared
not say directly.
The best way to protect a
cultural heritage is to stimulate
its future growth!

LISTEN TO LES JAVAN Met Jou aan my sy
My Droom, My Wens
Ouma se Kind

FULL CIRCLE DIGITAL MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2013

With 20 years’ experience in music
development, community work
and activism, and now as the artist
in residence at Solms-Delta, a
Franschoek Wine Farm, he makes important
contributions to keeping alive the Delta
Vastrap Genootskap. This is an informal
association of Afrikaans rural musicians
and songwriters, created by the late great
Alex van Heerden, known internationally for
his jazz trumpet work, and as a pioneer of
“psychedelic vastrap”.
The album, Hievandaan, showcases some
of Leslie’s ongoing work at Solms-Delta, with
Delta Vastrap Genootskap members, and
with farmworkers who participate in
the Music van de Caab project.
And to demonstrate the professionalism of
the work, the album was nominated for a
SAMA award!
The second album, Bamboesbos, is titled
after the bamboo copses found in many
areas of the Cape Winelands. It honours the
musical heritage of the descendants of the
slaves of the colony of old, while thanking the
ancestors for bringing the bamboo over
from Batavia.
The song ‘aSolms, my tuiste’ is of particular
interest. The choir wrote the most touching
poem about resilience in the face of
oppression in the past, and were assisted
to put this to a melody which will serve as a
landmark in the empowerment experience of
generations of residents, both on Solms-Delta
and in the greater winelands.
Full Circle Magazine is inspired by the
commitment and dedication of Leslie Javan
to the development and preservation of this
important cultural gem.

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