KYLE SHEPHERD TRIO
enowned South African pianist and composer (2014’s Standard Bank Young Artist of the year) Kyle Shepherd launched his new album “Dream State” with a live concert in Johannesburg on 26 July 2014. Presented by Wits Theatre, this show was one of the highlights of the Wits 969 Festival programme. “Dream State”, Shepherd’s 4th album release, is a double album of 21 original tracks of impeccable jazz-based music from one of South Africa’s most progressive pianists and leading composers of his generation.
The album and its launch at WITS mark and celebrate the 5th anniversary of the existence of the Kyle Shepherd Trio, which features Kyle Shepherd on piano; Shane Cooper (2013 SBYA recipient and also that year’s jazz SAMA award winner) on double bass; with Jonno Sweetman on drums. SA saxophonist Buddy Wells features on 5 tracks.
In this studio recording, the Trio magnificently captures the fluidity, intensity and inventiveness of its live performances that have entranced audiences across South Africa and also abroad. There is a natural synthesis and well-honed interplay that have evolved between Shepherd, Cooper and Sweetman over the years and have enabled them to explore the sound relationships between a variety of different music genres.
“Firstly, what makes this new album different from the three albums I’ve released before – in which I’ve paid special homage to my culture and heritage as a South African and African – is that it contains compositions that I’ve written specifically with this Trio in mind and taken into account our unique individual attributes and expressiveness that ultimately form the basis of the cohesiveness of the sound community that we’ve become and the dialogue that we share with each other during our Trio performances. Secondly, with this album, we are exploring the inter-relationships within the universal sound spectrum between different genres ranging from classical music, progressive rock and jazz music through to free improvisation and breaking down some of the artificial boundaries that exist (mostly in our minds) between the original composition, structural form and space – all in the most uninhibited and imaginative ways possible,” says Shepherd.
“I am truly honoured and humbled to be part of a long lineage of South African artists who are recipients of this prestigious award. I’m also grateful that with this award, Standard Bank has given me the opportunity to record all this work and release it on a double album."
"Dream State", which was recorded by Peter Auret at the Sumo Sound Recording Studio, mixed by Pål Svenre (Sweden) and mastered by Tim Lengfeld at TL Mastering, is the 27-year-old pianist’s 4th Album.
Kyle Shepherd has featured at many impressive venues and festivals such as Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and L’Onde Théâtre et Centre d’art as part of the Festival d’Automne à Paris, The Bird’s Eye Jazz Club (Switzerland), Jazzwerkstatt Festival Bern (Switzerland), Reformierte Dorfkirche Kleinhüningen (Switzerland), Klubschule St. Gallen (Switzerland). Der Sendesaal, (Germany), Hallenbad Kultur Am Schactweg, (Germany), Body & Soul Jazz Club (Japan), Shikiori (Japan), Kaho Gekijo Kabuki Theatre (Japan), The Aarhus Jazz Festival (Denmark), The Cape Town International Jazz Festival (South Africa), The Joy of Jazz Festival (South Africa), The Harare International Festival – HIFA and numerous others.
The Kyle Shepehrd Trio is making major inroads into the wonderful world of jazz ... because that's what they do best.
Kyle Shepherd Trio