Thinking about Midsummer Night’s Dream at Maynardville, a locally elevated British tradition of Shakespeare in the park, and the upcoming Hamlet at Baxter, the latest incarnation of what I call Handspringery where enormous, beautiful, expressive puppets take story-telling to another level (with thanks to Handspring Puppet Company) sends me down the glorious rabbit hole of South Africa’s incredible arts scene and I ended up with David Kramer and the Kalahari Kroo Blues. When we will see this genius again?
January 2013 at The Baxter …
David Kramer is a genius. You couldn’t make him up. In fact, you couldn’t make up any one of the fantastically eccentric crew he has assembled for Kalahari Karoo Blues, a very special little jig of a show.
In this exclusive concert for the Baxter in Cape Town, the evergreen South African showman explores the connections between ancient and modern stringed instruments as he presents quirky, sometimes ancient musical styles from the far corners of Southern Africa – the Kalahari, the Hardeveld and the Klein Karoo.
A motley crew of uniquely talented musicians from around Southern Africa – from Oteng Piet and his one-stringed Kalahari ‘segaba’, the upside-down guitar style of Ronnie Moipolai and the handmade fenjoro violin of Babsi Barolong to the incredible teaspoon slide-playing of Hannes Coetzee – amaze and delight, as evidenced by sporadic standing ovations.
It is always nice when audience members spring out of their seats in appreciation, but one might expect the other musicians to sit still in quiet appreciation while the others took their turn. But, hell, no! The sideshow of spirited, often competitive dancing among the ‘resting’ musicians threatened to become the main show at times.
Not even those who appeared to be as old as the hills (and there were a few, with at least one octogenarian) could ignore the beat driving them out of their seats and into all sorts of foot stomping and hip thrusting.
Ronnie Moipolai set the house on fire with his crazy, upside-down left hand “katara” styling and his flamboyant bass-string technique. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more spectacular he lifted his instrument behind his head, rested it on his shoulders and continued playing.
Like Hannes Coetzee, Ronnie is a YouTube cult figure, but this was his first actual performance outside of Botswana.
Hannes Coetzee developed a style where he holds a teaspoon in his mouth to play a melody while his fingers pluck and strum away. Why, you might ask. He wanted to be an orchestra, of course. His YouTube fame caught the attention of the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and they went on to release one of his songs. (You couldn’t make it up … as I said).
Continuing to explore the connection between ancient and modern instruments and styles, the show included Mary Kriel, a folksinger from Vredendal, who accompanies herself with a coffee tin, and the Sonskynsusters, who have performed with Kramer on many occasions.
In the tradition of folk music, Kramer takes a bit from here and a bit from there, mixes it up, tones it down, turns it up, adds some honey, whatever takes his fancy.
Apart from being a showcase for extraordinary talent and a foot-stomping blast the show reminded us all of our oneness as people, Africans, listeners, dancers, rivals, you name it: we are all different and we are all the same.
It also made me feel very glad and proud to be home. In the words of Anne Taylor, “David Kramer’s absolutely soaring show, Kalahari Karoo Blues, will remind you why you couldn’t possibly live anywhere else but in this land of unexpected genius and overflowing sincerity.”
Kalahari Karoo Blues, 9-19 January 2013