“That prickle of nerves you feel just before going on stage to perform a set, I haven’t felt that in a long time,” says East London-born jazz drummer Kesivan Naidoo, “not until last week that is”.
Naidoo was talking about how he felt shortly before going on stage with his all-South African jazz quintet “Kesivan and The Lights” at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The band – Kesivan on drums and percussion, Shane Cooper (bass), Kyle Shepherd (piano), Reza Khota (guitar), Justin Bellairs (saxophones), with special guest Feya Faku, on trumpet and fagelhorn, debuted in New York last week and received a standing ovation for their performance.
Kesivan explains: “Being able to return 15 years later, no longer the wide-eyed youth, I’m able to better use the opportunity. Whereas before I was in caught up in the wonder of it all, now I see it as a game-changer to start an international career.”
Both he and Shepherd are to stay on after the rest of the band leaves to return to South Africa on November 9 to perform and workshop as a duo at a number of different venues.
“I’m also going to be visiting the Village Vanguard to see if I can hustle my way onto the stage at some point. We have already been invited to return to New York in June and November next year, so you never know, I may well get the opportunity to play at this venue,” he says with a smile.
Although based permanently in Cape Town, Kesivan cites Stirling High School teacher and band master Alan Webster as his earliest mentor and says he remains in contact with him.
“In fact Alan was the first one I called when I heard about the trip to New York,” says Naidoo. By the time Naidoo was 14 and at Hudson Park High School, he was a fixture in Stirling school’s jazz band which has won many accolades over the years.
Naidoo went on to study jazz at the University of Cape Town where he became the youngest person to win the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship Competition, which he used to study in India at the Rhanbindra Bharati University in Kolkata, under sitar guru Sanjay Bandophandyah.
He won the Standard Band Young Artist award for jazz in 2009 and has since shared the stage with top South African musicians including Miriam Makeba, Selaelo Selota, Jimmy Dludlu, Marcus Wyatt and Judith Sephuma.
Not just popular locally, Naidoo has taken his
music to international audiences, touring with various jazz bands.
He says working as the first drummer for the likes of Feya Faku, Carlo Mombelli, Shane Cooper and Mike Rossi means he is booked up for months in advance either in recording sessions or touring but this does not stop him getting his band together in whatever free time he can muster.
Naidoo says he mouldsKesivan and The Lights on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. According to Wikipedia Blakey was an American jazz drummer and big band leader who made a name for himself in the 1940s. The Messengers were formed as a collective of contemporaries, but over the years it became known as an incubator for young talent.
Much like Naidoo,Blakey was a relentless performer, who continued to record as a sideman throughout his career – frequently for band members that had graduated through The Messengers.
Shortly before leaving for New York Kesivan and The Lights launched a second album Brotherhood – a jazz album said to be the kind Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and the iconoclasts they inspired would appreciate, with intense creative improvisation and joyful extended grooves.
Asked if Naidoo had any intention of launching the album in East London, where he still has lots of family, he said: “I’d love to come home. I’ve got great memories of growing up there and despite having travelled all over I still regard it as one of the most beautiful places in the world. But as far as performing in the city is concerned, getting my entire band there would be a huge expense.”
He added with a laugh: “However, on a personal level – I’ll definitely be back to see my family and to swim in a warm ocean!”
Jazz maestro shines SA light on world stage
Naidoo was talking about how he felt shortly before going on stage with his all-South African jazz quintet “Kesivan and The Lights” at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The band – Kesivan on drums and percussion, Shane Cooper (bass), Kyle Shepherd (piano), Reza Khota (guitar), Justin Bellairs (saxophones), with special guest Feya Faku, on trumpet and fagelhorn, debuted in New York last week and received a standing ovation for their performance.
Kesivan explains: “Being able to return 15 years later, no longer the wide-eyed youth, I’m able to better use the opportunity. Whereas before I was in caught up in the wonder of it all, now I see it as a game-changer to start an international career.”
Both he and Shepherd are to stay on after the rest of the band leaves to return to South Africa on November 9 to perform and workshop as a duo at a number of different venues.
“I’m also going to be visiting the Village Vanguard to see if I can hustle my way onto the stage at some point. We have already been invited to return to New York in June and November next year, so you never know, I may well get the opportunity to play at this venue,” he says with a smile.
Although based permanently in Cape Town, Kesivan cites Stirling High School teacher and band master Alan Webster as his earliest mentor and says he remains in contact with him.
“In fact Alan was the first one I called when I heard about the trip to New York,” says Naidoo. By the time Naidoo was 14 and at Hudson Park High School, he was a fixture in Stirling school’s jazz band which has won many accolades over the years.
Naidoo went on to study jazz at the University of Cape Town where he became the youngest person to win the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship Competition, which he used to study in India at the Rhanbindra Bharati University in Kolkata, under sitar guru Sanjay Bandophandyah.
He won the Standard Band Young Artist award for jazz in 2009 and has since shared the stage with top South African musicians including Miriam Makeba, Selaelo Selota, Jimmy Dludlu, Marcus Wyatt and Judith Sephuma.
Not just popular locally, Naidoo has taken his
music to international audiences, touring with various jazz bands.
He says working as the first drummer for the likes of Feya Faku, Carlo Mombelli, Shane Cooper and Mike Rossi means he is booked up for months in advance either in recording sessions or touring but this does not stop him getting his band together in whatever free time he can muster.
Naidoo says he mouldsKesivan and The Lights on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. According to Wikipedia Blakey was an American jazz drummer and big band leader who made a name for himself in the 1940s. The Messengers were formed as a collective of contemporaries, but over the years it became known as an incubator for young talent.
Much like Naidoo,Blakey was a relentless performer, who continued to record as a sideman throughout his career – frequently for band members that had graduated through The Messengers.
Shortly before leaving for New York Kesivan and The Lights launched a second album Brotherhood – a jazz album said to be the kind Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and the iconoclasts they inspired would appreciate, with intense creative improvisation and joyful extended grooves.
Asked if Naidoo had any intention of launching the album in East London, where he still has lots of family, he said: “I’d love to come home. I’ve got great memories of growing up there and despite having travelled all over I still regard it as one of the most beautiful places in the world. But as far as performing in the city is concerned, getting my entire band there would be a huge expense.”
He added with a laugh: “However, on a personal level – I’ll definitely be back to see my family and to swim in a warm ocean!”
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