Spirituality, growth, loss and South Africa’s uneasy social dynamics all come to the fore on Robin Fassie‘s debut album Intwasa: The Becoming – a multifaceted, multi-instrumental offering imbued with contemporary jazz.
Coming from a diverse and rich cultural background, Fassie believes it’s important to pay homage to his creative journey thus far, the Ndebele word “intwasa” referring to a state of becoming, or an acknowledgement of the multidimensional transition of a being.
Featuring everything from a Cape traditional marching band, to sounds inherited by experiencing a rite of passage (“ulwaluko”), to some of Norway’s finest emerging jazz musicians, whom Fassie met whilst completing his studies at the University of Bergen and as part of the dynamic Norsk Quintet, Intwasa beckons versatility as much as it does collaboration.
The immense nine-minute opener “Klops Jol” is a rush of improvisatory bliss, with bashing drums, flurrying keys and a spectacularly untamed sax – this is the absolute pinnacle of modern jazz, taking obvious inspiration from fallen icons of the past.
“Intlungu Nentlupheko” – roughly translated to “pain and suffering” – is a blank canvas of sorts, for listeners to project their own struggles on to, and find resolution in the music, whilst more overt political tensions arise on a track like “Letter To Cecil Rhodes”. It’s an interesting one; the brooding, deft tones of a faint horn or the subdued smack of a snare drum working as evocative sonic portrayals of colonial legacy.
I’m left feeling that this record is quite a playful one, albeit tackling historical injustice through the lens of an equally politicised genre, underpinned by the complex musicality and rich compositions Robin Fassie has to offer.
