Description

JAA is a free association of people dedicated to the cause of freedom and individual and social solidarity and responsibility. Notwithstanding the changes through the music and its message: of liberation, of the possibility of individual and collective  freedom, of the necessity of political struggle while retaining one´s humanity remains eternally relevant.

The politically and culturally achievements of exiled South African jazz musicians together with the supportive creative and collaborative international and German musicians return to Duncan Village, home of Johnny Dyani, to  share, inspire and create a fresh collaborative musical experience through the annual Gompo Arts Centre workshop. These events unite old fighters for elementary freedoms with new and future generations, thus bridging the gap between geography and history and offering tremendous surprise and excitement for audiences, participants and students alike.

Creative students and scholars from underserved communities as well as jazz schools, will be given the wonderful opportunity for a dedicated workshop and master-class. This will serve to make an essential aspect of the buried cultural heritage accessible to a young generation of professional jazz musicians who have grown up in the post-Apartheid society.

The next generation may now learn of the richness of the artistic heritage that has been cultivated over decades in Europe and especially in Germany. These young Jazz musicians in South Africa will have the opportunity to encounter the contemporary influences of Europe in this music, as they are embodied and audible in this project, through the likes of Claude Deppa, Daniel Guggenheim and Allen Jacobson. Our future generation musicians and creatives will interact closely with Dyani’s catalogue of recorded music as scored and arranged by the musicians.