Cape Town - The Cape Town International Jazz Festival’s Master Class encounters with top international and local jazz musicians, which will be held at the Cape Sun on Friday and Saturday, is a “definite must” for jazz lovers and up-and-coming young musicians.
Professional trumpeter Muneeb Hermans, 22, of Hanover Park, who has taken a gap-year break from his studies at UCT College of Music, said the Master Class encounters were “amazing”.
“I am going to the Darren English workshop because I want to hear him play live. I listen to his latest CD, Imagine Nation, all the time. He is also a UCT graduate who lives in Atlanta, US, now. Going to the workshops you listen to the musicians play. You get to ask questions and just listen to great music being played and it is all for free. It is a definite must for people who can’t go to the festival or who missed out on getting a ticket, like me.
“I’m also looking forward to going to the free concert (on Wednesday) with Mango Groove. It is always a fun time on Greenmarket Square,” he said.
This is the first year that Hermans has missed out on playing at the festival. His first time in 2010 was as trumpeter with his high school band, the Alexander Sinton Jazz Band. In 2013, he played with Errol Dyers and, last year, he played trumpet for Pepe Mhkize’s band. Last year, Hermans played in the US with the Mama Afrika project and will join them in August again for their stint in London’s West End.
He has played in Beijing, New York, London, Paris and Seychelles.
As a child, Hermans said he was drawn to Louis Armstrong’s music and he joined a minstrel troupe in Hanover Park, just so that he could learn to play trumpet. It was only at Alexander Sinton High School that Hermans acquired a trumpet teacher and learnt technical skills, learnt to read music and to listen to the many more great musicians such as Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Clark Terry and pianist Winton Kelly.
“It all started with Louis Armstrong I fell in love with the sounds and then there was Miles Davis. He captures my heart, rather than my ear,” said Hermans.
Currently playing with a trio at the One and Only, Hermans also plays trumpet for Seven Steps Minstrels, a professional minstrel troupe which headlines at Carnaval De Victoria, Seychelles, every year. He is also a member of the Cape Argus D6 Entertainers minstrel troupe.