CAPETONIANS were tickled by the idea of jazz rockers Pacific Express re-uniting for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
So, the sudden death of vocalist Zayn Adam has left many not only bereft, but also a tad confused about how the band would go on.
Bass player Gregory Higgins had become the de facto spokesman for the band because at 67 years old, Issy Ariefdien (one of the three original founder members along with the late Paul Abrahams and Jack Momple) prefers to leave all the computer and admin work to Higgins.
“It’s not something we discussed, I just ended up being the band leader,” he says.
Adam had brought Higgins in as the bass player, Donveno Prins on sax and Mark Goliath on keys. At the festival the line-up will also include Bjorn Petersen on percussion, Didier Richards on horns, Ariefdien on guitar, Momple on drums and a guest appearance by Ibrahim Khalil Shihab on piano.
“It was incredibly exciting. Zayn had this idea of a young version of Pacific Express, doing the songs in a way that would bring it into the 21st century,” said Higgins.
Adam had joined the band in the mid-70s when it took up residency at the Sherwood Lounge in Mannenberg and over the years Pacific Express served as an informal jazz school for many artists, which the vocalist clearly wanted to continue.
“We started playing and this thing started evolving and Zayn was saying: ‘Let’s go modern’ and in the middle of this, we had been rehearsing for months, and then he passed away,” said Higgins.
The band decided that they simply had to trust the process and managed to get through the Tietiesbaai concert with Deon Manchess handling vocals.
“We realised that we were in a conundrum, the band sounds so lovely, but Pacific Express is Pacific Express and Zayne was larger than life. So, it was pointless for us to try and imitate that particular sound. We brought Deon in and he was an absolute fit.
“I can’t wait to see what the response is going to be,” said Higgins.