The many posters around town however turn out to be documenting the desperate efforts of club DJs, with hangovers, who do not have an understanding of the idiom of the institution that is jazz. Many of them seem to be opportunists whose vocabulary of the jazz lingo start and end with the South African township jazz of Masekela, Gwangwa and the African Jazz Pioneers.
Jazz is about real live artists burning through a spontaneous creation of music in real time. It is a reciprocal relationship that sees the improviser throwing a barrage of sounds stamped with the shadow of his naked soul to an audience, normally a receptive and communicative audience that in turn also communicates the fire back to the creator, firing him or her on, as the music hits the house. So much of the true jazz spirit is lost when greenhorn DJs armed with a few clichéd township jazz records and a commercial veneer that is aimed at sucking as much Thebe as is possible from the resurgence of the genre are out on the loose giving the Sunday booze guzzler a narrow perspective of what that music is all about.
But then all is not lost as Emmanuel Sesupo comes along with a repertoire that offers a window into the myriad beautiful nuances of the jazz language. With a flaming red semi-hollow body Goya guitar in his hands, he charges the air with excitement and a mellow atmosphere at Cresta Thapama Hotel’s pool side on weekends and at the restaurant on Wednesdays. The one man band that is Emmanuel, manages to save the city’s jazz lovers from the dance music club DJ with a widely and far reaching programme that ranges from the swing and bee-bop eras to the present avant garde schools that defy labels and description tags.
The man definitely comes across as the arty type with a crop of dreadlocks matted down by the ever-changing Fred Astaire hats, matching jackets, neckties and suede shoes straight out of a Harlem street. What is pleasing to the discerning music lover is that the sparkle of the costume does not in any way overshadow the shine of the man’s musical delivery. He fluently engages in improvisational musical lingo, tastefully without a stutter or blemish, while he immerses his audience in colourful embellishments of jazz-notes. He punctuates his delivery with heavy and pregnant pauses in between inspired runs and licks for effect.
Great musical educators and critics argue that accumulated instrumental technique, scale mastery, listening and performing experiences are resources that a jazz improviser cannot do without. Emmanuel has just that, having performed alongside some of the important figures in the country’s musical landscape such as John Kani, Rampholo Molefhe, Lekofi Sejeso, Tsilo Baitsile as well as recording and playing with Stepping Razor and Stepping Jesus respectively. His long experience affords him the opportunity to tap into these resources, drawing inspiration from and subsequently inspiring the audience to appreciate the finer side of life.
He is arguably one of the finest guitarists in the country, especially when one considers his ability to develop a simple motive, punctuating it with spurts of silence that lace the solo with a sense of continuity and promise. He runs through jazz standards rhythm, making swift changes that can prove daunting to a novice axe player with ease. He is a fluent performer with ample dexterity on the frets, a fact that becomes apparent in his treatment of melodic construction and manipulation.
Emmanuel’s repertoire has the great characteristic appeal to people with different tastes. It runs the whole gamut of music as it keeps developing over the years from Latin bossa Girl from Ipanema, ballads Misty, township jazz Mannenberg, swinging standards such as Satin doll, Tswana folk and even cheesy pop numbers from artists such as Janet Jackson played instrumentally a’ la Kirk Whalum or Norman Brown. Emmanuel Sesupo goes beyond interpreting works by composers such as Duke Ellington, Errol Garner, Fats Waller, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis etc and like other seasoned jazz improvisers he creates new phrases on the spot.
Revellers are made part of the show and can request songs to be played as they chat over a glass of beer, wine or food in the mellow atmosphere that his guitar creates.
