The creation of CITY CHILD was a difficult yet beautiful
experience to go through.
Started almost by default in early 1988, the album went
through several stop/start phases before its eventual completion.
The rhythm section was recorded “live” in February
1988 before it went into storage for a period. It was taken
in and out of the cupboard between 1991 and 1994 as music
was added, before finally emerging to excellent countrywide
reviews in 1995.
It was also difficult to do in so far as the subject matter
I was writing about was concerned. Some of the songs had
been written as early as 1975, and some while the album
was being made. I was going through a seriously tough time
of personal shit that all helped shape the course of the
work. This introspective spin, and the quality of the (mainly
jazz) musicians involved, contributed to the album’s
eventual ambiance; 10 tight little quirky “jazz”
tunes.
Recorded at Selby’s Studio in Kwazulu Natal, it was
engineered by Ron Selby, assisted by Marc Duby. Initially
recorded with a Fostex 16 track analogue machine, the album
was digitally processed and engineered by Jurgen Brauninger
at the University of Natal’s Gerald Lapierre Studio,
before being mastered in Stuttgart Germany by Matthias Schnieder-Hollek. It
was distributed at the outset by Tic Tic Bang and marketed
by Total Exposure, before being given over to Nebula Bos
in 1998. Then I got it back – hooray!
The Musicians
Dave Tarr
Inimitable sailor, fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist
extraordinaire; Dave’s been around since the early
‘70’s, initially as founding member of Silver
Creek Mountain band, before going on to play with many others.
These include Ramsey Mackay, Paul Clingman, Wildebeest with
Colin Pratley, The Blundells, Johnny Fourie and me.
Marc Duby
Marc is a legend in SA jazz circles. I first heard him in
1975 when he came through Durban as a young 18-year-old
bass wunderkind with Morris Goldberg’s band. On CITY
CHILD he plays acoustic upright bass as well as fretted
and fretless electric bass. There’s an absolute gorgeous
moment in the song “Butter on the mind” when
Marc emerges from the shadows of the rhythm section and
plays the sweetest little fretless solo you ever heard.
He’s head of music at Pretoria Technicon.
Mike Drake
Durban-born USA-based Mike was really the reason CITY CHILD
started when it did. I saw him at Funk’s a few days
before he was due to fly back to the States after visiting
his family in Durban and after a few Ale’s it was
agreed to do the album THE NEXT DAY. I hurriedly called
Marc Duby and Ron Selby, set up a meet, and we did it. It
was an amazing experience for me to work with these two
consummate professionals. The 10 tracks were recorded basically
one take each, “live” in the studio. Mike Drake
is Professor of Music at Dallas University.
Lister Coleman
Los Angeles-based Lister Coleman was added to CITY CHILD
in 1989 while in Durban visiting his parents. He had played
with Mike Drake in Tangent; the jazz/rock fusion group that
had wowed SA audiences in the late 70’s. I was absolutely
thrilled to have him contribute his wonderful fluid style
of playing. Check out his solo on “Hole Song”.
Dawn Selby
Since the early 60’s in groups “It’s a
secret” and “Third Eye”, keyboard player
Dawn Selby has worked the SA music scene with style and
a lot of flair. A consummate player she always brings a
huge contribution to whatever she’s involved in; be
it live performance or studio work. She lives in Durban
where she teaches and writes music for a host of projects.
Will Wallace
Will Wallace contributed back up vocals to “Hole Song”. He’s
been gigging the Durban scene for many years with groups
Odyssey and Bona Fide, playing some mean guitar to boot. He
is a founder member of the Durban Blues scene and currently
fronts The Will Wallace Blues Band.
SYD KITCHEN
© 2001
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