Dave Ledbetter and The Clearing at Speedway Café 105
Every Wednesday night from 9pm
Written by Niklas Zimmer
I don’t have a TV, and I hardly listen to the radio. I simply loathe commercial crap
taking up my brainspace. Sound familiar to you? Read on. Also, put any dumb
preconceptions of what the word ‘Jazz’ means aside – we are neither talking about ‘Cape Jazz’ nor some ‘smoothe’ radio bullshit here.
Many a Wednesday evening this year, I have parked outside Speedway, a very cool little bar by the old Tafelberg Tavern run by the legendary Dave van der Spuy, and gone for a sonic treatment of note: The Clearing, a spectacular ensemble of six brilliant musicians led by guitarist Dave Ledbetter: Andrew Lilley (keys), Buddy Wells, (tenor saxophone), Lee Thomson (trumpet & flugelhorn), Kesivan Naidoo (drums) and Shane Cooper (double and electric basses). Just being in one space with such a variety of talent and experience is a privilege, as anyone who has heard the amazing stuff each one of these musicians put out in their individual projects will agree to – the list of CDs alone is too long to print here.
Wednesday, after work, with or without your babe, sipping on a drink, surrounded by others who obviously also couldn’t give a f*** about any bullshit dress / look/ think – status quo of the lowing masses, hearing such very beautiful music being crafted right up close – this is so GOOD a time that I often don’t need any more for the rest of the week.
Trumpeter and event organiser Lee Thompson claims that Dave Ledbetter is one of the many underrepresented local Jazz greats, and listening to this man play the guitar certainly leaves no room for doubt about this: not only does he play with incredible skill and subtlety, he also composes most of the stunning material being performed by The Clearing every Wednesday. Dave’s compositions present nothing less than a new standard, in that they create powerful moments for many South African musical styles and personalities to merge and refract like electric discharges, like spectres of a future present.
Go check it out.
