Karen Devroop and Fabrizio Savino at the 2019 Unisa Jazz festival

Abstract

This creative output involved a jazz quintet performance at the 2019 Unisa Jazz Festival. The featured artists involved a collaboration between Karendra Devroop (South Africa) and internationally acclaimed jazz guitarist, Fabrizio Savino (Italy), accompanied by a rhythm section comprised of some of South Africa’s leading jazz artists, including Roland Moses (piano), Marc Duby (bass) and Rob Watson (drums). This performance was initiated by Karen Devroop following a chance meeting with Fabrizio Savino in Italy in 2018.

The performance occurred in ZK Matthews Hall and was one of the featured ensembles on the 2019 Unisa Jazz Festival which included a host of national and international artists including but not limited to: Karen Devroop/Fabrizio Savino, Gloria Bosman, Riley G Collective, Artvark (Netherlands), Ildo Nandja Trio and the Unisa Big Band, among others. The festival occurred over 2 days and was widely publicised via print media, social media, online media and radio stations nationally. The Unisa Jazz Festival is currently considered one of the premier new jazz festivals in South Africa that has been in existence since 2018 and has featured international artists from the Seychelles, Netherlands, Italy and beyond in addition some of South Africa’s leading jazz artists such as Feya Faku, Nduduzo Makhatini, McCoy Mrubata, and many others.

The ensemble performed entirely original compositions except for one jazz standard. All works were specifically arranged for this performance based upon the available instrumentation. This was the ensemble’s first performance with additional performances by Karen Devroop/Fabrizio Savino scheduled for Italy. Unfortunately, these performances were postponed due to the current pandemic. It is hoped that these and other performances in South Africa will proceed in 2021.

The performance was extremely well received by the audience due to a stellar performance by the ensemble which ‘pushed the boundaries’ in terms of improvisation, innovative arrangements of the works, and originality on the artists’ part with regard to interpretation, interaction and collaboration.