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Deluxe Edition - the full session

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1/2/2019 We have decided to release all the songs recorded at the full session from the recordings for the Cape Jazz Piano project. The album which was released as a CD, contained tracks from each of the selected pianists, but in April 2018 we in fact recorded more than we needed and we have subsequent to the CD release, decided to issue the full session for fans. The new edition is called Cape Jazz Piano - Deluxe Edition . It contains 14 tracks and a unique digital booklet. You only get the booklet if you download the full album. We have also re-worked the front cover to make it distinguishable from the original edition. First draft of the Deluxe Edition cover.  We have added CT BLUES,  arranged and played by KYLE SHEPHERD to the Deluxe version. The idea for Cape Jazz Piano (CJP) was not to include tracks issued on previous CDs in the series where possible. CT BLUES was recorded by Basil Coetzee and Sabenza and has since become a Cape Jazz standard, but it was on Volume 3.
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Jack Momple - making more Jazz history

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Hamburg - May 2018 Jack Momple on the 5th Edition of the Cape Jazz album series. Jack Momple (drums) and Mervyn Africa (piano). (c) P Lee-Thorp Jack and I go back to the days of Pacific Express in the mid-1970s and I know him as a creative and dependable drummer and a gentleman. I work with him at every opportunity I get. Being a drummer Jack did not qualify to contribute to a compilation featuring the solo piano but he is the musical leader of the band behind this project so I invited him to sit in with Mervyn Africa to record a couple of versions of the two of the classics of the genre - 7th Avenue (he actually played on the original of the song recorded by Jonathan Butler) and Abdullah Ibrahim's, Mannenberg (which featured Monty Weber on drums on the Dollar Brand original). The two musicians jammed together in the studio on various takes of the two songs with the idea of using one of the tracks as a bonus cut on the CD version of this album. Two of the takes we
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Mike Perry - Solo piano specialist.

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October 2018 - My experience of MIKE PERRY - Mike Perry in the studio in April 2018 , (c) P Lee-Thorp Mike Perry and his Nkomo Records label have been known to me for a long time though it was not until about the mid 1990s that we did any business.  Nkomo Records was a project and partnership between Mike and the late saxophone guru Winston Mankunku but perhaps more importantly it brought the two musicians together to record and compose the music for several albums. I was fortunate to have represented the Nkomo titles for digital distribution and publishing in all territories outside South Africa, a privilege that continues until today. A former business partner and true gentleman, Donald Graham introduced Mike to me shortly after the release of the Mankunku/Perry album called, Jika . I knew that Mike was a piano player who specialised in solo piano and who worked in SA and Switzerland playing many of the jazz standards. But his collaboration with Mankunku on the track Kha
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Ramon Alexander - new to this but very ready.

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My experience of - RAMON ALEXANDER – Ramon Alexander in the studio April 2018. (c) P Lee-Thorp I know Ramon because Jack Momple introduced him to me as a possible keyboard player to record some tracks for the 4 th edition of an album series in 2012. Jack and Robbie Jansen had played with him at various live gigs in and around Cape Town. I actually got to know him at Lionel Temmers' small holding outside Atlantis, W Cape, where Jack had his house and where the first rehearsals for the recordings of our 4th edition of this album series took place. When we met there was Errol Dyers on guitar, Stephen Erasmus on bass, Jack on drums and Ramon on keyboards. I liked what I heard and approached him to come to the studio to contribute to the Cape Jazz Band album. Previously Ramon had sent his debut CD,  Picnic at Kontiki  to me and we first met briefly in Glenn Robertson's club in Claremont. I had liked the album and particularly liked the Cape influenced tracks.
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Kyle Shepherd - Cape Music Warrior

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My experience of KYLE SHEPHERD. Kyle Shepherd in the studio April 2018, (c) P Lee-Thorp Kyle and my youngest son were at school together and when Kyle started to make waves in the Cape Town jazz scene my son reminded me that Kyle's performance abilities go a long way back. I only got to work with him in 2007 when he was gigging with one of Robbie Jansen's band line-ups. In fact the first gig he did for me was at a jazz festival in Malaysia, in a slot that was meant for Robbie. Due to Robbie's lung problems, he was not allowed to travel, so the band under Jack Momple's leadership, later to become known as the Cape Jazz Band (CJB), were booked to take to the slot. That event was followed about a year later with a short tour to France where Kyle recorded a couple of songs and appeared with Jack, the late Alex van Heerden and bass player Jonathan Rubain, in festival shows. At one of the recording sessions the band recorded a version the Cape traditional, Die Maa
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Hilton Schilder - Solo Piano - prolific Jazz composer.

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My experience of Hilton Schilder. Hilton Schilder in the studio April 2018 (c) P Lee-Thorp Hilton and I have worked together quite a lot, both in the studio and at concert performances. I forget if it was Robbie Jansen that introduced Hilton to me or if it was Hilton's dad, Tony. However as far as recording goes it was Robbie who told me he was playing with Hilton. When it came to re-issuing Robbie's debut solo album, Vastrap Island , I wanted to add extra tracks to the CD version and Robbie suggested Hilton had a couple of compositions that he and the Sons of Table Mountain (as their combined live act was known) were playing and that I should take a listen to these. So it was that Hilton's composition, Umfanekiso Nyanyeni was the first track we recorded together and it went onto the CD version of Robbie Jansen's debut album. I knew of Hilton before this and in particular about his performances with The Genuines and their work with Lloyd Ross at his Shifty
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Mervyn Africa - at last we work together.

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03/05/18 My experience of - MERVYN AFRICA Mervyn Africa in the studio in April 2018 (c) Songwrights Publishers I should have known and worked with Mervyn Africa before 2018 because of his roots in Cape Town music, notably with the group  Oswietie  and his performances with the band,  Spirits Rejoice , both of which featured my long time colleague and artistic collaborator, Robbie Jansen.  But he left town for London in the 1980s, too soon for us to have hooked up, though I knew of his career and success as a jazz musician performing alongside of some of the big names in jazz, and notably his performances with some of the South African (SA) musician exiles. Sometime in about 2015, I think it was, we exchanged email addresses via Facebook and we lamented the fact that we had never worked together. He seems to be spending more time in the Cape and the fact that I was planning to be in Cape Town in early 2018 resulted in us getting together. A new edition of
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