Hanepoot & the Biggish Band, like the rest of 'Slaapstad', is slowly emerging from winter hibernation, having taken a break from regular rehearsing and performing for the first time in 7 years . . . and will be appearing at the Silvertree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch on Sunday September 14 as part of Kirstenbosch's Johnnie Walker Winter Concert Series for 2008.

As usual we'll be featuring some great soloists: Bruce Muirhead on guitar, Lee Thomson on trumpet, George Werner on piano, Jasper Cook on trombone, Chris Tokalon on tenor, Storm de Klerk on alto and 'Hanepoot' himself. The Silvertree Restaurant is a great venue with naturally good sound, and the restaurant has an excellent menu.

We have performed here before and thoroughly enjoyed it. This early evening Sunday dinner slot is extremely "gesellig" and is just the way to finish off the weekend in a groovily relaxed way.

Tickets for Sunday's gig are R100, which includes a welcome drink, soup & bread. Booking is essential on 021-762-9585. The restaurant is open from 18h00 and the show starts at 18h45. More info at www.kirstenboschrestaurant.com and www.hanepoot.co.za.

But first a post-hibernation update:

When 18 people are left at a loose end for so long, it's never a good thing, so while in our winter cocoon of smoky Rooikrans fireplaces & just a little red wine, we managed to fiddle with quite a few things which might otherwise have been left untouched... and have ended up with a couple of plans of action for the future:

• We decided to drop the 'gish' and finally become a Big Band instead. It seems everybody just found it all too confusing, having and 18-pice band called 'Biggish', we kept being asked 'how big is the BIG band then?'. So not having the nerve to start an ever bigger band, we agreed to settle this score finally and take the plunge. I mean after 7 years we could just say we've matured nicely, like that Muratie Shiraz :-)
  
  and so from now on we'll be known as The Hanepoot Big Band
  
  so all you publicists and journalists out there, that's 7 less letters to have to string in a row when you cut
  The Hanepoot Big Band is a most entertaining 18-piece big band led by Jannie 'Hanepoot' van Tonder and plays a unique and lively pad of strictly South African big band jazz, including some of its own arrangements of South African jazz classics by the likes of Errol Dyers, Zakes Nkosi, Dollar Brand, Chris McGregor and Hugh Masekela, as well as some originals composed by Merton Barrow, David Ledbetter, Douglas Armstrong, 'Hanepoot' van Tonder and others. The styles includes Cape Town goema, Jo'burg marabi and big band swing.
  & paste . . .
  
  let's have it again, watch my lips . . . The Hanepoot Big Band
  
  got it?
  
  kewl!
  
  
• New Tunes: After a number of pitches at various organisations over the years, we finally raised some money for something other than our new shirts (seen them yet? very snazzy ek sê) . . . The Swiss Council (Pro Helvetia) has agreed to sponsor some new material (no, not for more shirts) -- they've commissioned our resident composer Douglas Armstrong to put pen to paper and wite a 'serious' tune. This means that sometime early next year we'll be performing his new African Jazz Suite, along with a new set of arrangements of Zakes Nkosi tunes (also courtesy of the same sponsorship) which is being taken care of by various arrangers in and around the band.
  
  Anybody out there who'd like to contribute (financially that is) to creating a thumping concert, or series of concerts early in 2009 to perform and perhaps record this material, well, you know where to find us, don't be shy!
  
  
• The Cape Jazz Collection: During the winter months several of our band members were involved in assisting our guitarist Colin Miller with publishing a collection of Cape Jazz sheetmusic he's been working on for some years now. 
  
  The Cape Jazz Collection has finally seen the light in the last week, and is available now from sheetmusic.co.za, or directly from Nick Green at nick@jazz.co.za.
  
  It is a first of it's kind and contains leadsheets of 39 tunes by a number of Cape Jazz composers, including Robbie Jansen, Jonathan Butler, Bheki Mseleku, Chris McGregor, Basil Coetzee, Winston 'Mankunku' Ngozi, Errol Dyers, Mark Fransman and Hilton Schilder.
  
  The book is being launched at Moshito in Jo'burg on Friday 12 September, and later in the month at the District Six museum in Cape Town.
  
  
  
• We were very sad to hear recently of the passing of one of our band members and long time lead trumpet player Charlie Heyes, who's gone on to play his trumpet somewhere where no-one is gonna tell him to play it 'more legato please!'.
  
  Charlie was a stalwart who was with the band from early days, a great trumpeter and just a great guy to have around. We will miss him dearly and our thoughts are with his wife Jill and their daughters.

  ---

Other gigs coming up: Oct 25, Gansbaai, Great White Shark Festival  Nov 22, Ambleside School, Hout Bay Jazz picnic

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