Melanie Scholtz's first trad jazz album launch

Playing repertoire from the new album, Melanie will be joined at the event by previous Standard Bank Award recipients, Mark Fransman (piano), Kesivan Naidoo (drums), two of Sweden's top jazz musicians from her Swedish band, Johan Hörlen (alto saxophone), Martin Sjöstedt (double bass) and a very special guest from Australia, Adrian Mears (trombone).

“‘Living Standards' offers the listener a new take on well-known American Jazz standards,” said Melanie. “It highlights some new South African standards by Carlo Mombelli and Buddy Wells and has allowed me to explore the world of song interpretation and lyric writing.

A two-year labour of love

“The album has been a two-year labour of love with recording sessions in Sweden during August 2008, Norway August 2009 and South Africa, October 2009. The final sessions were recorded and mixed by Jurgen von Wechmar at Sunset Studios in Stellenbosch in late October 2009. This album is a true collaboration and the cultural connections and difference in timbres and textures are clearly heard in this neatly packaged volume of music.”

Tickets cost R50 and may be booked through Anne Marie at Alliance Française +27 (0)21 423 5699 or at the door.