So guest writer Jasper Cook sends us a video of the famous song ‘Pata Pata’, not sung by Miriam Makeba but by Thembi Mtshali, and performed by the African Jazz Pioneers. His mate Maeder Osler, Toverview’s founder and editor-in-chief, WhatsApps him to ask whether he had been involved in the performance. So Jasper replies:
‘I did some harmonies in the backing vocals … arranged half of the brass … played the bass line, in unison with the bass, at the beginning and end on a bass trombone … Did the instrumental solo trombone in the middle, separating Thembi Mtshali’s opening and closing vocals … I enjoyed playing that solo …
‘Another trombonist, Barry Reid, wrote an arrangement for the Navy Band, quoting my whole solo in the trombone section. He said he had lowered the key because none of the Navy Band trombonists could reach my high Ds.
‘I actually heard part of that performance while travelling on a bus in Cape Town. At first I couldn’t work out why it sounded so familiar. It was on a day when parliament was opening, or some big thing like that, where the Navy Band was playing … ‘
Awesome. The link to the video appears below.