
Review: Saxit - 'Systeme Diabolique'
By Frederic Egersdörfer
Published Tuesday, 20 February 2018 09:20
For those die-hard avant-garde jazz fans, SAXIT has evolved into a unique blend of multi-talented musicians, taking the sax to a whole new level and capturing audiences in their niche. The jazz fanatic can certainly enjoy a diverse list of tracks, ranging from complex jazz styles, incorporating a blend of narrative poetry speaking of apartheid and the rise and fall of the ANC.
'Systeme Diabolique' consists of eleven tracks which flow from soul bop to a typical scene, as if straight out of a classic 1950’s movie, which is the journey this music takes you on in the second track.
The third track, 'Burning Messiah' takes a serious poetic stance on the politics of South Africa and the social-economic change between 1990 and 1993 and poverty as a daily concern. The term, BC here refers to Black Consciousness.
The quote, “On this rock, we shall build a nation, which led us to other nations, rainbow nations, where there is no black in the rainbow.” Sticks with us as a common theme quoted out of this poem.
Since their inception in 2012, this four-piece band have continued to appear at many venues and various festivals such as the Infecting the City Public Arts Festival, Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival, National Arts Festival (NAF), the Oude Libertas Summer Concert Series (Stellenbosch) and the Joy of Jazz festival.
SAXIT have continued to incorporate various kinds of poetry, singers, actors and various other performances into their shows from all makes of backgrounds, making this something quite unique and varied for many audiences who really enjoy the jazz scene.