“Deutsche Jazz Sängerin behauptet sich im Afro Jazzland”
SuedafrikaRadiobeitrag der ARD Südafrika Korrespondentin Dagmar Wittek
ARD German Radio
Deutsche_Jazz-Saengerin_behauptet_sich_im_Afro-Jazzland_Suedafrika 1
South African duo Natascha Roth and James Scholfield were lucky enough to borrow some particularly tasty gear for the making of this album, and they’ve made full use of it. Their sound layers arpeggiated guitars from Schofield with Emmylou Harris-style warbling from Roth, and since the overall feel is very gentle and downbeat, there is precious little room for bad sounds to hide. Happily, then, the playing, singing and recording are all excellent.
www.soundonsound.com
”Intelligent and poetic lyrics dovetail with a gorgeous melody and plaintive guitar background to provide a true musical ‘moment’…Natascha Roth brings a highly personal and personable style of songwriting and performance to the table. Great listening! (Way Out South)
www.wildysworld.blogspot.com
“Way Out South” is South African music at its very best and makes me proud to be a South African music supporter and lover. Just get a copy you won’t be sorry at all!”
www.jazzrendezvous.co.za
“… one has not lived the full gamut of South African music until you’ve heard, Natascha Roth perform Busi Mhlongo’s ‘Yise Wabant’a Bami… “
Evan Milton, Cape Argus.
“This (Way Out South) is the second album by this highly talented and innovative duo and differs greatly from the first. Natascha and James have finally taken confidence in their own song writing abilities and produced an album of self-penned material “
www.jazzrendezvous.co.za
“Vocalist Natascha Roth and guitarist James Scholfield…their performance was understated and intimate, music for music’s sake, where ego has no part to play…The performers are notably versatile and their repertoire includes Latin styles, African-inspired pieces and swing standards. Roth’s vocal range is impressive, pleasingly resonant in the lower register and pure in the upper range…It was a surprisingly understated but inspired beginning to the jazz festival”
John Edwards, “Cue”, National Arts Festival Grahamstown
“The CD Everything I Love is startling in its musical precision and complexity, while their musical sensitivity epitomizes the beauty of the jazz duo”
Standard Bank Jazz Festival, South Africa.
“… your lovely CD which I will listen to over and over… It’s wonderful and the musicians are great!!!!!!! WOW. Love your tremolo and your taste in the selections - ”I Remember Clifford”, “Moon And Sand”, and though I’ve never warmed up to ”Inside A Silent Tear”, I now like the song because of your plaintiff rendition. You have a sensual quality to your voice, too. Those are my favorites though it’s all special.”
Meredith D’Ambrosio
“Natascha sounding pure and real and beautiful…”
Hein van De Geyn
“…besides being an awesome jazz vocalist with tender phrasing, singing is very much a part of her daily life. It bears witness on her gorgeous rendition of Tom Jobim’s “Caminhos Cruzados”.
Nibs van der Spuy
“…light and swinging her incredibly flexible voice…softly she lures the audience into the song…then her voice drops to unexpected lows and depth”
Heilbronner Stimme
“(Soulfood)…13 songs interpreted with a lot of feeling and swing by an excellent singer…who proves impressively her emotional range and feeling for the music”
Peggy Thiele, Jazzdimensions
Classic Feel Magazine:
After she heard an Ella Fitzgerald recording at the age of 14, Natascha Roth knew that she wanted to be a jazz singer. In pursuit of this ambition she immersed herself in the music of singers such as Mama Ella, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. While performing in her home country of Germany, she jettisoned the folk and pop songs she had started to sing when she was seven. Later in life, after moving with her family to South Africa, Roth studied jazz voice at Austria’s Universität für Darstellende Kunst und Musik under singers such as Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton. With a Masters degree, Roth continued to sing both in South Africa and abroad and has taught jazz voice at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and at Belgium’s Lemmens Institute.
Roth’s debut CD released in 2003 is made up exclusively of American jazz standards. But, listening to Way Out South – an album that the vocalist released in March this year – there is no doubt that Roth’s music is taking a new direction. ‘Way Out South is very interesting. The music is not straight-ahead jazz. It’s a kind of fusion of different backgrounds. Africa has been my home for many years and I draw inspiration from the wealth of vocal tradition that emanates from the diverse cultures that exist on this continent,’ says Roth.
The album, which consists mainly of vocal-guitar duets and is dedicated to people who are forced to flee their homes and countries, grew out of a collaboration between Roth, her guitarist partner James Scholfield, tabla-player Ronan Skillen and guitarist Denis Moses who is an asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The new album features Moses and Cape Town drummer Kevin Gibson. Roth, who sings in the album in English, Portuguese, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Swahili and Lingala, describes the music as ‘a journey into the world of sounds and space, of repetition and hypnotic rhythms’. Roth feels that South Africa and the rest of the continent have a lot to offer the world’s vocal tradition. She demonstrated this when she sang the music in her new album on 18 July at a concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday in Berlin.
‘The talent in this country is so endless. There is enormous talent especially in the vocal field. As a singer, if you are passionate about voices, South Africa is the right place to be.’ This is no novice speaking. While Roth is herself an accomplished performer, a number of her students have also emerged as leading vocalists in their own right. Four of her students have scooped prizes in the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) vocal competition: Tutu Puoane and Abigail Petersen in 2003, and Monique Hellenberg and Lisa Bauer in 2007. In addition to these four, there are many other young vocalists who have come from Roth’s hands and tutelage. Mimi Ntenjwa, whose 2007 album is currently making waves in the country, was a student of Roth’s at UCT.
For the soft-spoken vocalist, the south has a uniqueness that allows vocal talent to blossom. ‘The South is an unexplored spiritual place within as well as a physical reality without; a world of extremes where light and dark meets and where music heals and reconnects the spirit.’ According to Roth, the spark behind the new direction that her music is taking comes from her previous album, Everything I Love. In addition to tunes by Cole Porter, Carlos Jobim and Ray Noble, the vocalist added South African standards as part of the repertoire – Alan Silinga’s ‘Ntyilo Ntyilo’ and Busi Mhlongo’s ‘Yise Wabant’a Bami’. Nokia chose her version of ‘Ntyilo Ntyilo’ for the company’s music download site, and her rendition of Busi Mhlongo’s famous song has become somehow Roth’s signature tune and the recording’s definitive track. ‘Way Out South was triggered by the response to songs such as “Ntyilo Ntyilo” and “Yise Wabant’a Bami” in my previous recording. There is something about that material that is interesting to a lot of people whether they speak the language or not.’
It is not surprising that Roth has been able to present the newly discovered material as hers. Firstly, she grew up in a musical family in which her father played guitar and her mother loved music. Secondly, Roth’s family was a cosmopolitan one. A daughter of a political journalist, she moved to different parts of the world as German television dispatched her father all over the globe. The Roths came to South Africa in 1989 when Roth Snr was the bureau chief for ARD television. This movement around the world has made the vocalist a keen student of different languages and cultures. Thirdly, Roth’s approach to music is that you have to love what you do. ‘As a singer it is a challenge to find out what makes you a jazz singer. Phrasing helps, but in the final analysis it’s about feeling and expression.’
Dinga Sikwebu, Classic Feel Magazine