Presented by Wouter Kellerman
Reviewed Friday 9th November 2012
It has been just over a year since award winning South African flautist, Wouter Kellerman, last appeared in Adelaide, at that time launching his newest CD, Two Voices. This time, his concert focussed less on his music with an African influence, in favour of a wider range of World Music stylistic interpretations. Once again, we were treated to a mixture of his own music and of existing music reinterpreted by him and his group.
A classically trained flautist, Kellerman has listened to and absorbed an amazing variety of musical ideas from all over the globe. These all go through his amazing creative processing and, although the styles and influences are still recognisable, every piece of music he plays is distinctly his own.
As before, Kellerman explored the timbral differences, as well as the different ranges, of bass flute, concert flute, and a seven hole fife. He also uses a lot of modern techniques to create alternative sounds from the instruments. This year, though, his backing group was a little different, with Australians, Ben Hauptmann, again on guitar, but this time with Nick Hoorweg on bass and Peter Vadiveloo on cajon and drum.
All the way through, Kellerman’s warmly humorous conversation between songs added to the fun, making it seem more like visiting an old friend, that attending a concert. He immediately puts his audience at ease and has them smiling, laughing, tapping toes all night and, of course, applauding enthusiastically at the end of every number.
As well as new pieces there were a few popular tunes from the last CD, including the Irish traditional tunes, Brian Boru's March, and the hornpipe set of Boys of Blue Hill, Harvest Home, and the three part Belfast Hornpipe. Baroque composer Marin Marais wrote a series of variations on a 15th Century folk tune, and Kellerman adds a few of his own, to Folies d'Espagne, and the flute and guitar piece, Duel, delighted once more.
Kellerman could not have got away without performing the traditional gumboot dance that closed his last concert, and ended this performance with it once again. It proved to be such a popular way to end the concert last time that I doubt the audience would have let him out of the building had he tried to slip away without performing it.
Kellerman also works with larger groups when performing in South Africa, including singers and dancers, so we must hope that he turns up very soon as a guest at WOMADelaide, where he would fit in perfectly and would be sure to pull in a large crowd and get people dancing and clapping along to the lively tunes.
If you missed this superb concert, don’t panic, as he has plans to visit again. In the meantime, you can buy his CDs from his website, where they are available for purchased downloading.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
Venue: Nexus Cabaret, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr. North Terrace and Morphett Street, Adelaide
Season: One night only
Duration: 90mins
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