Patience Bambalele

Patience Bambalele

One of the important exponents of African traditional music, Madala Kunene's writing skills will be tested today when he collaborates with Valiant Swart on Jam Sandwich on SABC2 at 10pm.

The reality-cum-documentary music show puts local musicians from different market segments together to collaborate. The duo are expected to create one new original song and do a cover of an existing South African song.

Kunene has developed a completely original style of playing guitar based on ancient divination music, and most of his inspiration comes to him in dreams, while Swart sings mostly in Afrikaans.

"The South African music market is still segmented with artists being very popular in one market and virtually unknown in another. Jam Sandwich plans to change all that," says executive producer Deon Maas.

"Unlike previous collaborative efforts, participants will not be allowed to go for the obvious, but be encouraged to think outside the box.

"They will be encouraged to challenge themselves and create truly unique musical experiences that will challenge them. The show promises to open the doors on how musicians work and what they are really capable of."

Maas said because of the nature of the collaborations, artists would be introduced to new ideas, markets and a possible fan base.

"The viewer will be privy to the insider moves of how music is created," he said.

"The entire creative process; conversations between artists, the choice of song, the laying of the tracks, the rehearsals, the jams, the fights, the successes and the spending of their reward money will be filmed."

After the recording of the song, each artist will be given R10000 to spend in any way they see fit and in agreement with their collaborative partner.