The sound of carnival brass: Claude Deppa and Kinetika Bloco

‘My grandfather had his own brass band, so I learned to play brass instruments early. I actually wanted to play trombone, but he wouldn't let me. I was playing drums a lot of the time in the band, but then also the tenor horn.’

This is Deppa describing growing up in Cape Town, and a typical rite of passage for young musicians in Africa during the 1960s and 70s. Grandfathers played an important role ‘educating the second generation, even the cooler players and chamber players’, explains Deppa. His uncle led a South African police band, too. From the moment Deppa was born, he was surrounded by brass sections.

Being a band member was clearly a family trait, but this extended to the community. It was ‘a whole way of learning’, explains Deppa, ‘one that has sadly declined. I learned not through college but in the community, and so, for me, this has always been a strong point to my work – being part of a community, and among kids whose parents don't drive them to music lessons’.

Fleeing apartheid South Africa in the mid-70s, Deppa's family made London their home. Gradually, he became part of a wave of South African musicians lighting up the London jazz scene, playing township grooves and tunes that defined the era.

Interestingly, as a young South African brass player, he could relate to the UK. ‘For many years, before Margaret Thatcher, there were brass bands everywhere here’, he said, referring to the tradition of colliery, town and Salvation Army bands, which provided ideal training grounds.

‘The interesting thing is a lot of the people who played didn't go to college. In fact, they never wanted or even thought of becoming professional musicians. They just loved it.’ Music was a large part of the social fabric.

That said, they had to put the hours in. The system of learning in these bands, and the competitions and peer pressure, we both agreed (I, too, started in one) could produce amazing players. It still does. ‘I can't even look at some of the charts [sheet music] they play’, admits Deppa, ‘with the fast tonguing and virtuosity required’.

This drive and commitment, Deppa insists, comes from being part of the community. He'd like every child to have this when learning an instrument, ‘because playing within a unit, in a group – there's nothing like it’. The other reason they love it, he adds, ‘is that music is a healing force. It's what makes people happy. You never see anybody come out of a concert angry; sad, maybe, but never angry’.

Forging a sound

In the Rough Guide to Jazz, you'll find Deppa's playing described as ‘fiery’, ‘pungent’, ‘unpredictable’, even ‘tart within bigger aggregations’. It's true: even in powerhouses like the Jazz Warriors or Carla Bley's Big Band he tends to stick out.

I ask how he became the player that he is. ‘I always hear big horns’, replies Deppa, putting this down to his time in the bands. Now, when he's conducting, ‘it's the best seat in the house, standing in front of a full section, appreciating that most beautiful sound’.

He continues: ‘The trumpet was made to warn people, you know. It's not an oboe. There's a reason it's got that bell: it's meant to send a message far and wide. Sure, I've probably lost work because some say, oh man, he's just too loud; but I like the way I sound.’

That will account for the volume, but he's equally uncompromising as a jazz soloist and when it comes to tone. Deppa recounts watching his idols Dizzy Gillespie and Cat Anderson during the 70s (at the Ally Pally jazz festival), and the lasting impression these left. But it was a conversation with Dizzy that clinched things: ‘Man, make sure you got your own sound’, said the giant of bebop.

‘It took me years to realise the importance of this’, explains Deppa, ‘but that was exactly what I wanted – if I play, you'll know it's me.’

I pictured, for a moment, Dizzy's over-inflated cheeks and technical uniqueness. Was finding the right sound more important, say, than developing a technique fit for all genres and moods? ‘If you don't have a voice,’ says Deppa, ‘no matter how loud you shout, nobody's gonna hear you’ – I took that as a no.

Inevitably, perhaps, our conversation switches to Hugh Masekela, another trumpet and flugelhorn player and a giant of South African jazz. Deppa, who was a friend of Masekela's, appreciates his lyricism and inventiveness, but also his sound: ‘He created that sound on flugelhorn, you know. He didn't sound like Art Farmer or Freddie Hubbard.’ Deppa can ‘clock him straightaway, usually within the first couple of notes’ when listening to recordings. ‘It's not the prettiness of the sound, it's the beauty of it’, he adds.

Kinetika Bloco

Deppa's community project for many years has been Kinetika Bloco, the south-London carnival band and summer school that celebrates music of the African diaspora and local young players. Inspired by London musician Mat Fox and his work in Lambeth schools, Bloco formed in 2000 with the aim of ‘getting young people engaged in long-term creative activity, advancing their education and skills’, according to Bloco.

Deppa explains how it began. ‘Mat Fox, Andy Grappy [Bloco's leader for lower brass] and myself were all teaching at the same schools, and we realised that during the summer none of our brass pupils played their instruments.’ In 2001 the three started a summer school, which ‘became an entity in its own right, something beyond the school gates’.

‘In the first few years we were basically trying to create a festival atmosphere, a carnival unit that could go out and perform’, he adds. Bloco is known as much for its dancers and carnival costumes as it is for horns, pans and percussion playing the rhythms of Brazil, Africa, New Orleans or the Caribbean. This being rainy Britain, however, the window for carnival was limited, though the momentum and demand continued.

By 2016 Kinetika Bloco was the Youth Company in Residence at the Southbank centre, and by 2018, an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation. Bloco is proud, too, of its diversity, with 80% of players drawn from the global majority and 23% with SEND. The group now runs year-round Friday sessions out of the Southbank Centre and two summer schools: for junior players, aged 8–13, and for senior (or young people) aged 14–25. And there's always room for more, according to Deppa.

Leaders

Bloco's other musical leaders include Ruben Fox (on keys), Sam ‘Blue’ Agard (drums and percussion), and younger players from within the group's ranks. ‘In fact, it's mostly the kids who run things these days’, says Deppa, without hesitation. So successful has Bloco's Leadership Programme been in giving young players a voice – right down to choosing the repertoire or creating new arrangements (or ‘mash-ups’, Deppa says with a wry smile) – that he mostly approves others’ decisions these days, when not conducting. And he's comfortable with this. Part of Bloco's mission from the start has been to provide pathways for leadership, from developing creatively to preparing for life in the music business. In any event, he says, ‘If you give kids the ability to feel that they can take charge of what's going on, you empower them. That's why we teach: so that they can learn an instrument, but take this further.’

Over the years Kinetika Bloco has spawned professional musicians such as Femi Koleoso (of Ezra Collective), Sheila Maurice-Grey (Kokoroko), Mark Kavuma (Banger Factory) and Rubin Fox (the founder Mat's son). This year it appeared at Glastonbury alongside Koleoso and Ezra, the 2023 Mercury Prize Winners. By all accounts, it was a musical riot.

Kinetika Bloco performing at Glastonbury 2023. Courtesy Temi Adegbayibi.

The music

For a flavour of Kinetika Bloco's energy and collective talents, I can recommend their first-ever album, Legacy, from 2021. Here, you'll find tributes to bebop (‘Caravan’), RnB and funk as well as carnival styles, celebrating the original vision of Mat Fox and a new generation of jazz-centric musicians. The track ‘Remedy’ (feat. Nubya Garcia) and the New Orleans-inspired ‘Guided by the Light’ deserve to be played with the volume up.

The piece ‘Papa Fox’ evokes South Africa, employing an authentic township swing and just the right level of poise. ‘The very first tunes that Bloco played’, recalls Deppa, ‘were by Abdullah Ibrahim. We played “The Homecoming”, “African Marketplace”, “The Wedding” – all from the great South African songbook.’

They also played west-African tunes, exposing players of west African origin to this music for the first time.

‘A lot of players started at the summer school because of the music we taught’, Deppa explains. With more than a sense of pride.

• kinetikabloco.co.uk
• grandunion.org.uk/claude-deppa
• Deppa and musicians from the Grand Union Orchestra performing with schools in Croydon: youtube.com/watch?v=gxgZpQ1zhfQ

Deppa also appears with the Claude Deppa-Clare Hirst Band.