The Centre for Jazz and Popular Music at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College in Durban is hosting Neil Gonsalves’ Rites, Rights and Riots at 6pm on Wednesday, October 26.

The pianist and composer presents excerpts from two open-ended song cycles, ‘F(r)ee Fall’ and ‘Scenes from a Wedding’.

‘F(r)ee Fall’ comprises a collection of pieces that were composed over a 10-year span, a musician’s diary, of the order, disorder and reorder of things in academic and other confined spaces.

‘Scenes from a Wedding’ is inspired by a series of family weddings and the celebrations and busy preparations that accompany them. This ritual of communion, which in this instance included a six-week expedition of North America, is set against the backdrop of Trump’s wall, BREXIT, gun violence in the United States, #Blacklivesmatter, and Elon Musk’s self-driving cars and mission to realise human life on Mars.

The performance will take the form of three short sets, each featuring a different combination of drummers, Bruce Baker, Riley Giandhari and Jude Kenrick, and guitarist, Ethan Naidoo, trumpeter, Siyanda Zulu and vocalist, Xolisa Dlamini.

The Centre for Jazz and Popular Music is on level two of the Shepstone Building. Doors open at 5.30pm. Tickets are R60 (R40 pensioners, R20 for students). Contact Thuli on 031 2603385 or email Zamat1@ukzn.ac.za for more details.