Galumphing Duo with Reza Khota and Lilavan Gangen

Galumphing Duo is an improvising jazz duo consisting of South African born Shannon Mowday and Norwegian, Jørgen Bjelkerud.

Despite coming from completely different backgrounds and generations, they have found common ground in composition and improvisation and present musical stories and dialogues in an innovative and creative way combined with their shared personal and musical history. The concept of Galumphing, created by Stephen Nachmanovitch and presented in his book Free Play, can be described as ‘inexhaustible play energy’ as seen in toddlers and small animals.This serves as the core concept of their interaction which allows for spontaneous and playful interplay in improvisation, composition and arrangement: both heeding to form and structure yet also allowing the freedom to go where the moment directs them. Inspired by the one stroke ow of Japanese Enso (circle), letting go of all expectations, they aimed to create an album absolutely stripped of overproduction, allowing the vulnerability and honesty of their innate musicality and interplay to be exposed and highlighting the beauty of imperfection.

The ensemble has developed a concept of dual improvisation which seeks to blur the boundaries of stylistic genres whilst assimilating aspects of jazz history with musical cells borrowed from (for example) Bach and contrapuntal music or the strong inuence of Mowday's South African roots and their shared Nordic inuences. In the compositions and arrangements, sometimes through-composed and other times just sketches, they seek to nd the extremes of their instruments in register, sound and technical prociency and combine the elements of perfect intimacy with the raw or unpolished aspects of being in the moment yet in a playful manner. They juxtapose dense sonic environments with light and minimalistic space using their instruments (some of them very unique) in non conventional ways. Whether in an original composition, jazz standard or folk song, they seek to nd the essence of who they are and in this setting, who they are ‘together’ highlighting the concept of UBUNTU. All of these qualities display a Contrast of Opposites which is the inspiration behind the title of this debut album released by AMP records. This concept also extends to the choice of repertoire with themes such as beginning and endings, life and death, love and hate and the transient state of each which also reects in the constant, inhibited motion of enso which essentially becomes ‘one’.

Cape Town Tour July 2023-Pre-release tour

Shannon and Jørgen will perform several concerts, workshops and do presentations in Cape Town as part of their pre-release tour. They will present the duo project and then also collaborate with local musicians Reza Khota, Lilavan Gangen / Kevin Gibson on the gigs as well as take part in several Big Band projects/workshops. Aside from that, Mowday has invited local musicians to do guest appearances who have been part of the many local and international youth projects she has been involved in over her extensive history of being an educator. These include youth projects such as Edujazz, Sekunjalo, Turfjamp, North-South Collaboration 2013, International Youth Bands at Makhanda Jazz Festival (2017, 2019 , National Schools’ Band 2007, University of Cape Town and many workshops attached to her being Standard Bank Young Jazz Artist (2007). Details about guests and workshops to be posted closer to the time on social media platforms.

Shannon Mowday, is a South African born multi-instrumentalist ,composer, conductor and pedagog who relocated to Norway in 2009.She obtained a BMUS Honors in Jazz Performance from the University of Cape Town and completed a Masters of Improvised Music at Norges Musikkhøgskole in Oslo. She was awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz in 2007, a distinguished talent visa for residence in Australia, awarded the Norsk Jazzforum's Big Band Prize in 2018 and recently awarded Norsk Jazz Forum's 2023 Ungjazzprisen for her contribution to youth jazz in Norway. Although procient on all woodwinds, she largely specializes in lower woodwinds (Baritone/ bass saxophones, tubax, bass and contra-alto clarinets).Aside from performing and recording internationally with her own projects (for e.g. African Eyes, LILA, Chi, The Bridge over #Me TOO) , Shannon has performed as soloist with all the major symphony orchestras in South Africa as well as composer and director for Big Bands or ensembles with her music.(e.g. Ensemble Denada, Ballbreaker Ensemble, Stabbsmusikk, BRAZZ brothers , Det Nye Norske Storband ,Sandvika Storband etc). As a passionate educator, she has taught from school to University level, been involved in many youth music projects both locally and internationally (South Africa, Australia ,Norway/ Scandinavia) and has created several cross-cultural international collaborative youth jazz projects. A documentary, ‘Om a° spille sammen som seg selv

‘ was made of her educational work with leading Norwegian youth jazz ensemble Akershus og Oslo Ungdomsjazzorkester (AOJO). She is very active in presenting issues to rectify the gender imbalances within the jazz milieu and her large ensemble project ‘The Bridge over #MeToo largely addresses this . Her compositions have been used by leading classical and jazz musicians and some of her works were included in the South African Jazz Real Book and South African Jazz Collection. Shannon has also performed and recorded with some of the most prominent musicians in the jazz / improvised music eld such as Maria Schneider, Ensemble Denada, Sibongile Khumalo, Helge Lien, , Hilmar Jensson, James & John Morrison, Bugge Wesseltoft, Danilo Perez, Nils Landgren, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Geir Lysne, NDR Bigband, Busi Mhlongo, Gloria Bosman, Winston Mankunku, Johannes Eick, Johan Horlen, Jeroen van Vliet, Jonathan Butler, Erlend Skomsvoll, Elin Rosseland, to name a few.

Jørgen Bjelkerud is a Trondheim-based trombonist, composer and arranger and is one of the leading young voices in the Norwegian jazz scene. Bjelkerud recently graduated from the prestigious Jazz Department at NTNU in Trondheim. In recent years he has toured in Norway, all over Europe and India with bands such as Dafnie, Barrage, Marvil on an Expedition, The Moose International Quintet, Cosmic Swing Orchestra, Det Nye Norske Storband and Pompeii. Bjelkerud's respect for traditional jazz music combined with his curiosity about the trombone's various facets, sounds and techniques form an interesting and unique improvisational language. Bjelkerud has distinguished himself as a musician with excellent craftsmanship as well as a playfulness and curiosity connected to the innovative which also reect in his compositions. He has been awarded prizes such as the Nordre Aker Talent Scholarship 2021 and 1st prize in the Krokus Young Jazz Contest (Poland) with the band Dafnie.

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