Biography of Trudy Rushin, updated June 2011

Picture: Taken at Baran's in Dec 2009, by Lavonne Bosman.

Trudy’s passion has always been music. As a child she took piano lessons, and at high school, taught herself to play the guitar - within a year, she had started composing songs. At college, she took classical guitar lessons with the late Neefa Van Der Schyff (early 1980’s), and a few years later enrolled at Jazz Workshop, where she worked with Alistair Andrews and later, Alvin Dyers, discovering her deep love for jazz.

She honed her natural singing talent, taking classical lessons from her mother, opera singer, May Abrahamse (Eoan Group Voice Production Department), and jazz lessons from Sandra Harman (Jazz Workshop), over a period of six years. She also explored aspects of vocal jazz with the legendary Merton Barrow, jazz pianist and owner of Jazz Workshop Music School. She joined his 6-piece vocal ensemble, learning intricate arrangements of jazz standards.

Her first stint at professional music was with highly-talented Cape Town musician, Eddie Petersen. Their duo, “Flipside”, performed at restaurants and private functions, using a combination of live and sampled sounds (1989-1990). After that, she worked as a vocalist with a 9-piece band, “Deadline”, a 5-piece band, “Just Us”, and a trio, “Splash”. In 1993, she did a demo recording of four cover versions with Splash.

In 1997, when she had the opportunity to record some of her own material, she turned to Merton Barrow to assist her with the finer points of the arrangements. The band she chose for that demo recording consisted of: Merton Barrow (keyboards), Alvin Dyers (guitar), Charles Lazar (electric and double bass), Denver Ferness (drums) and Jeff Geffen (husband) on percussion. Shortly after recording the 4-song demo, called “At Last”, she performed with the same band at the 1998 Jazzathon, at the V &A Waterfront.

After the Jazzathon, she dropped off the performing scene for a few years, turning her attention to her family life. At the end of 2000, her marriage to drummer Jeff Geffen ended, and she rediscovered her songwriting passion, composing over twenty songs in the first two years after her divorce.


In March 2003, she returned to the performing world by forming a duo with guitarist, Keith Tabisher, a high school friend. In December 2003, they played at the Adderley Street Night Market, and in February 2004, were joined by Donald Gain, a double bassist. They called their trio “Jazz, etc.” and performed cover versions of jazz standards, folk, pop and South African music. Trudy found it exciting adding some of her originals to their repertoire. They did a 5-month stint at Off Moroka, a restaurant in Adderley Street. After extensive restaurant and other work, the trio reverted to the original duo in September 2006, keeping the name.

In November 2005, through her collaboration with fledgling record label, Dala Flat Music, she did a three-concert series, with multi-instrumentalist, Hilton Schilder, at 38 Special, an alternative art gallery in Buitenkant Street, in the city centre. The series was called Time With Trudy, and was her first venture into concerts exclusively showcasing her original work.

In July 2006, after having done two demo recordings (10 songs each, in 2004 and 2005) with Dala Flat Music, she went into the studio with them, with musicians Hilton Schilder (piano and other instruments) and Eldred Schilder (double bass), to record her debut original album. Various setbacks saw the project grind to a halt after the initial tracks for 16 of her songs had been laid. Some of the recording was done at the SABC studios in Sea Point, and the rest at Audio Lounge, the studio of renowned sound engineer, Dave Subkleve. The dream of completing that album is an unquenchable fire inside of her.

In September 2006, she did another concert of original songs, at Silvertree Restaurant, as part of the Kirstenbosch Winter Concert Series. This time, she was accompanied by Keith Tabisher and Hilton Schilder.

Some other venues performed at, over the years:
Arabella Hotel, Foreshore
Spier Village Hotel, Stellenbosch
Silvermist, Constantia Nek
The helipad (helicopter landing area) at Granger Bay
Strandloper Restaurant (on the beach), Langebaan, West Coast
Mugg n Bean Cavendish, Constantia Village and Paddocks
Fogeys, Muizenberg
Habanero’s, Kalk Bay
Café Paradiso, Gardens
Nassau Hall, Newlands
District 6 Museum

A new, exciting phase of her musical journey began in 2008, when she went back to Jazz Workshop to continue guitar lessons, because in August that year she changed teachers, and this was when she first encountered jazz guitarist and music educator, Wayne Bosch, who not only exposed her to more advanced features of playing the guitar, but taught her to analyse her compositions critically, opening up a whole world of musical knowledge to her. She attributes her love for the blues to his influence on her.

In February 2009, she did her first gig with Wayne, in a trio with bassist Shaun Johannes. In July, she and Bosch landed a weekly gig at Food Lover’s Market, a restaurant in central Claremont, which continued for 14 months. In that time, their partnership grew into The Rushin-Bosch Duo, with their focus set on expanding their repertoire and refining their sound.

In September that year she met up with pianist Onyx Phillips and bassist Bernie Lawrence, and performed with them at the Table Bay Hotel, in the V & A Waterfront.

In December, she and Wayne did a concert, “Music Inside Of Me”, featuring her compositions, at Baran’s Theatre Restaurant, on Greenmarket Square. For this concert, Trudy chose to work once again with Charles Lazar on double bass, and took the opportunity to introduce her son, Nick Geffen, 14 years old at the time, on drums. André Manuel, of Dala Flat Music, recorded the concert.

She did a second concert of originals at Baran’s, also entitled “Music Inside Of Me”, this time in March 2010, with Wayne and Charles, which was once again recorded by André. In April that year, she held a fundraising concert for Haiti earthquake survivors in Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral, featuring a number of poets and musicians. She and Wayne performed two original songs, and their slot was videotaped by Colombian documentary producer, Angela Ramirez.

When Wayne hosted a Guitar Workshop in August 2010, educating and inspiring musicians in the audience on techniques of accompaniment and improvisation, Trudy provided the vocals for his demonstration of different approaches to accompaniment. This workshop was also videotaped.

In September, they played a weekly gig, at Café Adelphi, in Sea Point. That same month, they performed at a Heritage Day concert, as part of NGO Week, as well as at a Heritage Launch at Harold Cressy High School, in Gardens, Cape Town.

December 2010 found her back at Baran’s, doing her third concert of originals there, with three other artists featured in the first half: Diana Ferrus (poet), Megan Francis (vocalist) and Peter LaVey (emerging singer-songwriter). This time, she and Wayne, by now a well-oiled duo, performed one set of her compositions.

The 5-star Myoga Restaurant, in the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, was where she did gigs on New Year’s Eve, with Wayne in 2009 and with guitarist Rudi Byrnes in 2010. In November 2010 and January 2011, she and Keith Tabisher performed at Neethlingshof Wine Farm in Stellenbosch; they also did a function at Crystal Towers Hotel (Century City) in January.

Pursuing her dream, Trudy recorded one of her songs, a samba called, “I’m So Happy Today”, at Little River Studio, in January 2011, accompanied by Wayne Bosch (guitar) and Tony Paco (percussion). A few days later, she uploaded it onto the internet, putting her original material out in cyberspace for the first time. Within a week, her song was played on regional radio (Cape Town’s Heart Radio), and two weeks later, a national station (Radio 2000) gave the song airplay. She is serious about recording a full album of originals and is busy exploring ways to fund the project.

At the end of January, she spent time in Stellenbosch with a group of Luckhoff High School learners, at their choir camp, speaking to them about the role of music in her life, and playing some of her originals. She met up with the young band, Cappuccino (linked to Stellenzicht High School), at the camp, as well.

In February 2011, she accepted an offer to do a weekly solo gig at Don Pedro Restaurant in Woodstock, where she enjoyed a 14-week season, making her mark as a singer-songwriter at this ‘Bohemian’ venue, frequented by artists from various disciplines.

The Rushin-Bosch Duo was hired for a weekly gig at Myoga Restaurant in March, and another one at Doppio Zero (Claremont) in April.


Trudy thoroughly enjoys performing, in collaboration with other musicians, but also as a soloist, singing her own songs. She writes about things that affect her in everyday life, exploring both dark and light emotions. Her songs often have more than just a hint of humour, and audiences respond well to the range of issues and emotions she sings about. Throughout the different stages of her adult life so far, she has found songwriting cathartic, like journalling to music. It took many years before she felt brave enough to play her originals in public, but once she started, she was shocked at the reception her songs got, especially from women, many of whom related strongly to the lyrics. Her love of Latin rhythms shows in her compositions, many of which have samba and bossa nova feels.

Both a realist and a dreamer, she enjoys immersing herself in activities that feed both of these aspects of her personality. A philosophical observer of life, she is also passionate about empowering young and old South Africans, especially people who were raised to feel invisible under the apartheid system. She’s passionate about women finding their voices and speaking out against all forms of abuse. She’s passionate about truth and freedom, both individual and collective. Acutely aware of how precious life is, she believes fiercely in claiming happiness and power in the present. In her songs, it’s clear that she celebrates life and love, personal power and freedom.

She believes in the healing, restorative power of music, and regularly does sing-alongs with community and church groups, focusing on senior citizens.

Blessed with the ability to function well as both a left and right–brain thinker, Trudy prefers managing her own music career, making time for the behind-the-scenes aspects of the industry, doing the administrative tasks and marketing herself. This is consistent with her belief that, if you want things to happen, you have to go out there and make them happen.

Work:
After 25 years in Education and Edu-tourism, with music as her part-time occupation, she is currently self-employed, working with her two passions, Music and English:

Music: Live performances (voice, guitar) in solo or duo format; guitar lessons to adults and children; sing-alongs with groups of people, particularly seniors.

English: Various forms of work include facilitating discussion groups and workshops, as well as proofreading, editing and report writing.

At home: Homemaker, amateur gardener, mother to Nicholas (16) and Summer (12).

Favourite pastimes: Spending time with the important people in her life, playing guitar and singing, writing songs, jamming with other musicians, swimming, walking briskly with her best friend, watching live performances, reading, journalling, blogging, walking in nature, sending and receiving e-mails, online social networking, surfing the internet, watching movies with strong female characters, taking photos, looking at photos, soaking in a candle-lit bubble-bath, and eating anything containing chocolate!

To listen to demo on the internet, go to:
http://soundcloud.com/trudy-rushin/im-so-happy-today-mp3-3