Cape Town International Jazz Festival to Grows into a 10-Day Event

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is like a house with many rooms. Known as Africa's Grandest Gathering, the festival which will be in its ninth year when it takes place on Friday 28-Saturday 29 March 2008 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre brings together 40 jazz and jazz-related musical groups under its banner.

Over the last eight years, African bands have shared the festival's five stages with their overseas counterparts on a 50/50 basis. This presentation of varied musical styles under one festival roof is what gives the Cape Town International Jazz Festival its uniqueness and is the main contributor to its growth in popularity. According to the Melodytrip's ranking of jazz festivals, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is now No.4 in the world, surpassing events such as Switzerland's Montreaux Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. “The formula of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is simple: bring jazz together with its popular music siblings. The 33 356 people who attended the 2007 festival is proof that this is a winning formula", says festival director Rashid Lombard.

But since inception, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has been more than appearances by musicians at the festival's different stages. The festival has been about people coming together, honouring artists and exploring the potential of music in the creation of social cohesion. Sales at the arts and craft market that takes place during the festival reached R52 000 in 2006. Hundreds of people visit the photographic exhibitions that are part of the festival. In 2007, more than 350 people attended the various courses that the festival offers such as the arts journalism course, the course in music business, music training for high schools and workshops for musicians.

The festival in 2008 will be no different. Parallel to music performances there will be the Duotone Photographic Exhibition, the South Atlantic Jazz Music Conference, the arts journalism course, the music business course, music workshops for schools, the festival's golf day and clinics where some of the performing artists impart their skills to local musicians. A five day stage lighting workshop will also take place with the first two days of the course focusing on the theoretical aspects of the trade while the last three will see trainees testing at the festival what they learnt at the two-day workshop. Next year, the traditional Free Community Concert will take place on the evening of Wednesday 26 March. Close to 8 000 people attended this year's free concert; which is one way that festival organisers cater for those members of the community that cannot afford tickets to the event.

Towards 2010

While sticking to the well-tested formula, the festival organisers have a plan to make the festival a 10-day event by 2010. As part of this plan and as a response to growing numbers the location of two of the five stages is to change in 2008. The Bassline which is a stage for newer experimental sounds such as hip-hop, kwaito and house music will move to a dome that will be built outside the Cullinan Hotel. The Moses Molelekwa stage will then move to the venue inside the Cape Town International Convention Centre which previously served as the Bassline stage. Opening the new location of the Bassline will be the popular kwaito star Zola. A London quartet known as The Bays and the Atlanta-based Ananda Project, will join Zola in the inaugural performances at the dome. Also gracing the dome will be the Durban's hip-hop/jazz fusion band, Big Idea.

Next year, the build-up to the two-day music concerts on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 March, will kick-off with Gigs for Kids, a Gospel Concert and a “Cape Town Cares" concert for pensioners and senior citizens. These will respectively take place on Saturday 22, Sunday 23 and Monday 24 March. Another exciting addition to next year's events is the move by the South African Association of Jazz Educators (SAJE) to link up with the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Starting in 2008, the body that brings together the country's jazz educators will have its annual conference in the week of the festival in Cape Town. Not only will the educators will descend on the Mother City but they will bring along their students who will benefit from the festival's music clinics. Previous SAJE conferences hosted public concerts where renowned musicians and educators such as New York Big Band's trombonist and leader John Fedchock, pianist Dennis Tini from the Wayne State University in Detroit and trumpeter Ron McCurdy from the Monk Institute, performed.

The 2008 line-up

The performances on 28-29 March remain an anchor of the festival. The complete list of the 19-groups announced today are: Ananda Project (US); Bongani Sotshononda Project (RSA); Gavin Minter with the Mother City Jazz Orchestra (RSA); Gerald Albright (US); Hiromi (Japan); Kenny Barron Trio (US); Lennart Aberg Band (Sweden) feat. Peter Erskine (US); Leslie Klein-Smith and 'Mother City Groove' (RSA); Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe); Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band (RSA); The Bays (US); Najee (US); The Big Idea (RSA); The Four Sounds feat Zelda Benjamin & Phyllis Madikwa (RSA); The Manhattans feat. Gerald Alston & Blue Lovett (US); The Soul Brothers (RSA); Tierney Sutton (US); Tutu Puoane (RSA/Belgium); and Zola (RSA).

Like in previous years the music will range from straight-ahead chords by older statesmen of jazz such as US pianist Kenny Barron to fiery township lines that South Africa's kwaito artist Zola will belt out. As they did previously, the musicians will come from the East and the West. There will also be representatives from the South and the North in formats that range from trios to big bands.

Leading the lot at the Rosies stage next year is Kenny Barron. He leads the smallest unit in the list of 21- musicians announced today. But as the adage goes: dynamite comes in small packets. When Barron takes on a ballad he can make his audience weep as he bends lucidly his chords. Equally, the retired Rutgers University professor of jazz piano can put fire underneath those who are listening to him play. His explorations of Brazilian rhythms in albums such the 1993 Sambao and 2002 Canta Brasil are proof of Barron's versatility and deftness in his touch.

It is no flattery that The Los Angeles Times calls Barron “one of the top jazz pianists of the world". Inducted onto the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005, the 64-year old pianist is a leader in his trade. Barron who served his apprenticeship with luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef and Stan Getz, brings to Cape Town a Japanese bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Cuban drummer Francisco Mela. Kitagawa is known for his work with his fellow countryman, Makoto Ozone. The percussive Mela has been creating waves as a member of the Joe Lovano Quartet.

As it has become part of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival tradition, there will be lots of smoother sounds between Kenny Barron's lyricism and Zola's “ghetto scandalous" chants about Bhambatha, skoko and umdlwembe. Two musicians that will definitely dominate this range are two US saxophonists, Gerald Albright and Najee. The years that Gerald Albright as the sideman to keyboardist Bobby Lyle, pianist Herbie Hancock, vocalists Anita Baker, Will Downing and Whitney Houston; gave the multi-instrumentalist a sense of how to reach larger audiences through his music. Since turning professional, Albright has sold no less that 1-million units of his recording in the US. Like Albright, Najee is king of smooth jazz. Born in New York City, he cut his teeth performing with the Fatback Band and Chaka Khan. He also collaborated with people like Quincy Jones, Stanley Clarke, Larry Carlton and Billy Cobham. Having garnered wide recognition in South Africa, Najee is featured in Moreira Chonguica debut album. Chonguica is a Cape Town-based Mozambican saxophonist.

From the East comes pianist Hiromi. Born in Shizouka in Japan, Hiromi started to play piano at the age of six. At the age of 12 she gave public performances. This is before he went as a 14-year old to the Czech Republic where she played with that country's philharmonic orchestra. Before registering in 1999 to study at the Berklee College of Music, Hiromi had an off-chance opportunity to play with Chick Corea. Pianist Ahmad Jamal co-produced her 2003 debut with Telarc. This was no accident as Hiromi has always looked towards Jamal in developing her piano playing style. Her piano playing ranges from mellow sounds to very virtuosic, choppy and rockish chords.

Representing the Scandinavian countries next year is Swedish saxophonist and flautist Lennart Aberg. As a man of many collaborations, Aberg's appearance at the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival will feature US drummer Peter Erskine who is known for his work with Steps Ahead, Yellowjackets and Weather Report. The two have recorded two albums together. Such collaborations are not new for Aberg. In the past, he collaborated with people such Zakir Hussain, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Kenny Wheeler and Hariprasad Chaurasia. In July 2007, Aberg was at the Istanbul Jazz Festival where he performed with Oriental Wind, a group that Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz leads. They played a fusion of jazz with Turkish folk and Sufi music. But legendary in jazz circles is Aberg's collaboration with trumpeter. In a relationship that went back to the 1970s, Aberg regularly performed with Don Cherry. The Swedish artist is featured in Cherry's final studio album, Dona Nostra. Aberg's new CD Free Sprit has music that the two musicians performed together.

Earlier in his career Aberg had an interest in non-European tonalities. In the 1970s, together with Bobo Stenson, Palle Danielsson and Bengt Berger, Aberg formed Rena Rama - a jazz group that played music based largely on Indian, African and Eastern European influences. Asked about his keenness to work with Aberg, Erskine said “Lennart Aberg's music is worth getting on an airplane and flying 8,873 kilometers for"

On the opposite side of the scale are two big bands that come out of Cape Town, Gavin Minter's Friends with the Mother City Jazz Orchestra and the Leslie Klein-Smith & “Mother City Groove". Led by singer, saxophonist, percussionist, composer and promoter Gavin Minter the band will draw on the cream of Cape Town's jazz musicians - Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Andrew Lilley, Dave Ledbetter, Kevin Gibson, Mark Fransman, Shaun Johannes and John Hassan. The second big band will be led by singer, performer in musicals and cabaret entertainer Leslie Klein-Smith. Counting Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. as his influences, Klein-Smith has perfected his presentation and synchronises his contra-alto voice with his choreographed steps. In a career that spans more than 40-years, Klein-Smith's highpoint was when he performed at the 1992 Miss World Contest to 600-million television viewers. This time he is at his home ground at Africa's Grandest Gathering.

Undoubtedly leading the African troupe is none other than Zimbabwe's Oliver Mtukudzi. Mtukudzi is no newcomer at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival having performed at the festival previously. There excitement about his coming appearance is that it takes place after the Zimbabwean singer has revamped his accompanying band, Black Spirits. He has included two mbira players in the band. Tuku as Mtukudzi is affectionately called has recently launched a DVD Wonai on his musical journey. Another band that will rely on indigenous instruments in its performance at the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival is the Bongani Sotshononda Project. Since 1988 Sotshononda has been a member of a marimba group, Phambili. Later the group brought in horns into their music and has been involved in crossover projects with brass musicians from the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. For next year's festival, Sotshononda is embarking on a new collaboration.

In all the years that the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has been in existence, there is always a female vocalist that holds the fort at each of the five festival stages. Taking charge of vocal scores at the Rosies stage is the hottest jazz singer in the US today, Tierney Sutton. Discovering jazz late in her teens, the Los Angeles-based vocalist took to the music when she saw Betty Carter's live performance. Describing her experience of the show, Sutton says, “I thought that it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. And after that I knew there was this thing, it was called jazz, and that's what I wanted to do".

Bursting onto the scene in the late 1990s, the Berklee College of Music graduate has built up considerable following since then. Under her belt she has six CDs. Her 2005 I'm with the Band won her a Grammy nomination in the best jazz vocal album. Her infectious voice and her presentation of her material have all the hallmarks of a vocalist destined for bigger things.

While Sutton will be the Rosies' vocal anchor, Tutu Puoane takes charge at the Moses Molelekwa stage. Now based in Belgium, Puoane's appearance at the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival is more of a homecoming. Born in Gauteng, Puoane spent years in Cape Town while studying at the University of Cape Town. It is during her stay at the home of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival that Puoane performed with artists such as Frank Paco, Jack van Poll and Marcus Wyatt. A 2004 recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award for Jazz, Puoane is presently making a name for herself in Europe where she is the vocalist with the Frits Bayens Big Band in Holland. At the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the 28- year old vocalist leads her own quartet made up of Belgian and Dutch musicians. The three musicians backed her in her debut album Song, which is a mix of American standards and compositions by South African musicians such as Buddy Wells and Carlo Mombelli.

Puoane will certainly be an inspiration to members of the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band (SBNYJB). She was the 1999 vocalist of the National Schools Big Band. Made up of nine young musicians and under the directorship of pianist Andrew Lilley from the University of Cape Town, the SBNYJB will definitely enchant festival goers as they demonstrate the abundance of musical talent among youth in South Africa. The nine band members were chosen in July 2007, out of 320 students who participated at the annual National Youth Jazz Festival in Grehamstown. While the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is a space for budding musicians such as the SBNYJB, the festival always honours evergreen bands that are known for longevity of their music. Three groups in next year's line-up fall into this category. These are: The Manhattans, The Soul Brothers and The Four Sounds.

The Manhattans: You listen to any ballads or quiet storm radio programme today; then you are bound to hear songs such as “Kiss and Say Goodbye" and “Shining Star". Both tunes were made popular by The Manhattans. The original group leader of The Manhattans Blue Lovett penned the first song in 1975 and the second one was a 1980 hit that won the group a Grammy in 1980. The fact that 30-years later the music of The Manhattans still lives on is a proof of the artistic abilities of the composers who wrote the songs. Formed in 1964, The Manhattans became a big name in the 1970s and 1980s. This was the era of soul and Motown where lyrics that made reference to many folks' daily existence had popular appeal. Asked to explain his music Gerald Alstone who joined The Manhattans in 1970 declared; “I am comfortable when I sing about love, its ups and downs, all its positiveness and its peace of mind". The Manhattans will be in Cape Town in March 2008 featuring both Blue Lovett and Gerald Alstone.

The Soul Brothers: While the Americans were cooking up a storm with soul music in the 1960s and 1970s, something was brewing in South Africa. This was mbaqanga - cyclical music with strong bass lines. It grew from a fusion of indigenous rhythms and Afro-American musical styles. One band to come out of this milieu are The Soul Brothers. Formed in 1974, the group still warms millions of hearts in Southern Africa and in the rest of the world. Songs like “Mama ka Sbongile" and “Nomasondo" are this country's classics. With David Masondo and Moses Ngwenya as bandleaders, The Soul Brothers combine strong vocal sounds, brassy horns and a rhythmic section similar to that of other mbaqanga groups. Ngwenya's riffs on the Hammond B-3 gives the music a paced-up churchy feel. This sound and choreographed dances makes for spectacular listening and viewing.

The Four Sounds feat Zelda Benjamin & Phyllis Madikwa: Every town has a band that develops into an institution; with musicians coming in and out of it while the core remains the same. The Four Sounds are such a band in Cape Town. In a book Jazz People of Cape Town, many of the musicians interviewed such as Gary Hendrikse and Ezra Ngcukana make references to The Four Sounds, claiming to have been part of the group or just jamming with it. Throughout the period the Moses brothers - Cliffie and Basil - together with 79-year old drummer Willy van Bloemestein remained the core as the band moved around and played at venues such as The Carousel, 524 and The Beverley. Gilbert Lang will join the three as The Four Sounds at the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Also to be featured are Cape Town's older vocalists, Zelda Benjamin and Phyllis Madikwa. They promise to teach today vocalists how to do it.

The remaining 21 artists will be announced at the beginning of 2008. All line-up updates and other festival info can be found at the official Festival website.

The Gold sponsors for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2008 are, South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC), Standard Bank, South African Rail Commuters Corporation and the Department of Arts and Culture.

Mr Clement Motale - Director: Group Sponsorships for Standard Bank said: “Standard Bank is excited and honoured to once again be a gold sponsor of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. It has been an exciting opportunity for us, a way for us to connect with our customers the Standard Bank way - through our values; centered on making a difference in the communities we serve. We understand the richness, diversity and value of the arts in building a society and have hence, stayed in the forefront through investment in various art disciplines."

Group CEO of the SABC Advocate Dali Mpofu said: “We are indeed very proud to once again be one of the Gold sponsors of this event. We welcome the opportunity to support an activity that helps us to deliver on our mandate and to provide entertainment to our citizens, the people of South Africa. We just paid tribute to South Africa”s lady of song and vocal diva Busi Mhlongo in Gauteng to roars of audience delight. This confirms the public broadcaster's seriousness to continue promoting the music industry in this country and thus support a festival that develops local talent while at the same time exposing them to international artists . The SABC's success should no longer be measured solely on the basis of our financial performance. Important as this is as a barometer of efficient management, it is our delivery against the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, the requirements of the Broadcasting Charter and our delivery on our Corporate Goals and strategy that shows our true performance. Events like the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is in line with one of the goals of the SABC, that is, building a common future for all citizens of our country".

Tiro Holele of the SARCC said: The Cape Town Jazz Festival has grown into a unique South African brand that appeals to people from all walks of life in this multicultural country. We support the Jazz Festival as it assists us to promote passenger rail, so that rail it is used by South Africans to travel to work, school and for recreational purposes such as attending the Jazz Festival. The strategic purpose of Government's investment in rail is to ensure that the service is one of first choice for the traveling public. Just as this festival appeals to all, so will our passenger rail service appeal to all in the not too distant future. So, that's why the South African Rail Commuter Corporation is on board this great South African jazz train.

The Silver sponsor is Pilsner Urquell, and other secondary sponsors and/or funding principals include Cape Town & Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sports, City of Cape Town, SA Tourism, South Atlantic Arts & Culture Trust, Swedish Jazz Foundation, Iziko, ZASE JAZZ, Telkom, Cape Town Partnership, The City of Cape Town and Cape Town Routes Unlimited.