4 March 2008
Looking at the additional 21 artists scheduled to perform at the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival, there's no doubt that the event will go down as the "Festival of the Guitars". Six of the groups on the additional line-up are either guitar outfits or are led by guitarists.
Leading the pack is award-winning US guitarist Lee Ritenour, who is joined by jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke from Benin, South African-based Mozambican guitarist Jimmy Dludlu, Nigerian guitarist Kunle Ayo and US soul vocalist and guitarist Raul Midón.
- The latest line-up of 21 artists adds to the initial list of 19 announced in November.
The six guitar units join Zimbabwean guitarist and vocalist Oliver Mtukudzi, whose appearance at the festival was announced with the release of the initial 21 musicians in November.
"In line with the festival ethos of bringing under one roof varied musical styles, the music of the guitarists who will be at this year’s festival ranges from straight ahead jazz to more contemporary sounds," said festival director Rashid Lombard. "We are also pleased to have on the line-up the cream of Africa's guitarists."
'Intoxicating percussion'
Ritenour's appearance at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is a follow-up to his first visit to South Africa in 2005.
Talking about his experience in the country, the 56-year-old artist said: "I was more excited by the native African players and some of the most intoxicating percussion and rhythm guitar playing I'd ever heard. Over the years, I have become more attracted to African music, and this trip solidified that connection for me."
Since his visit, Ritenour has recorded Smoke N' Mirrors, a disc with tunes like Capetown and Township, as well as three songs featuring South African vocalist Zamajobe, whom Ritenour heard when watching television during his stay in South Africa.
Another second-time visitor to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is Benin's Lionel Loueke. Now based in the US, Loueke appeared at the festival in 2006 as the member of the Terence Blanchard band. His guitar chords reflected levels of artistry not commensurate with his age, while his vocals brought the house down.
This time round, Loueke appears at the festival with his trio, Gilfema, made up of himself, Hungarian drummer and percussionist Ferenc Nemeth and bassist Massimo Biolcati. Loueke's appearance at this year's festival will happen a few days after the release of his debut album, Karibu.
Not just strumming
But not
everything in the new line-up is about guitar strumming, with the festival also featuring vibraphonist Mike Mainieri & Steps Ahead, Javon Jackson Super Band and Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer. Although the composition of the group has changed over the years, Steps Ahead remains steeped in the jazz-fusion idiom that made the group popular in the 1970s and 1980s.
Another band that is a definite crowd-puller at this year's festival is Javon Jackson Super Band. A graduate of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Jackson has his roots in hard bop. His recent albums have seen him producing interpretations of funk music stretching back to Cannonball Adderley and James Brown. A member of the Javon Jackson Super Band is John Coltrane's drummer Jimmy Cobb, the 79-year-old musician who appeared at the festival in 2007 as a member of the Geri Allen Trio.
The festival also brings together South Africa's multi-instrumentalist Zim Ngqawana, who leads his new Zimology Quartet, and local songstress Vicky Sampson, who bounced back with a new album in 2007.
Experimental collaborations
On the experimental side, the festival line-up is full of collaborations. One such collaboration is between South African drummer Kesivan Naidoo, Mozambican djembe and mbira-player Rolando Lamussene and Swiss drummers Peter Conradin Zumthor and Lucas Niggli.
Having connected in 2007, the quartet that calls itself the Beat Bag Bohemia toured Switzerland and Germany in 2007. The band describes its music as a combination of influences from rock, jazz, African and contemporary music. A day before their performance at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the band will launch its album as a celebration of their year-long collaboration.
The second collaboration is between a South African piano-bass-drum trio Offshore and trumpeter Marcus Wyatt. Saxophonist Buddy Wells will join the collaboration. Made up of Martin Wolfaardt on piano, Jonno Sweetman on percussion and Paul Gibbings on bass, Offshore has worked with New York-based saxophonist Sam Thomas and US guitarist and proponent of Thelonius Monk's music, Gary Wittner.
The band is also the rhythm section in Jonathan Crossley Electric Band's 2007 recording Funk for the Shaolin Monk.
Fusion Jazz
Another attractive collaboration for those who are into more youthful genres is that of Kolo Novo Movie Band. This is a Cape Town-based group whose performances range from a small intimate trio to an explosive live stage act of 12 musicians. The band's music has strong Eastern Europe inflections and fuses Balkan and Mediterranean styles of music.
But a real eye-opener will be an Indo-Jazz fusion band Quartet Babu. The four Cape Town-based musicians combine jazz forms and harmonies with Indian ragas and talas to create pulsating music and energy-loaded impulses.
Formed in 2006 when the Indian High Commission invited some of the members of the quartet to perform on India's Independence Day, the starting point for the band are the Indian scales and beat cycles. Quartet Babu then builds on top of these scales and cycles, jazz idiosyncrasies, chords and rhythms.
The 21 additional musicians announced in February are:
- African Inkspots (SA)
- Beat Bag Bohemia (Mozambique/SA/Switzerland)
- Bebop Guitars (US/SA)
- Candy Dulfer (Netherlands)
- Darius and the UKZN Rolling Reunion Band (SA)
- Javon Jackson Super Band, featuring Jimmy Cobb, Jimmy Dludlu (SA)
- Kolo Novo Movie Band (SA)
- Kunle Ayo (Nigeria)
- Lee Ritenour (US)
- Lionel Loueke (Benin/US)
- Mike Mainieri & Steps Ahead (SA)
- Offshore featuring Buddy Wells and Marcus Wyatt, Raul Midón (US)
- Quartet Babu, hip-hop group Skwatta Kamp (SA)
- The Little Giants youth band (SA)
- Rap group Timbuktu & Damn featuring Zoro (Sweden)
- Vocalist Wanda Baloyi (SA)
- Vicky Sampson (SA)
- Zimology Quartet (SA)
SAinfo reporter
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