ZIMBABWEAN superstar Oliver Mtukudzi will perform at this year’s Standard Bank Jazz Festival, Grahamstown in South Africa which is scheduled for the beginning of July.
The festival will bring together the best of South African jazz today with some of the world’s most exhilarating contemporary jazz innovators.
The 2015 programme, which features more than 120 sought-after musicians, presents a solid mix of serious limit-shifting jazz as well as the freshest crossover sounds to appeal to music lovers across the spectrum.
“The Standard Bank Jazz Festival acts as a barometer of the South African jazz scene, reflecting our heritage as well as international trends, and opening up opportunities for networking and collaboration,” says Festival Director Alan Webster.
“The festival is about acknowledging our roots as South Africans and inviting the world in. We’re not asking how to do it – but sharing experiences with musicians from all over the world to create something new.”
Webster, who has been responsible for putting the programme together since he took over as director in 2001, says the world’s musicians relish the opportunity to visit Grahamstown because of the festival’s high artistic credibility and aesthetic integrity.
“It offers musicians 10 days to network, collaborate and learn from each other,” he says.
Invited artists include the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing, Austrian pianist David Helbock, US-based guitarist Lionel Loueke, French drummer André Charlier, South Africans Kesivan Naidoo, Thandiswa Mazwai, Carlo Mombelli and Pops Mohammed, as well as Cape Town pop band Beatenburg and Joburg house band MiCasa. Ray Phiri will be in town for a one-night only solo gig.
The festival also incorporates the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival, which exposes 350 of South Africa’s best young musicians to the best of jazz over six days spent with 50 teachers and 90 professional jazz musicians and educators in rehearsals, workshops, lectures and performances.Advertisement