- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Ecletic mix of performers captivates Cape Town jazz fans
- Date: 6th April 2010
- Summary: LARGE SCREEN IN PUBLIC SQUARE SHOWING PERFORMANCE AS JAZZ FANS WATCH SILHOUETTE OF FANS WALKING THROUGH SQUARE
- Embargoed: 21st April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVABDLLD9UR5SGQO3XIDNZ6PHH8K
- Story Text: Performing to a full house at the Cape Town Jazz Festival on Sunday (April 4), 29-year-old South African songstress Lira demonstrated why she is one of the most popular cross-over artists in the country.
Her music which she calls 'Afro-soul' is a blend of jazz, R&B, soul and African rhythms. She won three South African Music Awards (SAMA) for her second Album, 'Soul in Mind', released in 2006, and travelled to Cannes in January this year to perform at Midem 2010 - the world music industry's largest trade fair.
"I reckon there's no telling where this could end so I want to go as far as I possibly can and seeing that the globe is available, yeah, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon so let's explore the world," said Lira.
Fans of her music who attended the festival said they were moved by the energy of her performance.
"Fantastic as always, a good show to watch, a very good performer and yeah, she just blows you away," said jazz fan Lerato Sebego.
"I really enjoyed it," added Nomalungisa Ningani, another jazz fan who travelled from East London to enjoy the event.
Cape Town based jazz musician, drummer Kesivan Naidoo, is one of a new generation of artists in the Mother City -- as Cape Town is also known, who are fusing jazz with other genres of music.
Naidoo and Scholtz have both won the Standard Bank Young Jazz Artist award given to upcoming musicians in the country.
Naidoo is a member of various cutting edge bands on the local scene including an indo-fusion band known as Babu. At the festival, he presented his solo jazz project Kesivan & the Lights.
American neo-soul and jazz artist Bilal Sayeed Oliver, who goes by the stage name Bilal, also performed at the festival. Renown for his impeccable falsetto, Bilal has worked with neo-soul and hip-hop luminaries Erykah Badu, Kanye West, John Legend, Common and Jill Scott.
"I would say I'm a jazz musician first but I love all different styles of music and I guess that comes through in my music. I consider the hip hop way in the stand point and concept of drawing from a lot of different sounds, you know. I sample, mentally, a lot of different things, you know, to make what it is I do," said Bilal.
Melanie Scholtz, a classically trained opera singer who opted for a career in Jazz, is also based in Cape Town.
Now in its 11th year, the Cape Town Jazz Festival brings together over 40 musicians from across Africa and the world on five different stages.
This year over 30,000 people attended the festival, which sold out all the shows. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
