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Cape Town Jazz Festival Review by Wolfgang Konig
The whole city seemed to celebrate this anniversary: One of Africas most important music festivals turned ten: The Cape Town International Jazz Festival, until 2004 known as North Sea Festival Cape Town as the South African organizers collaborated closely with Holland‘s renowned North Sea festival in The Hague, now in Rotterdam. Banners and poster of the jazz festival could been seen all over Cape Town, often mixed with ads of political parties as April 22 is the day of South Africa’s fourth democratic elections. They promise to be especially interesting as the ANC, who constantly gained votes during the last fifteen years, will experience a serious fall this time: with masses of disenchanted people, with a presidential candidate who was - until very recently - charged with corruption (a charge that was withdrawn under dubious circumstances), with the competing COPE (Congress of the People), that split from the ANC, and with the biggest opposition party DA (Democratic Alternative) having a new charismatic leader, the widely popular Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, a grandniece of Berlin’s legendary political cartoonist Heinrich Zille.
The jazz festival, however, tried to stay away from politics as much as possible. As always there was a free show, for all who could not afford tickets, in the city centre on Greenmarket Square which will turn 300 years old in 2010. Surprise guest at this concert was the terriffic Dianne Reeves, featuring the great Brazilian Romero Lubambo on guitar. As she told me later, she had been deeply influenced by South African artists who lived in the States during the apartheid years, people like Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu and Hugh Masekela.
The latter one was the undisputed star of the festival despite lots of international heavyweights. Firstly, since Bra Hugh, as he is affectionately called by friends and fans, does not perform in Cape Town very often as there are normally no venues that would take enough people. And secondly because his show on April 4 fell on his 70th birthday which he celebrated with 10,000 enthusiastic people in the big hall of Cape Town’s International Convention Centre.
To me, most of the festival’s other highlights were from South Africa as well like the „Opera meets Jazz“ project of Sibongile Khumalo who is one of the very few singers who can handle both genres equally well and can switch between them within seconds. Philip Tabane proved again why he is a South African guitar legend with a unique style that combines ancient traditions and musical avantgarde. And Abigail Kubeka, who had started her career in Miriam Makeba‘s vocal group The Skylarks in the late 1950s, displayed a stunning energy and musical power on stage that everyone can only wish to have at 68 years of age.
Among the main foreign acts were the former Miles Davis sidemen Al Foster and Dave Liebman, funk veteran Maceo Parker, Mos Def and New York Voices. Bassist Kyle Eastwood performed with his own band, watched by his dad Clint who was in Cape Town to direct a film about Nelson Mandela. Stewart Sukuma from Mozambique delivered a great Afropop show.
Workshops for kids and masterclasses for young musicians plus courses in music business und arts journalism completed the Cape Town International Jazz Festival as well as the continuation of a tradition that had started last year: a free township concert as apart of a nationwide campaign against drugs and violent crime.
While South Africa had been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades because of apartheid, the Cape Town festival has a decidedly Pan-African approach that goes beyond plain economic expansion. After learning from the Dutch North Sea festival and having produced an exemplary well organized event for years, director Rashid Lombard and his team pass on their knowledge to colleagues in other parts of Africa with whom they do festivals in Maputo, Lagos and - from this year on - also in Luanda, together with the Angolan tourism company RITEK that pitched in as a main sponsor in Cape Town to replace one of South Africa’s big banks who had decided to put their money into sports instead.
Next year’s festival will be again on the first weekend in April. For more information check www.capetownjazzfest.com
With kind support from Turkish Airlines and Cedric’s Lodge.
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