Jazz this weekend
Regular Friday gigs include the Radium (Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove) with Jazz Trio featuring Stephen Kunny Friday 5 Nov from 8pm, as well as Soweto Jazz & Blues at The Whiteboy Shebeen (Cnr Katherine & Grayston, Sandton), Friday 5th Nov from 7pm. Free entry
Also on: Jazz at Joburg Theatre with Feya Faku Saturday 6 Nov 8-9.30 Trumpet/flugel horn player Feya Faku was born in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. He studied informally with some of the great jazz players of the sixties and seventies and has collaborated with interntational jazz musicians.
Other upcoming regular gigs:
Wednesdays: Jazz Sessions, featuring Marcus Wyatt (brass), Clement Benny (drums), Nduduzo Makhathini (keys) at WISH (7th Street, Melville), 7:30pm till 11:30pm
Thursdays: Jazz Trio, featuring guitarist Yogin Sullaphen, performs at the new Ascot Hotel (corner Grant Avenue and Algernon Street, Norwood), from 8:30-10:30pm. Free entrance
Upcoming gigs at Joburg Theatre
- Zim Ngqawana – 13 November Zim Ngqawana is one of an increasing number of South African musicians in the genre of jazz, who have managed to marry both experiences of lived jazz as well as the formal school of jazz to produce a kind of jazz sound that is durable, South African and yet combines elements of world music into the repertoire. Regarded as a legend on the local jazz scene, Ngqawana has a solid following both in the country and internationally. A multi-instrumentalist, Zim is proficient on horns of all kinds (alto, tenor and baritone sax), flute, piccolo, harmonica, bells and whistles as well as melodica and piano. Add to this his vocal timbre spicing some of his tracks with sparse chants and choruses and you have an amazing combination of diverse elements.
- Mc Coy Mrubata – 20 November Both Saxophonist and flute player, Reedman McCoy Mrubata grew up with the sounds of African music: the soulful hymns of the Zion Church, the chants and rhythms of traditional healers and the brassy jive of the Merry Macs band who rehearsed opposite his home. He has incorporated these influences in to his own unique style and has become a fan favourite at jazz festivals all over. Both Saxophonist and flute player, Reedman McCoy Mrubata grew up with the sounds of African music: the soulful hymns of the Zion Church, the chants and rhythms of traditional healers and the brassy jive of the Merry Macs band who rehearsed opposite his home. He has incorporated these influences in to his own unique style and has become a fan favourite at jazz festivals all over.
- Khaya Mahlangu – 11 December While it would be best to describe Khaya Mahlangu’s music as mainly jazz, his is more than that as he, like several musicians of his generation, gets most of his inspiration from traditional African music sound, turning this clever mix of genres into a sound that could be said to be African jazz, world music, and anything in between. Born 1954 in Soweto, Johannesburg, influenced by his father’s music collection of local and international artists, Mahlangu played the Bugle in the Boys Scouts and later picked up the Trumpet under Phineas Molefe Phetho in a program for township youth run by Professor Khabi Mngoma.
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