Monday, April 02, 2007
CTIJF - 4th best in the world!
Wolfgang Koenig, our world music journalist friend from Radio Multikulti in Berlin, Germany, told us that the CTIJF has been ranked as the 4th best jazz festival in the world (wow people, can I hear some applause for that please?), and that it has been positioned in the top 40 of the best events of any kind. After having enjoyed my weekend there, I can well imagine it; the timing was perfect; the organization was evident to the smallest of details; and the music this year represented one of the biggest collection of South African artists that I have seen in years.
Then there was a rush for the Basil “Mannenberg”Coetzee outdoor stage where Jack DeJohnette and our star diva, Sibongile Khumalo, were appearing. Lenny & I were very chuffed to see internationally renowned musician Byron Wallen, who we worked closely with at the Arts Alive Festival in JHB when he blew our minds away as a member of the muliti-cultural group PedXulu (made of the Pedi, Xhosa & Zulu clans, with international guest stars).

Ismael did some of his greatest tracks, and Len was especially blown away by his percussionist (who she complimented later in the new morning). It is great that the festival was able to secure Ismael, and I think, let this festival represent the African continents different styles of music coupled with international jazz – we have no other platform of the same magnitude, and we need to be able to learn more about these artists that have made such huge impact in Europe and America.
There were quite a number of Durbanites in the audience, and they quickly loosened up the audience by whooping, ululating and dancing every time Madala looked up, never mind play some awesome tracks with his new young band. The Sangoma who burnt offerings before the show started, obviously brought the most powerful ancestors to the party, because even Robert said that this was quite possibly one of the best outdoor concerts by Madala, that he had seen in a long time.
Looking back today, I think Cape Town should be very proud of being host to such a successful gathering of world artists. Bigger and richer cities try the same and don’t meet the standard that we are setting – I just wish that we had more throughout the year, because you can just never have enough music!
Have a great week folks!
Labels: Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Madala Kunene, music
Comments:
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Rouvanne - GREAT blog! sorry it's taken me so damn long to get here :-/ all I've been missing!
I agree entirely about Ismael Lo (what really made my head a little wonky is that I was listening to Iso about 10 minutes ago hmmm...)
I'll be back :)
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I agree entirely about Ismael Lo (what really made my head a little wonky is that I was listening to Iso about 10 minutes ago hmmm...)
I'll be back :)
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