Sunday, March 04, 2007
An African star - Vusi Mahlasela
We have been enjoying some time up the West Coast the last few days; 2 nights at the Beach Camp, in the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve just outside Paternoster; and a few nights at a little self-catering in Jacobsbaai.I have been watching the first phase of the lunar eclipse, during breaks in the clouds and when it's not pelting down rain, and was lucky enough to catch it almost completely before the next downpour moved in.
The moon was a stunning soft red colour, with just the slightest sliver of silver shining out, while very dark, ominous clouds crept in from the sea. Now - it is pouring again.
But this is a West Coast, where rain is very welcome. All around Jacobsbaai, Vredenburg and Paternoster the veld is a palette brown's. Such a stark contrast to the little white fisherman's cottages that cluster along the coastline. Small villages in wide open spaces.
The Beach Camp has been attracting all kinds of personalities to the West Coast; Stuart Taylor and Kurt Schoonraad were there as part of the Going Nowhere Slowly series; many Afrikaans musicians frequent the campfire and add atmosphere to the starry nights with their guitars. It has such an amazing relaxed allure, with the excitement of nature just 'doing its thing' around you. Turns swooping off the same rock 20 times a day, but never recreating the same pattern twice; the tide rising and falling quietly with just the smallest of waves to remind you its ever moving; and of course a sky full of stars to finish the scene at the campfire.
Speaking of stars - Vusi Mahlasela's new album Guiding Star, on ATO Records, is set to be released on 6 March! It's a follow up to his last highly acclaimed album, The Voice, and features artists such as Dave Matthews, Jem, Derek Trucks, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and other artists he has met on his world-wide travels.Vusi is going to be launching Guiding Star in the USA at the end of March, including a 46664 benefit event in San Fransisco on the 29th, and then in May he will be appearing in Jamestown Virginia, at the America's 400th Anniversary 3-day festival.
Vusi is really focusing on breaking the US market with the success he has already had, and I think it is a great thing. Getting South Africa's name out there to the sticks, and making 'them Americans' that music is being made everywhere - and some of it is just darn good!
Labels: 46664, beach camp, Dave Matthews, Guiding Star, Kurt Schoonraad, ladysmith black mambazo, Stuart Taylor, vusi mahlasela
Friday, November 17, 2006
Youssou N’Dour - In Your Eye's
Ahh… its Friday. And that is always a good thing! It’s not like people are going to say – damn… wish it was Monday! Though the Springbok fans among us are probably hoping for Saturday to pass quickly, and we’re becoming as rare as pre-1994 National Party voters – so few to be found these days…Someone who sounds great every day of the week – whether live or from my Blue Room speakers – is one of Africa’s greatest… Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour.
I have seen him live a couple of times; the first time at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, and then quite a lot during the first 46664 concert in Cape Town. We’ve also had the pleasure of dealing with his management, and are excited to be able to offer an artist of him calibre.
When I first saw him at the NSJF, he had the audience eating out of his hand; even getting everyone to sit down on the floor, as is custom in his home village, while he sang a traditional song normally sung at the fireside… As one man, everyone crunched themselves down in a tangle of arms and legs onto the floor. Very cool.
Youssou has really made a mark on the world music scene. As an African he has gone where very few artists have gone before, and it’s his associations with artists like Peter Gabriel (Picture right taken by Bob Gruen) over more than 20 years that really brought him into Western homes.That’s not to say he isn’t big back home in Senegal, where he is still based. Youssou’s album SET, in which he makes urgent moral appeals to his people, caused a groundswell of action – by the people and not government – under a sort of urban ecological movement known as “Set-Setaal” (“Be Clean”), where the ghetto’s were painted and cleaned up, getting water to more people and where communities helped each other to make their lives better. He has done much more, which is why there have long been calls for him to enter politics as the people want him to be President.
So, looking back, but ahead to a good weekend, here is a classic Peter Gabriel track (yes, that is what he looked like 20 years ago!) filmed at a WOMAD Festival in which he features Youssou N’Dour – In Your Eye’s. Enjoy.
Labels: 46664, North Sea Jazz Festival, Peter Gabriel, Senegal, WOMAD, Youssou N'Dour
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Just Jinger in SA Summer 2006
NEWS BREAK I have just received a mail to say that Just Jinjer will only be available in South Africa for a short time this summer... And that they are going to do just a limited amount of shows during this period...Just go and listen to their track What He Means again, and think about it.
Wouldn't be cool to have Just Jinjer at YOUR party this summer? Wearing their 46664 t-shirts... It can be.
I am sure that bookings with be quick and as they did say - limited amount of shows - we will hope to be able to get a few for clients.
Ahhh... I love summer!
Labels: 46664, Just Jinjer
Friday, October 20, 2006
Just Jinjer - What He Means
Last night we watched Top Billing's feature on Just Jinjer, filmed during their quick visit to SA recently to promote their new album. The guys have really done some great work, still being the biggest selling rock band in South African history with over 240,000 units sold of their 6 albums, and showing really down-to-earth guys out there pushing to make it.Today I am featuring What He Means from their latest album - Just Jinjer. And what an awesome track, as you’ll be able to hear and see from the music vid in a mo – when I’m finished telling you how impressed I am. Art, or Ard as he is named on his birth certificate – hauntingly begs for Peace, Love, More Tolerance, Faith, Hope, Trust in the same name of God – and all of it wearing a Nelson Mandela 46664 t-shirt. This is very cool stuff!
They've have performed and toured with groups like U2, Counting Crows and Def Leopard; as well as performing for hundreds of thousands of fans all around the world from the UK to Dubai to Durban – and think of what a positive South African message they're sending out? We need more South African’s who understand where we have come from, to help other people see where they can go – and music is such a sexy medium in which to preach!
Just Jinjer is... Art Matthews (Vocals/Acoustic Guitar), Brent Harris (Drums/Vocals), Denholm Harding (Bass/Vocals) and Sandy Chila (Guitar/Keyboards). They’re all cool. Someone send them a few bottles of Mrs Balls!
Labels: 46664, Just Jinjer, Nelson Mandela
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Jerusha reveals!
I don’t know why more artists don’t make a stand against HIV/Aids, and spread the word about how, as former President Nelson Mandela states, we are facing the biggest Human Rights issue ever.Jerusha, one of Cape Town’s pop sensations, who also happens to be a Medical Doctor, is one artist who has made a stand.
Jerusha first hit the South African airwaves with her debut album Got to have it, from which she had three chart-topping tracks (including two number 1 hits) in 2002. Are u the One, her first big hit, was produced within six months of her arriving to cut a demo with Craig at Mama Dance in Cape Town, just when she was in the final year of medical school.
As she grew in fame, she was also working for community and country, and even spent three months as a military doctor in war-torn Liberia as part of the United Nations humanitarian effort.
She was one of two South African Acts chosen by MTV for the road show to promote the prestigious Nelson Mandela “46664” Concert in 2004 to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, a world health issue that is close to her heart.
In late 2005, backed by her world-class band, Jerusha performed in London in the SA Solidarity Festival in benefit of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. In May 2006, supported by her band and backing vocalists from the Oxford gospel choir, Jerusha was one of the headline acts at the World Fair Trade Fashion Show held in Oxford; hosted by the Ethical Fashion Forum and UNICEF.
She is currently based in Oxford United Kingdom, working with some top producers, where she is focusing on her sound and looking forward to releasing further chart-topping hits! As I said earlier – she has made a stand against HIV/Aids. Jerusha was chosen by Love Life in 2005 (South Africa’s largest HIV/AIDS Awareness Organisation) as a role-model for South Africa’s youth and featured as an icon in the “Get Attitude” campaign, which I feature here.
We should all make more noise, get on our soap-box’s and shout out to all who can hear – HIV/Aids is our problem, let’s do something about it!
Labels: 46664, Jerusha, Love Life, MTV
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Africa needs ubuntu
The first time The Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was thrust into my life was in the mid-eighties, at a hectic time in South Africa's political slide to change. But I regretted not being old enough then, to have done more in his name.Recently there has been a lot of negative attention directed South Africa's HIV policies. Men like the Arch understand the urgency of the continents situation, which is why he has given his name to add weight to organisations that aim at making a dent in the statistics. And I am sure that being party of some of the top research material available, he would have a few matters to comment on.
But most importantly, as he said at the recent Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, "At the least we should forego the luxury of sterile academic debates in the pejorative sense about what does or does not cause AIDS and have a coherent campaign to combat a devastating pandemic. It is galling that we should be fiddling whilst our Rome is burning and it is distressing that we can be pilloried and lambasted as we were in the recent Toronto AIDS conference. Our country does not deserve it and we owe it to our people especially those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS."
We seem to have lost the patience to sit quietly and listen to what the elders have to say. Times have changed, but whose the wiser now?
Tutu, and Mandela, these are men who have stood up for what they believed in all their lives, and when it has been achieved, or the distance to their goal shortened by what they have done, they haven't claimed it as theirs, or basked in the glory, but added weight to other important issues.
I've mentioned before, with great chest-beating pride, how awesome it was to give time to work on the first 46664 concert in Cape Town. Lenny and I would do anything for Madiba, and Desmond Tutu needs help now too.
HIV Aids organisations and charities like the TAC, Nazareth House, and Thembalanatwana, and the many others, big and small, need support. The people need help, they need the right nutrition, and most importantly, they need the right medication!
The Arch has given his name to the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, established in 2004, that is focused on not only the treatment of HIV, but prevention of HIV & TB, and includes educating health care professionals, community workers and the man on the street.
It's in the spirit of ubuntu to our fellow man that we should stop, listen and then take action. It's amazing that R500 per month can save someone's life, while even R50 can make a difference too. Here President Nelson Mandela explains what ubuntu means for German TV.
Ubuntu is just another way of showing you care.
Labels: 46664, desmond tutu, Nazareth House, Nelson Mandela, Ubuntu
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Thandiswa 'just sings'!
I first came across Thandiswa Mazwai as vocalist 'Red' from the South African super-kwaito-stars Bongo Maffin.This outfit was one of the first real cross-over groups to make Kwaito more accessible to the white audiences, with catchy beats and really some cool chorus lines, getting them loads of air time on major radio stations, and with their international exposure through tours.
We had chance to see her in action as part of the first 46664 concert in Cape Town, while there with the Pondo's, Women Unite and Red Zebra drummers; we booked her for the Woolworths 'Be More You' campaign; Lenny was at her presentation to the WOMEX delegates in Newcastle U.K. last year after she had been nominated for a BBC World Music Award; and at this years Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
But, we were to work closely with her in 2004, in collaboration with Zoom South Africa, when she was used to record the new PEP jingle.
It was a morning in the studio, along with our close friend, and amazing vocalist Sindi Harrison, she showed true class and professionalism. It was amazing to watch how easily she was able to translate the ideas that seemed cool on paper, but just became amazing when she sang them!But that can be heard on her debut album Zabalaza (GWVCD54). Returning to her roots - including a trip to the Transkei to meet with Madosini - she lets us know how it feels to be a young South African growing up in a new state of freedom.
'The world changes, revolutionaries die, and the children forget' (Nizalwa Ngobani?) She hasn't forgotten her roots. She's embraced them and made them hers. She's become a star to be listened to!
This is a small video that was used to introduce the new jingle at a PEP conference in 2004!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Bono, Mandela & the 46664 concert
Nelson Mandela turns 88 on 18 July, and thinking about him reminded me of all the awesome moments I can remember when I have been near him, and felt his presence. He’s such an unbelievable personality, and I feel privileged that I have been around him during his life time – that I don’t have to just read about him as a historical figure…One of Peak’s proudest moments was when we were involved in the first 46664 Concert in November 2003. We had Amampondo, Women Unite and Red Zebra drummers on stage with
So we were pretty involved in the two weeks prior to the concert.
The rehearsal the night before the concert was a cold, windy night; Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens) was standing near me with his family; Joseph Shabalala from Ladysmith Black Mambazo was strolling around with a massive grin; and I was standing there soaking it all in.
When Bono had finished American Dream (changed to African Dream for the concert), he sang Long Walk to Freedom, in honour of the book by Nelson Mandela, and of course the man himself.
At the end of the song, he strolled up to the lectern and pretended to be Madiba, to fill in where the man would start speaking – his question as to “… what is such a handsome man, doing with such an ugly rockstar?” drew applause from all of us watching, artists, riggers, sound techies, and the rest of the staff.
I was just happy to have caught it all on camera. Hell! Lenny and I were just happy to be there!
When I was filming, I was standing next to a guy who had stuck up conversation with me. He had a camera and was clicking away too, when a security guard came and told us he wasn’t allowed to film – I obviously didn’t want to get involved in this story as he hadn’t said anything to me, but I learned later that my ‘buddy’ had actually been taking pics for Bono.
That concert was put together by the artists for Madiba. People will go to great lengths for the man, and having been a part of it makes me proud.
Labels: 46664, Amampondo, Bono, Frank Paco, Nelson Mandela, Women Unite
Friday, June 30, 2006
Frank Paco's Tucan Tucan, Blaze and Xixel Langa Quartet
A good friend of Peak's, and well-known drummer, percussionist and singer, Frank Paco popped round here the other night to drop off a few DVD's to add to our collection - which is always a pleasure! Most people know Frank and his group Tucan Tucan - though few might know that this man has been around the block!The first 46664 concert held in Green Point in 2004, Frank was part of the stages back-band, and so he got to play for Queen, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N' Dour, Jimmy Cliff and a host of other big time celebs. But now he's handed me some gems.
The first in Blaze - a really funky quintet with the sultry Chantal Wilkinson on lead vocals, Frank on drums and percussion, Muriel Marco on keys, Angelo Syster on guitar and Eugene Ackerman on bass.
The 2nd DVD was of a very dynamic entertainer, Mozambican Xixel Langa, and her Quartet. Xixel only started performing professionally in 2002, and
Its a real African mixture, sung mainly in Portuguese, but with real style.
I'm going to definitely add more info on these guys soon.
Labels: 46664, Blaze, Frank Paco, Peter Gabriel, Tucan Tucan, Xixel Langa, Youssou N'Dour
