Mtukudzi thrills 20 000 jazz fans in Cape Town

Mtukudzi thrills 20 000 jazz fans in Cape Town

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By Showbiz Reporter

OLIVER Mtukudzi is, strictly speaking, not a jazz musician, but in the spirit of The Cape Town Jazz Festival last week, he teamed up with jazz stars from all over the world to thrill thousands of fans.

This year’s celebration featured some of the world’s best performers, including the Soul Brothers, Sergio Mendes, The Manhattans, blind American singer-songwriter Raul Midon, Gerald Albright and many others.

Sam Mataure, Mtukudzi’sdrummer and manager said: “We performed before a crowd of about 20 000. It was an electric atmosphere and a joy to be among so many big names in jazz.”

Mataure said the highlight of their performance was when Midon combined his distinct voice with that of Mtukudzi on the song Dzoka Uyamwe.

But is Mtukudzi turning to jazz, given that locally he has also been attending jazz festivals?

“By no means,” Mataure said. “The Cape Town festival was flexible; other genres of music were featured and that is why we got the invite. The same can be said about the Victoria Falls Jazz Festival that Mtukudzi has attended.”

According to reports from South Africa, Vicky Sampson and the Soul Brothers shared the stage with such international musicians as the Brazilian legend Sergio Mendes, and the US R&B group The Manhattans.

Mendes, who headlined the festival, popularised the Samba and the Bossa Nova to the rest of the world. The hit song Mas Que Nada made popular by Mendes, resonated with the then exiled Miriam Makeba when she performed it live for the first time at New York’s Philharmonic Hall in 1967.

Rashid Lombard, the chief executive officer of the company that organizes the event, espAfrica, said from Cape Town that the event was a “huge success”.
“We cater for the serious jazz listeners, to the younger groups right down to the spoken word — hip-hop and house music,” he said.

Lombard said the festival was developmental in that 1720 people were employed and tourism figures were impressive before and during the festival.

“The festival has added to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the city at a rate of 142 million rand. So certainly, jazz adds to the economy. So we also look at it as the cultural economy. Besides the economic benefit, there’s also 72 percent of the 33 000 people who came from outside Cape Town — they come from other provinces and other parts of Africa,” said Lombard. - Standard
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