Cape Town

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28 Jul 2008

ERNIE SMITH - "Everything Around Me"

Guitarist/vocalist, Ernie Smith's latest release, "Everything Around Me" is a mixture of jazz, soul and R&B. This will surely appeal to many music lovers.

Please take note of the following dates where Ernie will perform and promote his new album:
Thursday, 31 July - Thumbs Up (Stellenbosch) 21h30

Friday, 1 Aug - West End (Rylands) 18h00

Saturday, 2 Aug - Avenues Jazz Club (Caledon) 21h30


For more info please call:
Calvin Peters
Cell: 082 950 8625

website: http://www.erniesmith.co.za/

27 Jul 2008

Live recording of "Winter in Cape Town, Volume Two" and launch of "Summer in Cape Town, Volume One"

Jazz Potjie Projects invites YOU
Be part of an event extraordinaire and don't miss a beat of:
Live recording of "Winter in Cape Town, Volume Two"and launch of "Summer in Cape Town, Volume One"

The next step of a long-term project to bring South African Music to the rest of the world and to raise support for the Children's Resource Center (CRC) and the Institute for Music and Indigenous Arts Development (IMAD)

Happening @ KAWAI Piano Studios
13 Palmer Road, Muizenberg
Sunday 3 August 2008, 12:45 p.m. (sharp) till 15:30 p.m.

with vocalists Erika Lundi, Titi Tsira and Dave Ferguson,
bassist Wesley Rustin,
drummer Carlo Fabe,
guitarist James Kibby,
pianists George Werner and Andreas Wellmann,
trumpeter Alex van Heerden,
cellist Miranda Basset,
The Little Giants
and special guests multi-instrumentalist Hilton Schilder and guitarist Allou April


Cover charge: R 150 including a potjie lunch, Dornier wines and a CD by Jazz Potjie Projects
Booking essential: 021 788-9389

For more details call Jazz Potjie Projects: 021 426-1093

25 Jul 2008

CD for a good cause

RESTLESS NATIVES LIVE RECORDING @ SABC STUDIOS

FRIDAY & SATURDAY 1st & 2nd AUGUST, 2008
BEACH ROAD STUDIOS SABC AUDITORIUM

209 Beach Road, Seapoint
Doors open 7pm, starts 8pm both nights
Tickets cost R60 per night and are available at
http://www.webtickets.co.za/
For further info contact Lee Thomson on 0827756868

The Band
Chris Engel Saxophones
Lee Thomson Trumpet/Flugel Horn
Jason Reolon Piano
Shane Cooper Double Bass
Kesivan Naidoo Drums


A long awaited documentation of Cape Towns most exciting and innovative Jazz Quintet

Expect to hear original compositions in a free form setting that aim to take the audience on a sonic journey through the imaginary worlds of the Restless Natives

This will take place over two nights and will be a completely live recording - what you hear on the night is what you get on the album. Each night will yield a different musical experience so come to one or both

Tickets will also be available at the door on both nights if you'd rather chance it - there is no guarantee of seats though as tickets are going quickly!The Restless Natives have made serious waves in the local music scene, challenging and expanding the ears of people who would not normally be exposed to Jazz, as well as those of loyal audio adventurers that seek out anything to stimulate their brains as a statement against the mainstream

They also performed at Rocking the Daisies in 2007 and regularly at the Armchair Theatre Headset sessions, The Waiting Room and The Assembly

Their infamous Tuesday night residency at Asoka has now been running for 2 years (surely one of the longest Mother City live band residencies) The Natives will be celebrating together with Asoka sometime in August with a special performance

18 Jul 2008

wish

Happy 90th Birthday to Tata Nelson Mandela!

11 Jul 2008

South African music

The story of South African music is one of dialogue with imported forms, and varying degrees of hybridisation over the years.

From the earliest colonial days until the present time, South African music has created itself out of the mingling of local ideas and forms with those imported from outside the country, giving it all a special twist that carries with it the unmistakeable flavour of the country.

Beginnings

In the Dutch colonial era, from the 17th century on, indigenous tribespeople and slaves imported from the east adapted Western musical instruments and ideas.

The Khoi-Khoi, for instance, developed the ramkie, a guitar with three or four strings, based on that of Malabar slaves, and used it to blend Khoi and Western folk songs.

The mamokhorong was a single-string violin that was used by the Khoi in their own music-making and in the dances of the colonial centre, Cape Town, which rapidly became a melting pot of cultural influences from all over the world.

Western music was played by slave orchestras (the governor of the Cape, for instance, had his own slave orchestra in the 1670s), and travelling musicians of mixed-blood stock moved around the colony entertaining at dances and other functions, a tradition that continued into the era of British domination after 1806.

In a style similar to that of British marching military bands, coloured (mixed race) bands of musicians began parading through the streets of Cape Town in the early 1820s, a tradition that was given added impetus by the travelling minstrel shows of the 1880s and has continued to the present day with the great carnival held in Cape Town every New Year .

Missionaries and choirs

The penetration of missionaries into the interior over the succeeding centuries also had a profound influence on South African musical styles. In the late 1800s, early African composers such as John Knox Bokwe began composing hymns that drew on traditional Xhosa harmonic patterns.

In 1897, Enoch Sontonga, then a teacher, composed the hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (God Bless Africa), which was later adopted by the liberation movement and ultimately became the National Anthem of a democratic South Africa.

The missionary influence, plus the later influence of American spirituals, spurred a gospel movement that is still very strong in South Africa today. Drawing on the traditions of churches such as the Zion Christian Church, one of the largest such groupings in Africa, it has exponents whose styles range from the more traditional to the pop-infused sounds of, for instance, former pop singer Rebecca Malope.

Gospel, in its many forms, is one of the best-selling genres in South Africa today, with artists who regularly achieve sales of gold and platinum status.

The missionary emphasis on choirs, combined with the traditional vocal music of South Africa, and taking in other elements as well, also gave rise to a mode of a capella singing that blend the style of Western hymns with indigenous harmonies.

This tradition is still alive today in the isicathamiya form, of which Ladysmith Black Mambazo are the foremost and most famous exponents.

Though some instruments such as the mouth bow were used, drums were relatively unknown. Later, instruments used in areas to the north of what is now South Africa, such as the mbira or thumb-piano from Zimbabwe, or drums or xylophones from Mozambique, began to find a place in the traditions of South African music-making.

Still later, Western instruments such as the concertina or the guitar were integrated into indigenous musical styles, contributing, for instance, to the Zulu mode of maskanda music.
The development of a black urban proletariat and the movement of many black workers to the mines in the 1800s meant that differing regional traditional folk musics met and began to flow into one another.

Western instrumentation was used to adapt rural songs, which in turn started to influence the development of new hybrid modes of music-making (as well as dances) in South Africa's developing urban centres.

This vocal music is the oldest traditional music known in South Africa. It was communal, accompanying dances or other social gatherings, and involved elaborate call-and-response patterns.

Go to SouthAfrica.info Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa


"Jazz and freedom go hand in hand. That explains it. There isn't any more to add to it. If I do add to it, it gets complicated. That's something for you to think about. You think about it and dig it. You dig it..." Thelonious Monk
"Jazz and freedom go hand in hand. That explains it. There isn't any more to add to it. If I do add to it, it gets complicated. That's something for you to think about. You think about it and dig it. You dig it..." Thelonious Monk

Hamba Kahle Winston Mankunku Ngozi - Tributes

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