HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO

HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO- Designed and directed by Brett Bailey

South Africa's most volatile and controversial performing company brings to the OUT THE BOX FESTIVAL OF PUPPETRY AND VISUAL PERFORMANCE its sensational, internationally acclaimed, genre breaking club/theatre show.

House of the Holy Afro is a nightclub collaboration between 'third world bunfight' performing company, hip performance poet

Odidi Mfenyana, and one of South Africa's hottest house music dj's, Dino Moran. It is slick, live fusion of sangoma songs, township gospel, urban poetry and afro-pop, driven by footstomping house beats, funky choreography and styling. "AFRO" is the definitive 21st Century celebration of the music, dance and design of Southern Africa and it has been presented to great acclaim in Bern -Switzerland (Sharp! Sharp! South African Arts Festival) Brussels (Kunsten Festival Des Arts), Berlin (Hebbel Am Ufer), Vienna (Wiener Festival), Edinburgh and Sydney Festivals, the Harare Festival, Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Reunion (Eye of the Cyclone Festival). House of the Holy Afro is currently being performed in Zurich in Switzerland until the end of August.

House of the Holy Afro performed by seven sing-dancers and weaves spiritual melodies together with Dino Moran's driving housebeats and the over-the-top club poetry of Odidi Mfenyana. A highly-styled package of Afro-kitsch to electrify your eyes, ears and bodies on the dance floor, it is a provocative fusion of African and European, urban and traditional, rap and afro-pop, gospel and nightclub. It also features the song, "Bele" composed by Odidi and Dino. "Bele" has received significant airplay on Good Hope FM and 5fm and is currently available on CAFÉ DU AFRIQUE compilation album, and Ryan Dent's PLATFORM MUSIC mix C.D. The show has wowed audiences at the premiere European AIDS charity event, the Vienna Life Ball 2005 where the event was attended and coordinated in association with Sir Elton John, Donatella Versace, Liza Minellli and supermodel Heidi Klum. Choreography is by Natalie Fisher.

The House of the Holy Afro performance party takes place at Gardens Commercial School on Saturday 6th September at 22h00 and tickets cost R120 each and are available through Computicket or 083 915 8000.

For more info about the OUT THE BOX 2008 festival, please visit http://www2.unima.za.org/festival.html

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The Errol Dyers & Kyle Shepherd Cape Jazz Concert

The Errol Dyers & Kyle Shepherd Cape Jazz Concert

(Presented by Muzo Productions with the support of FMR 101.3 & Cape Town Tourism)

Errol Dyers and the Kyle Shepherd fineART Quartet will perform in a Cape Jazz concert at the ‘Theatre in the District’ at 7:30pm on Sunday, the 31st of August.

Both Dyers and Shepherd are two of Cape Town’s finest musicians & composers who continue to push the creative boundaries of Cape Music & Jazz whilst drawing on the rich, cultural diversity of the Cape.

Dyers, the highly acclaimed guitar maestro who is highly respected as a pioneer of what has today become known as Cape Jazz / Ghoema, has released three albums, namely ‘Sonesta’, ‘Kou Kou Wa’ and a ‘Best of Errol Dyers’ compilation. He has also performed, recorded and toured locally and abroad with many great artists such as, the late Basil Coetzee, Tony Cox, his brother Alvin Dyers, Winston Mankunku, Abdullah Ibrahim, Robbie Jansen & Steve Newman.

Dyers, who maintains an acoustic and reminiscent ancestral sound that captures the guitar strumming of the century-old Cape traditional and folk music, will be performing some of his new, unreleased compositions along with his more well-known songs.

Shepherd, who is only 21 years of age, is fast becoming one of Cape Town’s most accomplished jazz pianists and is already a prolific composer in his own right. In 2005, he won an award for the best original composition in the first FMR/Pick ‘n Pay Travel Awards and also attended the Norsk Jazzforum’s “Summer School for Jazz music and Improvisation” in Norway. Shepherd has already performed at concerts & festivals in South Africa and abroad with the likes of Allou April, Alvin Dyers, Errol Dyers, Robbie Jansen, Louis Moholo, Mccoy Mrubata, Zim Ngqawana, Alex Van Heerden and Buddy Wells.

As part of the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival Programme, Shepherd’s Jazz Quartet performed two of his original compositions in a virtual “Jazz Conversation” with jazz students from the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies in New York. This made a very favourable impression on acclaimed saxophonist Ron Blake who led the event on the Juilliard side, who commented that Shepherd’s eclectic compositions sounded “very fresh, very 21st-century.”

Concert Details:
Time: 7:30 PM
Date: Sunday, 31August 2008
Venue: ‘Theatre in the District’, Chapel Street, District Six, near Cape Town’s CBD
Tickets: R50 at the door or by calling 072 351 5204

Enquiries:
Theo. Lawrence (Muzo Productions) Mobile: 072 351 5204, theo@muzosouthafrica.com

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The Little Giants and Guests in Concert

The Little Giants and Guests in Concert

(Presented by IMAD)

The Little Giants, one of Cape Town’s popular youth jazz projects, will appear at Swingers jazz club in Wetton, on Sunday 24 August from 17h00. Artists making guest appearances in support of this fundraiser for youth jazz development include Robbie Jansen, Duke Ncgukana, Deborah Tanguy, Shaun Johannes and Chris Engel.

The Little Giants recently appeared at the National Youth Jazz Festival in Grahamstown where some of their members again made the National Youth Jazz Band. The project is mentored and directed by pianist George Werner and released its debut CD Ungalibali in 2006.

For more information call 083 390 4529.
Ticket price: R50

Launched in 1999, the Little Giants has been a school for developing the skills of numerous youth musicians from diverse backgrounds, encouraging originality and exploring South African music. Some of their members have studied jazz in Norway and regularly get to mix with professional musicians at festivals and venues.

The Little Giants and their child counterparts The Baby Giants, now fall under the wing of the Institute for Music and Indigenous Arts Development (IMAD), which provides music development to disadvantaged communities on the Cape Flats.

Little Giants website: click here

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