MUST DO: Jazz lovers get to CTIJF
Jazzinista’s we hope you’re planning ahead to catch the broadly diverse line up at this year’s CTIJF taking place in less than 3 weeks! Ranging from some of SA’s hottest current bands like Goldfish, 340ml and Siphokazi, then showcasing some of the less commercial but deeply intriguing South African jazz cats like Carlo Mombelli & The Prisoners of Strange and McCoy Mrubata… through to two of our favourite international bands – acid jazz group Incognito from the 90s (still a friend of mine!) and the AMAZING Congo-Belgian all-girl group Zap Mamas (call me!) – And smoothly topped off with an edgy hiphp touch – Mos Def feat The Robert Glasper Experiment (to name but a few), it’s gonna be shaking in Cape Town! Surely this range of talent must put the festival on the global lists of ‘must attend’ jazz festivals. Here is the full line-up. Just added to this list is the young and fabulous Zaki Ibrahim, read all about it below: 340ml; Carlo Mombelli & The Prisoners of Strange; Goldfish; Kyle Shepherd Quartet; Magic Malik Orchestra Napalma; Ndumiso Nyovane; Pete Philly & Perquisite; The Robert Glasper Experiment; Shakatak; Siphokazi; South Paw; Stewart Sekuma; Al Foster Quartet; Arturo Lledo; Dave Liebman Quartet; Dianne Reeves; Emily Bruce; Freshlyground; Hugh Masekela; Incognito; Jonathan Rubain; Kyle Eastwood Band; Loading Zone; Maceo Parker; Maurice Gawronsky feat. Feya Faku; New York Voices; Peter White; Ringo Madlingozi; Rus Nerwich’s collective imagination; The Stylistics; Zap Mama; Jonathan Butler with special guest Dave Koz; Dr. Malombo Philip Tabane, “Opera Meets Jazz” Mike Del Ferro, Sibongile Khumalo, and Shannon Mowday; Abigail Kubeka, Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, McCoy Mrubata and Special Friends and Mos Def feat The Robert Glasper Experiment. To complete this year’s lineup, organisers of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival revealed that Zaki Ibrahim will join the other thirty-nine acts that appear on 03-04 April at Africa’s Grandest Gathering. While she refuses to categorise her music, what Zaki dishes out is a fusion of hip-hop, earthy soul, deep house, broken electro-acoustic beats and jazz-inflected vocal intonations. Still in her 20’s, the Toronto-based South African singer has taken up as her mission, the creation of smooth hip-hop. Born to an exiled South African father and Scottish mother, Zaki spent her early years shuttling between Cape Town and the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in British Columbia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia> , Canada. She was drawn to hip-hop at early age and started to perform when she moved to British Columbia ’s largest city, Vancouver. Explaining the pull of hip-hop on her, the singer who has been living in Toronto since 2001 describes how as a child he listened...
Represent ♡’s the Gautrain website
We love this site. Nice work Gauteng Provincial Government, great innovative thinking and spot on with the social media information sharing habits of today. Gautrain is essentially a content and story aggregator for the imminent Gautrain and the ongoing, some would say painful, others superbly exciting development of this marvellous fast choochoo we’re all waiting for. We know it’s going to be worth all the stress and reading the everyday people’s tales of suspense around it just gets us panting at the bit! Share your impressions, photo’s and love of the Gautrain here. PS: GPG, remember from now on, your social media guy is always right. Image: From the Gautrain site, by Lambert du...
First Ever AFRICAN fashion week
Wow, amidst all the mishmash of the myriad of fashion weeks and not knowing which city or country we’re in or which season, who would have thought that the creme de la creme of an entire continent’s fashionistas could come together on one stage. Only in South Africa, land of big dreams and even bigger doers. Nice one. Represent Africa! Great timing, HINT: If you didn’t know already, big chunky and colourful Afro-inspired necklaces are the MUST HAVE accesory this Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. We look forward to more info. Inaugural Africa Fashion Week to draw world attention African designers will be scoring the winning goal during the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup in June, when the inaugural Africa Fashion Week takes place in Johannesburg. African Fashion International (AFI) has announced that the first Africa Fashion Week will be an eight-day showcase of the continent’s leading designers from 12 to 19 June 2009 at the Sandton Convention Centre, replacing Joburg Fashion Week on this years spring/summer calendar. Africa Fashion Week – which will feature designers from up to 15 countries including top South African designers – is set to become an annual event that will also be held during the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Visit www.africanfashioninternational.com for more details. Image: David Tlale’s...
A taste of what’s to come. Cassette.
Represents good friend, Andrew Wessels and his group South African pop/rock band Cassette have been hard at it putting together their latest album together for their adoring fans. We’re delighted and wish them all the best – come on dudes, let’s blow it up. Watch the video below that gives a taste of what’s to come… Look out for the new single, “Who Do You Trust” on radio’s everywhere! Look out for a huge South African tour coming March. Look out for the huge international tour coming in April/May In the meantime, here is some...
Wanna visit India? Get inspired right here.
In search of enlightenment, weight loss shortcuts and spiritual enrichment to ease the path into her wiser/slimmer/better 30s, Beverley Houston followed her dream of visiting India. And just did it. She shares her highlights and photo’s with us: My India I had visions of returning from India feeling enlightened and looking emaciated – the enlightenment would be from the morning, noon and night yoga sessions that I would partake in and the drop in dress size would inevitably be caused by the worst bout of Delhi belly ever recorded by man. The pressure was on – not only did my 30th loom a mere two weeks post my return (hence the quest for enlightenment and all other things related to turning the big three oh) but I had a bridesmaids dress to fit into – the dire need for Delhi belly need not be explained further. Sadly – my trip to India, the land of Saints, gods, demi-gods and all things mystical and magical, bestowed upon me neither. Setting off from Johannesburg with my vegetarian, yoga-loving best friend, we arrived in Delhi with a number of pre-conceived, post Shantaram reading notions on India. Rather grubby, smelly and definitely full of all sorts of nasty bugs, Delhi is a thriving city, which constantly and unpredictably contrasts between the old and new, extreme poverty and extreme wealth. Western, especially blonde female tourists are a fascination for the locals who, if you fit the description, will stop you to have their picture taken with them. Great for the many family portraits that we now feature in but not so great for the ones taken with the young single guys who will forever onwards claim to have bedded either one or sometimes both of us – the digital revolution has made photo taking a new sport in India. From Delhi we set off with driver to the Rajasthan district – think Agra and the Taj Mahal, the pink city of Jaipur, the one horse hippy town of Pushkar and the city of lakes and palaces Udaipur, which will be forever immortalised by the 1980’s James Bond movie Octopusssy. Rajasthan highlights: The Taj Mahal at sunrise. Sadly it was a gloomy day, but a spectacular sight nevertheless – sans sunshine. A three-hour long Bollywood blockbuster, which we watched minus sub-titles, in Jaipur’s famous art deco meringue shaped movie theatre. Camel trekking – we hooked this up in Pushkar – a Hindu pilgrimage city which has banned all public displays of affection, alcohol, eggs and meat – if you want to smoke pot however, look no further. A cooking course in Udaipur – we learnt...
Proudly brought to you by:
