CT Jazz festival looking HOT HOT HOT
We’re just reminding you:
28 Jan 08. Looks like this year’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival is taking Jazz to a whole ‘nother level with international superstar Sergio Mendes joining the bash! Some other notables to catch are Belgian based Tutu Puoane and her band, Japanese Jazz pianist funky chicca Hiromi London’s MUST SEE The Bays and US group the Ananda Project … not to mention the good old Manhattans! mhmm ladies… you read right!
Cape Town International Jazz Festival organisers could not wait to announce the performance of the award-winning Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes at next year’s festival scheduled for Friday 28 – Saturday 29 March 2008 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Having announced the initial 20-artists in November, the plan was to release the next batch of names at the end of January 2008. “With a musician like Sérgio Mendes we couldn’t wait until January to announce his name. Given Mendes’s calibre, we know that people that were doubtful about their attendance next year will now think twice. It’s a coup for the festival and we thought it fair to make the announcement now”, says festival director Rashid Lombard.
More than any other Brazilian musician, Mendes has taken samba and bossa nova to the rest of the world. Tunes like “Berimbau” and “Bananeira” are now part of the world’s musical pantheon because Mendes made them popular. “Mas Que Nada”, a tune that Mendes released with his Brasil’66 group was the first song sung in Portuguese to reach the top of Billboard charts. Since then, renowned artists such Oscar Petersen, Hugh Masekela and Al Jarreau have done their own renditions of Mendes’s signature tune. “I’ve always tried to promote the music of Brazil all over the world. There is something very special about Brazilian music – the melodies, the rhythms, the sensuality and the joy”, explained Mendes in a recent interview with Lexus Magazine Interactive.
In the four decades that Mendes has been a professional artist, he has influenced different generations of musicians. Starting his career in Niterói in Brazil, the 66-year old composer, arranger and pianist grew up listening to jazz pianists such as Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Horace Silver. This is before Mendes linked up with the greatest Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jobim arranged most of Mendes’ earlier music. When he moved to the United States (US) in 1964, Mendes began his collaboration with musicians such as Herbie Mann, Stan Getz, Cannonball Adderley, Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder. Explaining his urge to explore Brazilian music, jazz pianist Kenny Barron who is also on the line-up for the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival, points to Mendes.
But it is none other Miriam “Mama Africa” Makeba who introduced Sérgio Mendes to a larger South African audience. Makeba recorded “Mas Que Nada” in her 1967 live album In Concert at New York’s Philharmonic Hall. Mendes’ latest project Timeless indicates that the influence of the Brazilian artist did not stop with the musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. In his latest CD, Mendes fuses his Latin sounds with contemporary genres like hip-hop and neo-soul. Asked about his collaboration with groups such as Black Eyed Peas, Erykah Badu, John Legend and Jill Scott, Mendes states; “It turned into a wonderful marriage of rhythms because it’s all African rhythms and haunting melodies. It’s all about the same beats that we inherited from Africa”.
For Sérgio Mendes, his appearance at Africa’s Grandest Gathering amounts to going back to where it all began for him: Africa. In addition to an appearance at the main festival event, Mendes will perform at a Special Gala Dinner on Thursday 27 March. Other musicians announced earlier are: Ananda Project (US); Bongani Sotshononda Project (RSA); Gavin Minter with the Mother City Jazz Orchestra (RSA); Gerald Albright (US); Hiromi (Japan); Kenny Barron Trio (US); Lennart Åberg Band (Sweden) feat. Peter Erskine (US); Leslie Klein-Smith Big Band (RSA); Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe); Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band (RSA); The Bays (US); Najee (US); The Big Idea (RSA); The Four Sounds feat Zelda Benjamin & Phyllis Madikwa (RSA); The Manhattans feat. Gerald Alston & Blue Lovett (US); The Soul Brother (RSA); Tierney Sutton (US); Tutu Puoane (RSA/Belgium); and Zola (RSA).
