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 to her percussionist father’s banned and underground tapes. This made her listen intensely as she became interested in the message of the lyrics. At the same time that Zaki listened to her father’s music, she was also a fan of people like Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Waits, Anita Baker and Whitney Houston.
Zaki’s appreciation of the power of words comes from her mother who is a writer. The vocalist who also sings in French has very poetic lines. She sings with emotions and expressive tones define her phrasing. Like Bobby McFerrin, Zaki sometimes uses her voice as a first instrument where sound replaces words. “Even when I was kid I was always writing little songs, then when I was at high school I was trying to rhyme. A lot of songs start from my free-writing, playing with words, playing with couplets, sonnets and things with half-lines and half poems”, says Zaki
In her short career, Ibrahim has worked here and in Canada with South African outfit, Tumi and the Volume. She also collaborated with Bedouin Soundclash, Darp Malone and DJs King Britt and Ron Trent. Her EP Eclectica (Episodes in Purple) recently received a Juno nomination for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year. Zaki has been working on a new album. She comes to Cape Town to let her fans taste what is in her new offering.
Ticket prices for the 2009 Festival are: single day passes will be R330.00 and full weekend passes will be R485.00. As in previous years, there will be an extra fee of R25 per artist for patrons wishing to attend concerts on the Rosies stage.
For travel packages, please visit www.tripostravel.co.za
Tickets are available from Computicket and Shoprite-Checkers stores.
