After five successful stagings of the North Sea Jazz Festival - Cape
Town, in partnership with the Dutch promoters Mojo, espAfrika is now the
sole organiser of this prestigious music event, renamed the Cape Town
International Jazz Festival.
Among the confirmed headliners
is Cesaria Evora, the adored and barefooted World music songstress from
the Cape Verde Islands. Also on the bill is celebrated keyboard player
Amina Figarova Septet who is originally from Chechnya now living in
Holland.
Among the male headliners we can expect to see gracing the Cape Town
festival for the first time; are the highly-rated US trumpeter, Terrence
Blanchard; and Dave Holland, the English Jazz maestro on his famous double
bass. There will also be a long awaited appearance by the sensational
group, Yellow Jackets, from the USA. Another group that is going to
excite is Morris Goldberg and Ojoyo. The band members are all
internationally acclaimed South African musicians now living in New York –
Bakithi Khumalo, Tony Sedres and Anton Fig.
The African contingent currently includes 340ml, the Mozambican group
who have stamped their presence on the SA music scene with some wonderful
live shows and a brilliant debut album called 'Moving'; and the
world-famous Mahotella Queens, the mbaqanga trio who have forged a
successful career following the death of their frontman and vocalist,
Mahlatini, a few years ago.
Other African artists appearing at the 2005 festival include the Young
Bakuba Band, comprising musicians from Democratic Republic of Congo and
Cameroon; SA bassist Sammy Webber, known for his work with Virtual Jazz
Reality and U-Turn; and Swazi Dlamini, who recently won the Best Female
Artist Sama award for her debut album, ‘My First Love’.
Other names to watch out for include the respected Cuban jazz pianist
Ramón Valle; saxophone player Yuri Honing from The Netherlands, regarded
as one of the new leading voices in jazz; Louie Vega, who is well known as
a DJ on the New York City club circuit, but is more widely known as half
of the production team Masters at Work, will be performing with his 12-
piece band, Elements of Fire, and from Tunisia comes Dhafer Yousef, one of
the rising stars on the contemporary World music scene.
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