Chaka Khan to perform at CT jazz Fest 2019
Queen of Funk in the line-up announced for next year’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival
TEN-time Grammy winner and Queen of Funk Chaka Khan is set to perform at next year’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival, organisers espAfrika announced yesterday. In celebration of Women’s Month, espAfrika has revealed that in addition to Khan, four femaleled acts are scheduled to perform at Africa’s “Grandest Gathering” at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 29 and 30 next year.
The other acts are multiple award-winning jazz pianist Eliane Elias from Brazil, US multi-instrumental neo-soul group Moonchild, South Africa’s first all-female big band, The Lady Day Big Band and local sensation, singer/songwriter Shekhinah, who will be making her debut at the festival.
Fans of Khan will be in for a treat, as the last time the hit maker performed in the country was in 2015.
Next year is a big year for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary – 20 years of international and local jazz.
The CTIJF plans to reveal international and local artists lined up for the festival online throughout the year, instead of via its traditional format of press conferences.
These line-up announcements will keep the conversation going, with new artists to be regularly revealed.
Festival director Billy Domingo said he looked forward to honouring the past and establishing the future at CTIJF 2019. “The legacy continues as we look forward to the next 20 years of the CTIJF. Now that we’ve laid a solid foundation, we strive to maintain the excellent standard of Africa’s Grandest Gathering and further establish this festival as one of the best in the world,” he said.
“As you’ll see with the first artist announcement, we continue to pay homage to women of song while challenging the global gender bias. As in recent years, we will always celebrate our legends, with the CTIJF legacy programme playing an important role in the festival line-up.”
At the festival this year tribute was paid to legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela, with a musical item following his journey from 2000, when he played at the festival for the first time.
Running parallel to next year’s festival will be an opportunity for up-and-coming musicians to cut their teeth on one of the biggest festival stages in the continent. The espYoung Legends competition will enter its fourth year, allowing talented, unsigned artists an opportunity to compete at a national level to win the title.
The winner of this year’s title, Jarrad Ricketts, said of the competition: “Thanks... to espAfrika for providing up-and-coming bands with an opportunity to be recognised. This is an important platform which links local artists to an international fan base through one of the world’s most recognised and important music festivals.”
Ticket sales for CTIJF 2019 are now open at Computicket. Loyal festivalgoers are in for a treat, as a limited number of weekend pass tickets are available at R999. Thereafter, CTIJF 2019 weekend passes will remain the same price as this year: Weekend Pass: R1 290 Day Pass: R850 For more information, see: www.capetownjazzfest.com. – IOL Entertainment