Jazz greats lend voices to tribute
WELL-KNOWN jazz performers are fine-tuning their musical instruments and polishing their voices, to deliver a life-changing musical experience during the three-day concert series Jazz Masters Tribute, to be showcased at the Artscape Theatre Centre from Thursday to Saturday at 8pm.
Thursday will honour female jazz icons such as Miriam Makeba through jazz voices of Africa including talented Zoe Modiga – a regular visitor to the Mother City’s jazz events, such as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
She will be joined in song by Nomfundo Xaluva, whose sultry voice and skills as a pianist are powerfully conveyed through her album .
The line-up will also include one of Cape Town’s best-loved pianists and vocalists Amanda Tiffin, as well as Monique Hellenberg, the featured vocalist on house music duo Goldfish’s current hit radio single This Is How It Goes.
Friday will celebrate the Ngcukana Brothers, primarily through instrumental renditions by legendary, multi-award-winning saxophonist McCoy Mrubata who studied informally under the Ngcukanas.
He’s a regular performer with local and international greats,
Mrubata is a former member of the super band Sheer All Stars, which consisted of some of the best musicians on the South African jazz scene, including the late Sipho Gumede, Errol Dyers and Frank Pako. Pianist Sylvester Mazinyane will share the stage with Mrubata.
Saturday will be dedicated to the late jazz master Errol Dyers and the Schilder family. Taking the stage in their memory will be composer and multi-instrumentalist Hilton Schilder (the son of the late esteemed South African jazz pianist Tony Schilder) and Errol’s brother, guitarist Alvin Dyers.
They will be joined by jazz musician Sylvia Mdunyelwa, who has also worked alongside the Ngcukana Brothers, Winston Mankunku and Nick Carter among others.
The Jazz Masters Tribute forms part of the Artscape Theatre Centre’s arts transformation policy, which has as its objective the elevation of formerly marginalised art forms, such as jazz, panstsula and hip hop, on centre stage alongside Western art forms, consequentially offering a platform for all professional art forms as a “home for all”.
Complementing the threeday concert, Hilton Schilder will showcase his exhibition of visual art depicting Cape Town jazz through the ages.
It will be displayed in the theatre foyer before and for the duration of the Jazz Masters Tribute.
Tickets, at R100 a person, are available via Computicket or Artscape-Dial-a-Seat; call 021 421 7695.