Newsman learns to play it cool
Jazz a refuge before it became festival boss’s life, writes Bianca Capazorio
WHEN Rashid Lombard was still a news photographer, he would often unwind after a hard day by listening to jazz.
He worked as a photojournalist for 28 years, covering South Africa and the rest of the continent. After the elections of 1994, he packed it in.
“I had enough of covering hard news, be it in South Africa, Namibia or Congo, and decided to do something else,” said Lombard, now the CEO of espAfrika, the company that organises the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
“Jazz was always my therapy, my healing,” he said.
He joined Fine Music Radio in 1996 and stayed for five years before heading to P4, a commercial station that would become Heart fm.
“I started getting jittery being confined to management and I decided I was going to start a jazz festival,” he said.
He had attended many jazz festivals as a journalist and in 1998, at the North Sea Jazz Festival, he approached the festival management to ask for help in setting up something similar in South Africa.
In 1999, the North Sea Jazz Festival opened at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town with 3 000 visitors.
“We thought wow, we’ve got a festival,” he said. “We didn’t break even, but we knew we had to invest. By the fourth year, we ran to capacity.”
In 2005, he made the decision to expand from three stages to five and the festival moved to the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The music programme runs for only two days, but the festival programme fills 10 days with workshops for musicians, photographers and journalists.
The festival sells out quickly each year and, with 37 000 people attending, is bursting at the seams. Lombard is exploring the possibility of using more venues.
The music and the crowd have also evolved. This year’s line-up includes pure jazz, soul, pop, rap and funk.
“There is a huge audience who want more funk and dance music.
“Our audiences are also getting younger and younger, and the festival has moved from a jazz festival to a lifestyle festival.”
It was not always easy working with the artists, said Lombard.
“It takes a lot of nerves of steel and a good sense of humour.”
The disappearance of one of the stars once tested his nerves. Prominent American saxophonist Archie Shepp, best known for his Afrocentric music, went missing for four hours.
Just as the police were called in, Shepp came strolling back. He had caught the scent of the sea and taken a walk to Sea Point.
At the 2002 festival, US singer Erykah Badu jumped from the stage into the crowd, causing security anxieties.
Lauryn Hill, the American singer-rapper, lived up to her diva status, arriving late and insisting on her own sound engineers.
“This backfired,” said Lombard, “and three songs in, the jazz festival sound team was back behind the mixing desk.”