MADALA KUNENE & AFRICA PLUS
The Centre for Jazz and Popular Music presents
two gigs this week: Twosday gig with JKE and the Roots grown deep featuring
Madala Kunene tomorrow (March 07) at 18h00 and Africa Plus featuring Tshepo
Tsotetsi on Wednesday (March 8 at 18h00).
Joel Karabo Elliott's (JKE) music of Roots
Grown Deep is an Amer-Afrikan musical, poetic and cultural movement seeking the
most resonant harmonies of human Diaspora. It expresses a unique musical fusion
of New Orleans jazz, southern African indigenous rhythm and dance, Jamaican
reggae and Appalachia folk. The outcome is a passionate soul's outcry of
multiple languages, trances, and instrumental concepts, guided by a poetic
message of conscious spiritual ascension.
Roots Grown Deep’s 2016 double album
entitled Grow Within And You Shall Not Go
Without, connects the landscapes of three rivers: the Limpopo of Southern
Africa, the Colorado of the Grand Canyon, and the Bluefields of Jamaica. Grow Within features the musical voices
of more than 20 South African and American artists, including Msaki, Nono
Nkoane, Naftali, Nkoto Malebye and Stompie Selibe.
For their 2017 KZN and Lesotho tour, Roots
Grown Deep will perform as a quartet featuring Newcastle and Durbanite Ntando
Mbatha on bass, Sepedi and isiZulu praise poet Dennias Mashegwane, and
percussionist Lantern Maleka. Both albums of the Grow Within musical novel will be available for sale at the
concerts (R200 and R100 respectively). For more on JKE as an artist and the
ensemble’s vision, active projects and performance history, visit: www.rootsgrowndeep.com
On March 8 at 18h00, The Centre for Jazz
and Popular Music Proudly presents a band that comprises three UKZN music
graduate Africa Plus.
Lungelo Ngcobo, Prince Bulo and Sphelelo
Mazibuko- who form the highly talented band Africa Plus will perform as part of
their album launch tour. They will feature talented saxophonist Tshepo
Tsotetsi.
The band was formed in early 2013 whilst
studying music together at UKZN. They have since been creating waves nationally
working with an array of premier musicians in South Africa. Best known for
their combination of virtuosity as well as easily accessible melodies, Africa
Plus are changing the game in South African trio music.
‘We are really looking forward to playing
at the Jazz Centre especially after such a long time. This album tour launch
brings Africa Plus closer to their audience by sharing our music off the debut
album Africa Plus which was released
last year October 2016. We individually travelled across Africa and lived the
African experience and distilled these individual elements and infused them
into modern jazz, hence the name Africa Plus,’ said Mazibuko.
Africa Plus is an eclectic genre-crossing
band whose parameters are expanded beyond what’s expected from a drums, piano
and bass trio.
‘We craft the repertoire from innovative
original music as well as creative renditions of covers by some of Africa’s greatest
pioneers of jazz. Africa Plus continues to quarry and explore the same
principles that inspire us, exploring infinite musical forms through the
unprecedented exploratory power of jazz,’ added Mazibuko.
Their self-titled debut album Africa Plus was recorded live at The
Orbit in Johannesburg in May 21, 2016 and thereafter released worldwide on October
8, 2016.
Each of the members are well established
and highly sort after musicians who have produced, recorded and performed with
the ‘who’s who’ of the South African music scene as well as international acts.
Some of these artists include Marcus Wyatt,
Black Coffee, Standard Bank Young Artists Award recipients Bokani Dyer, Afrika
Mkhize, Siya Makhuzeni and Sibongile Khumalo, Lloyd Cele, Joyous Celebration
and the UKZN Jazz Legacy which toured USA in 2013 and 2014. ‘As Africa Plus, we
aim to showcase and educate the world about the diverse cultures of South
Africa through the medium of song,’ said Mazibuko.
Tickets available at the door for R70 (R45
pensioners and R20 students) and can be purchased at the Jazz Centre on the
night, Level 2 Shepstone Building at UKZN Howard College Campus, Durban. Doors
open at 17h30, the music starts at 18h00. Cash bar available. For more info,
contact Thulile Zama on 031 260 3385.
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