The Centre for Jazz and Popular has had to suspend
its concert series in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures put in
place to contain the virus.
Neil Gonsalves, Director for the Centre of
Jazz and Popular Music, states: “One of the consequences of the social distancing
measures in place is that it effectively paralyzes the entertainment industry,
both locally and abroad. Artists and various players in the sector are looking
to technology and social media, which is remote in its very nature as a
potential stop gap measure that could offer practitioners some financial
recourse in the face of months of work that evaporated in a matter of days.
“The staff at the Centre are equally
determined to marshal our resources in an effort to support and sustain our
beloved artists through this testing time. Chief among our resources is our
database of loyal patronage that has seen us serve up an uninterrupted sequence
of trios concerts for 30 years. We take great pride in our curation of these
concerts that ensures that the broad range of music on offer is of a
consistently high standard.
“The Trios name and concept was coined by
the founder and former Director of the Centre, Professor Darius Brubeck and it
simply meant paying R3 for 3 musicians. We are proposing a 21st century version
of this concept called the Social Distance Trios. R30 for 3 musicians, where
each musician pre-records a 20-minute set. It is an online concert of 60
minutes, which you will view in the comfort of your own home, and access via a
link we will email you on a Wednesday as per tradition, and upon EFT payment to
our account.
“So, effectively this remains a door deal
for the musicians.
“We would compile the sequence of videos
sourced from our roster of musicians scheduled to perform at the Centre this
season, and beyond. The videos will show the featured artists in performance
and we will apply the same levels of quality control as we do for our live
concerts with regards to quality of performance and audio and video quality. To
get some measure of interest in this idea, you would assist us greatly by
simply with a YES or NO to the email address hereunder to indicate whether you
would be prepared to pay for this online concert.
“The R30 is per person and we are obviously
working with an honour system, and trust that you will deposit payment
accordingly.
“Please let us know and we welcome your
questions and suggestions. We value your input and recognize the broad range of
expertise that resides in our database. This past week we setup a YouTube
channel and we request that you kindly subscribe to the channel where we will
be posting new content regularly.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCNJOXDtQto_Anqa7IFOCBNQ
“This will give you a good idea of the kind
of content we intend for our online concerts.
“Our long-term goal with the Youtube
channel is to live-stream our concerts at the Centre to attract an online
audience, and the opportunity for other income streams. To do this, we need a
thousand subscribers, so your assistance with subscribing to the channel and
sharing on social media will go a long way to help us to realize our ambition.”
Follow this project’s progress with this
and other news from the Centre on the Facebook page.
https://m.facebook.com/UKZNJazzcentre/
For technologically challenged, technophobes
or simply intimidated by the idea of having to deal with this platform, email Thulile
Zama and she will email a ‘how to’ video to assist as well. Email: zamat1@ukzn.ac.za
Musicians may submit their 20 minute sets
to Gonsalves@ukzn.ac.za
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