Jazzed Up in Cape Town
Sure, there are other, better-known jazz festivals in the world. Montreux is terribly upscale. New Orleans, the place where the genre was born, serves up a helluva of a party. But judging by the throw down that Cape Town, South Africa - a city widely acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful on the planet - just put on, its jazz festival now must be ranked as one of the very best. There wasn't a dud among the event's 41 acts, who took over five stages at the sprawling, ultra-modern Cape Town Convention Centre March 23 and 24.
The fest's lineup was of course heavy on South African artists - including lesbian chanteuse Claire Phillips, who wowed the crowd at the outdoor Basil 'Manenberg' Coetzee stage, despite heavy rain - but performers from the States, Brazil, the U.K., and more were also on hand. If diversity in nationality was evident at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, so, too, was diversity in musical style, with everything from swing-bop to hip hop represented, all part of a plan to expand the range of sounds offered up at the 19th iteration of the festival - and beyond.
"Great thought has been given to the nuances of the greater jazz form in this year's line-up," CTIJF Festival Director Billy Domingo noted in the days leading up to the festival. "This is reflected in the variety of the acts that will entertain this year's festinos. I am delighted that our steadfast festival goers, as well as those attending for the first time, have such a wealth of talent from which to create their personal musical experiences and we look forward to sharing these moments with our audience."
Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and the Orleans Avenue Band. Photo: Rob Piper for Networx PR
Party People in the House Tonight
To be sure, sublime musical moments, the kind that make a festival's reputation, were everywhere at CTIJF this year. Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, fast becoming another music legend out of the Big Easy, raised the roof in a rip-roaring Friday night session. Backed by his knock-your-socks off Orleans Avenue band, Andrews played his trademark melange of rock, pop, funk and, yes, jazz with energy born of performing in the street and with bands like the Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One of the show's best moments came when Shorty and the band tore into the Chili Pepper's classic "Give it Away," complete with razor-sharp rapping from baritone saxophonist Dan Oestreicher.
Other highlights included "The Boy's Doin' It," a South African supergroup formed to honor Hugh Masekela, the trumpeter, singer, composer and anti-apartheid crusader, who died in January at 78. Thousands of fans packed the festival's largest venue, sending off the national hero hailed as the father of South African jazz with enough passionate song, dance, and applause to nearly bring the house down around their ears.
Meanwhile, Seu Jorge, famous for his appearance in Wes Anderson's 2004 cult flick "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," played an intimate show Friday made rowdy upon occasion by the revelry of his fellow Brazilians in the audience. As he did in the film, Jorge performed a mix of David Bowie songs on his acoustic guitar, singing the lyrics in Portuguese. Jorge's interpretations were uniquely his own, but the night served as a moving memorial to the Starman beloved worldwide by the LGBTQ community.
Seu Jorge. Photo: Rob Piper for Networx PR
Where It's At
The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is an undeniable smash hit, nearly outgrowing its longtime home, but don't expect it to up and move elsewhere. "Over the years this event has grown from what started out as 8,000 people in year one, and now the attendance is 38,000 over two days," notes Carenza Van Willingh, marketing manager for CTIJF. "It's at capacity. You can't fit anymore people in here, but there's no other place to move into in Cape Town. It's definitely a local kind of event that people love to boast about. We have lots of out-of-town visitors, but they come here for various other reasons, too, including the beauty of the city."
Cape Town itself is spectacular enough it warrants a trip to South Africa. A port city tucked onto a peninsula in the southwest part of the country, it sits under the magnificent Table Mountain. Urbane and cultured, Cape Town offers plenty to do, including hopping aboard one of the cable cars that take visitors up to the top of the 3,558-foot-high Table Mountain (you can hike it if you're feeling especially energetic), paying homage to Nelson Mandela at the museum on Robben Island, where he was once imprisoned, and strolling the picturesque V&A Waterfront.
Cape Town is the most gay-friendly city on the continent, too, which means plenty of great LGBTQ nightlife at places like Cafe Manhattan and Amsterdam Action Bar. It doesn't hurt that pretty much the prettiest people in the world seem to hail from the city.
Next year - the 20th anniversary of CTIJF - promises to be incendiary. Dates have yet to be announced, but bet on sometime around the end of March, and watch out in November or December for the lineup announcement. Past performers at the fest have included Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Level 42, En Vogue, and Hugh Masekela, so you can bet the 20th anniversary lineup will be heady. Just remember to bring your funkiest duds. Attire at the festival brings to mind Bj�rk at the Academy Awards with an African bent: gloriously creative, intensely hip, and undoubtedly expensive. This has got to be the best-looking crowd at any music event on any continent.
But most importantly, snag those tickets, which go for as little as about $110 for a weekend pass, as soon as they go on sale. After all, "Africa's Grandest Gathering" is sure to sell out. As Phillips, who performed at the festival in 2014, where she met her idol Jill Scott says, "This is one of the biggest jazz festivals in the world."
For more on the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, visit its website.