Market Theatre takes Eastern Cape jazz back home
NEWTOWN - A CONCERT that celebrates some of the Eastern Cape's great jazz composers will be taken to the province by the Market Theatre.
Organised by the theatre and the Department of Arts and Culture’s Touring Venture, Songs from Jazztown will visit five Eastern Cape towns this month.
“In the year in which we celebrate 20 years of democracy, the year where we look at the collective journey that has brought us to where we are today – a country that belongs to the world – the theatre decided to look for a project with a spirit that captures the tone, the challenge, the yearning that 2014 presents to us as South Africans,” said theatre spokesperson Lusanda Zokufa.
The concert, directed by James Ngcobo, is a “musical collage” of tunes written by Eastern Cape composers.
“This is a region that produced songwriters who left behind an exceptional body of work,” she said.
“These composers were stylistically brave, and their artistry was driven by the ancient sounds they grew up listening to, as well as by iconic jazz clubs like The Cotton Club, and the compositions of greats such as Duke Ellington.”
Zokufa said these influences “added up to create a potent musical concoction” produced by the likes of Todd Matshikiza, Welcome Duru, Victor Ndlazilwana, Victor Ntoni, the Manhattan Brothers, the King’s Messengers, and many more.
Ngcobo said that the group of musicians wanted to immerse themselves in the “beautifully haunting sounds” [these composers] orchestrated and to remember their contribution to the South African songbook.
“We want to present to our audiences a work that echoes the sounds of their region, and that is why we decided to tour the Eastern Cape with this piece. We want to say to people of that region that, even though… the Market Theatre [is] physically in Gauteng, our vision is not bound to one area,” he said.
Songs from Jazztown, featuring Bubele Mgele, Bonginkosi Zulu, Ezbie Moilwa, Gugu Shezi, Happy Motha, Joel Zuma, Johan Mthethwa, Linda Thobela, Nomfundo Dlamini and Nompumelelo Mayiyane, will run from 19 until 31 August.
Performances include:
19 August: Opera House, Port Elizabeth
22 and 23 August: Steve Biko Foundation, King Williams Town
29 and 30 August: Mlungisi Hall, Stutterheim
31 August: Miriam Makeba Centre, East London.
Details: 011 832 1641; lusanda@markettheatre.co.za; www.markettheatre.co.za
