Standard Bank’s long association with jazz in Grahamstown goes back to 1998 when it first sponsored the Festival jazz programme.
Standard Bank’s long association with jazz in Grahamstown goes back to 1998 when it first sponsored the Festival jazz programme.
It is a place where musicians from all over the world come together to play music together and share their talents with up-and-coming youth jazz musicians in the unique educational workshops that also take place during the festival.
The Standard Bank Jazz Festival incorporates a variety of jazz styles into their programme with features such as Mainstream, Blues/Funk/World Music, Afro-Jazz, Modern Jazz and Youth.
Running alongside this programme is the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival.
Mainstream performances will be headlined by multi Grammy award winning composer, conductor and performer Maria Schneider who will be performing in South Africa for the first time.
She is a compelling musical force whose music brims with depth, power and intrigue.
She will be supported by a Jazz Orchestra that combines South African and Norwegian musicians in an exchange supported by East Norway Jazz Centre and Concerts SA.
Singstruments: A Symphony of Jazz brings together five of South Africa’s musical gems, all of whom have been Young Artist Award winners for Jazz, for a remarkable performance.
Vocalists Sibongile Khumalo, Gloria Bosman, Tutu Puoane and Melanie Scholtz will perform, accompanied on piano by Bokani Dyer.
Other Mainstream performances include those by Scholtz, who will be performing tracks from her latest album ‘Our Time’ accompanied; Greek saxophonist Dimos Dimitriadis; and vocalists Babalwa Mentjies and Nomfundo Xaluva, both of whom are originally from Grahamstown.
Collaborations and explorations are the unofficial theme of the Blues/Funk/World Music category.
Hightlights include guitar gurus Dan Patlansky and Albert Frost; internationally acclaimed chromatic marimba player and percussionist Bongani Sotshononda, and, returning once more, the Saturday Night Funk Party.
Jazz legend and multi-instrumentalist Hugh Masekela will be headlining the Afro-Jazz portion of the Festival.
Award-winning South African singer/songwriter Lira will perform, as will SAMA winning guitarist Jimmy Dludlu.
Capetonian pianist, saxophonist, composer and band leader Kyle Shepherd is the 2014 Standard Bank Young Artist (SYBA) Award winner for Jazz.
He will be performing his music in two separate shows with the Kyle Shepherd Quintet and the Kyle Shepherd Trio.
Past SBYA winners Shannon Mowday (sax), Mark Fransman (sax), Afrika Mkhize (piano), Shane Cooper (bass) and Kesivan Naidoo (drums) have teamed up for the Festival.
The Modern Jazz programme includes performances from South African jazz icon Louis Moholo-Moholo; Soul’ Afrique, an 8-piece ensemble and renowned South African musicians such as Feya Faku (trumpet) and Sydney Mnisi (sax).
