Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2017 –All You Need To Know

The stage is set for the 18^th edition of Cape Town International Jazz Festival. The popular 2-day festival will kick off on the 31^st of March. It’s time for all of you to be blown away by the performance of the world’s best jazz musicians and artists.

All about Jazz

Having originated in the late 19^th and early 20^th century in New Orleans, Jazz is one of the famous musical genres across the world. The popular form of music is mostly characterised by swing and blue notes, response vocals and polyrhythm. With time and explorations, the traditional form of music improvised and altered itself to a more modern form. Louis Armstrong is considered to be the most prominent Jazz musician for his contribution as a composer, singer and trumpet player.

About the Event

First held in 2000, Cape Town International Jazz Festival is one of the most prominent music festivals in South Africa. Popularly known as ‘Africa’s Grandest Gathering’, the festival is the largest musical event in Africa and the 4^th largest Jazz Festival in the world. Held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the event features a star-studded line up of singers and musicians from across the world. Traditional and modern Jazz players are the biggest attraction at the festival.

Artist Line-up

The popular festival always features an amazing line up of artists and musicians from across the world. This year, the list of artists includes Darren English, Dope Saint Jude, EN Vogue, Ernie Smith, Gretchen Parlato, Jazz Funk Soul with Everette Harp, Jeff Lorber & Paul Jackson Jr. and Judith Sephuma. Several producers, singer-songwriters and keyboardists like Taylor McFerrin will also be attending the festival. Other prominent names in the line up list include Tsepo Tshola ‘The Village Pope’, Laura Mvula, Rudresh Mahanthappa Bird Calls, Siya Makuzeni, and Sekunjalo Edujazz band.

Event Features

An age old tradition attached to the CIJF is the Free Community Concert. Held annually at Greenmarket Square, the concert is the community’s way of showing appreciation and gratitude to the people of Cape Town. Additionally, a world class Photographic exhibition is also held every year at Duotone. On display at the exhibition are paintings demonstrating the emergence and growth of Jazz across the world.  Moreover, the Fashion and All that Jazz Gala Dinner is an annual feature of the festival.

Add-Ons

The popular 2-day festival offers a series of sustainable training and development skills transfer programmes as add on for the event. As a part of the festival, music and career workshop is one of the most famous programmes for the budding musicians. Others courses and events provided in the festival include photojournalism, arts journalism, master classes, music technology workshops, music business and gigs for kids.