Cape Jazz Fest Announces Three Additional International Acts

Cape Town, Wednesday 22 February, 2012 – The 13th Cape Town International Jazz Festival line-up has been bolstered by the addition of three exciting internationally acclaimed artists. Master vocalist, poet and actress Jill Scott’s (USA) exciting repertoire is expected to bring the house down as she joins the other greats on the festival’s Kippies stage.

In 2000 Scott released her much anticipated debut record Who is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds, Vol.1. This double platinum selling album earned Scott several Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. Two more critically acclaimed albums followed; Beautifully Human: Words & Sounds, Vol. 2 and The Real Thing: Words & Sounds, Vol. 3. Both garnered two more Grammy Awards and spawned multiple worldwide tours.

Most recently Scott was cast as the lead character in The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, a HBO/BBC mini-series filmed on location in Botswana and currently being broadcast in South Africa. Prior to that she starred alongside Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson in the movie series Why Did I Get Married?. This Three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, New York Times best-selling poet and critically acclaimed actress joins the bill as one of the headline acts.

Texas-born jazz vocalist and popular standard singer Steve Tyrell (USA) also joins the bill. He is known for the self-produced and critically acclaimed album A New Standard, released by Atlantic in 1999. In 1986 Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram recorded Tyrell’s Somewhere Out There which won two Grammys (including Song of the Year) and received an Oscar nomination. Three years later, Ronstadt recorded Tyrell’s Don’t Know Much featuring Aaron Neville which earned both her and Neville a Grammy win for Best Vocal Performance.

Hip Hop artist Pharoahe Monch (USA), completes the line-up bringing the total number of performing artists to 41. Known for his popular hit Simon Says, the New York native was originally part of Organized Confusion with partner Prince Poetry. Today the former visual artist works on his own, recently having released W.A.R. (We are Renegades). The music video for the new single off the album, Still Standing, was released on February 5 and features fellow Jazz Festival performer Jill Scott.

These three acclaimed performers join an already star-studded line-up of artists, with this year’s headliners reflecting the festival’s philosophy of broadening audience’s perspectives of what is understood as ‘jazz’.

As previously announced, the rest of the line-up for 2012 is completed by the following artists: James Ingram (USA), Dave Koz with special guest Patti Austin (USA), Mike Stern with special guest Dave Weckl (USA), Virtual Jazz Reality (SA), Brubecks play Brubeck (USA/SA), Ron Carter, Donald Harrison and Lenny White (USA), Andre Petersen Quintet (SA), Atmosphere (USA), Jean Grae (USA), Goodluck (SA), Zamajobe (SA), Zahara (SA), The Jason Reolon Trio (SA), David Sanchez with special guest Lionel Loueke (Puerto Rico/Benin), The Moreira Project (Mozambique) and Alexander Sinton High School Jazz Band (SA). Zakes Bantwini (SA); Unathi (SA); Lindiwe Suttle (SA); Sophia Foster, (SA); Hassan’adas (SA); Victor Kula (SA); Adam Glasser (SA); Herbie Tsoaeli (SA); Steve Dyer (SA)’ Ill Literate Skill (SA); Hip Hop Pantsula (SA); Dorothy Masuka (SA); Hugh Masekela with Special Guest ‘’ Tribute to Mama Afrika’’’ Gabriel Tchiema (Angola); Allen Stone (USA); Nouvelle Vague (France); Xia Jia (China); Alfredo Rodriguez (Cuba); Kevin Mahogany (USA); The Patti Austin Trio’s (USA); Marcus Miller (USA) and Third World (USA)

This year’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival will take place on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 March. In its 13th year, the festival continues to titillate South African audiences with the finest in local and international performers at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

Celebrating not only musical creativity, but visual creativity too, The Duotone Photographic Exhibition is an annual fixture of the festival. Every year it commemorates prolific jazz photography to educate people about the power of art & photography, how one image can be timeless and to expose other forms of art , culture and heritage as it is all one form of expression and enjoyment. This year it showcases the works of Nuno Martins (Angola); Sipho Maluka (SA) and Shelley Christians (SA).

One of the most exciting elements to the festival is the annual free Community Concert which brings thousands together in the centre of Cape Town on Green Market Square. This year the concert will take place on March 28th, the Wednesday preceding the festival. The line-up is usually a teaser of some of the local and international acts that will feature at the festival.

The gold sponsors for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2012 is the Department of Arts and Culture and the SABC. Other sponsors include Provincial Government of the Western Cape, The City of Cape Town, Oude Meester, Hansa Pilsner, Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Cape Town Partnership and the Western Cape Education Department.

Tickets for the festival are R400 for a single day pass and R550 for a two-day weekend pass. As in previous years, there is an additional fee of R30 per act for performances at the Rosies stage.

Tickets are available at Computicket and Shoprite-Checkers stores.

For more information visit www.capetownjazzfest.com

Chris & Rihanna Collaborate

Chris Brown and Rihanna did collaborate on two new tracks – remixes of hits off each other’s latest albums. They cutely Tweeted links to each other’s remix yesterday, to celebrate RiRi’s 24th birthday.

Rihanna feat. Chris Brown – Birthday Cake (Remix)

Chris Brown and Rihanna are back are at it again! Well maybe not quite “at it again”, but the two have been getting rather cosy lately, especially in the studio…

Listen to the rather raunchy track from the former couple on this remix for “Birthday Cake” and let us know if you think the two still got it…

For this latest release, both Chris Brown and Rihanna tweeted their excitement about the release. Chris said,

@chrisbrown said:

@rihanna goo.gl/ttRJR YIKES!!! Cake, cake, cake!

@rihanna said:

#RihannaNavy Come and put ya name on it!!!!! RT @chrisbrown: @rihannagoo.gl/ttRJR YIKES!!! Cake, cake, cake!

Bobby Brown Back On Stage

Bobby Brown was back on stage with New Edition in Vegas, on the last leg of their tour.

Whitney Houston’s Funeral

Whitney Houston’s funeral will be held on Saturday at noon at the very same little church in Newark, New Jersey, that she used to sing in as a child.

Grammy Camp With Dineo

Dineo is in LA where she spoke to some industry experts at Grammy Camp, and she finds out more information about the Grammys, namely how the singers get nominated.

News of Whitney’s Death at the Grammy’s

The Grammys started off on a sober note last night, with all the guests still reeling from the news of Whitney’s death. Grammys host L.L. Cool J, dressed in black, lead the star-studded audience in a prayer at the start of the show, and then went into a clip of Whitney singing “I Will Always Love You”.

#RIP Whitney Houston

After hearing the terrible news of the passing of legend, Whitney Houston over the weekend, most of the music world is still in shock.

According to TMZ, “the autopsy of Whitney Houston revealed she did have water in her lungs when she died, but the medical examiner needs to determine exactly how much before they can rule whether she died as a result of drowning …”

As TMZ first reported, authorities believe Houston may have fallen asleep or lapsed into unconsciousness in the bathtub and drowned.

According to TMZ sources, authorities cannot yet determine whether Houston died before she was submerged in the water or after.

Toxicology results will be back in 4-6 weeks.

Sad news indeed…

Whitney Houston was honoured at The Grammy Awards ceremony which took place early this morning and was broadcast live on Channel O. Tonight we get to see the repeat of the show on Vuzu, at 20:30, straight after The Vampire Diaries.

Take a listen to one of the last songs that Whitney Houston shared with the world, during her time on earth.

Black Women In Music

It’s Black History Month in the States and President Obama has ordered all citizens to honour black women, especially , so ESSENCE magazine held its annual “Black Women In Music” event in Hollywood Wednesday night, where they honoured Kelly Rowland.

Dineo Talks Grammy Awards

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday the 12th of February in LA. Here’s a quick breakdown from our girl Dineo who is out in LA.