The 13th Cape Town International Jazz Festival line-up has been bolstered by the addition of internationally acclaimed artists Jill Scott, Pharoahe Monch and Steve Tyrell.
This year’s festival takes place on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 March.
Master vocalist, poet and actress Jill Scott will join 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?.
Gold standard
Texas-born jazz vocalist and popular standard singer Steve Tyrell also joins the bill. He is known for the self-produced and critically acclaimed album A New Standard. 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.
US hip-hop artist Pharoahe Monch, completes the lineup 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 as a solo artist, 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.
Broadening perspectives
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’.
The rest of the line-up for 2012 also includes 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)
Atmosphere (USA)
Goodluck (SA)
Zamajobe (SA)
Zahara (SA)
David Sanchez with special guest Lionel Loueke (Puerto Rico/Benin)
The Moreira Project (Mozambique) and Alexander Sinton High School Jazz Band (SA)
Unathi (SA)
Hassan’adas (SA)
Victor Kula (SA)
Adam Glasser (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)
Nouvelle Vague (France)
Xia Jia (China)
Alfredo Rodriguez (Cuba)
Marcus Miller (USA)
Third World (USA)
For more information and the full lineup see the official website.