Upbeat electro and warm, soulful jazz share the spotlight this week.
- As the organiser and resident DJ of Montreal’s fabled Bounce Le Gros party series Canada’s Ghislain Poirier earned his stripes as a connoisseur of grime, abstract hip-hop and dub-fuelled booty bass. Since signing to legendary independent electro label Ninja Tune the French-Canuck turntablist, DJ and producer has turned his genre surfing skills to reanimate the soca rhythms and dancehall beats of Montreal’s Caribbean population. Right, so he’s a ‘world music’ remixer? Sure, but also so much more. As hipster electro blog Boomkat put it recently, he ‘invigorates the style with an almost technofied drum palette and nitrous fuelled synthlines giving the already rampantly uptempo and wildout sound a focussed ravers edge that’ll bite any […] dancefloor in half.” Johannesburg’s DJ Danger Ingozi (aka Data Takashi) mashes up the tropicalia, balkan beats, carioca funk moods in the homegrown support slot before pioneering turntablist and electronica alchemist DJ Sibot (cf. Real Estate Agents, Playdoe) performs a live set of his retro-futursist phat beats alongside electro crunk rap duo Sedge Warbler, plus A-list DJs Liver and El Gordo.
The Assembly, January 14, 9pm. Entrance is R30 before 9.45pm, R50 thereafter.
- ‘I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste” quipped Sarah Vaughan when quizzed about her jazz credentials. Esther Miller knows what she means. The South African born, UK based jazz songbird’s ability to interpret both Great American Songbook and contemporary pop standards has established her as one of the most alluring vocalists on the UK circuit over the past decade. Her latest album, A Place in the Sunlight sees the former medical student from Port Elizabeth complementing her repertoire of standards with several classy originals. Expect a versatile set ranging from township jazzy translations of Koos Du Plessis’ classic Afrikaans ballad ‘Kinders van die Wind” and sparse bass and vocal blues renditions of James Taylor’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” to lilting African samba originals like ‘Shawn’s Uhadi Samba” (co-written with Hotep Idris Galeta), old school scats and smooth soul jazz joints.
Green Dolphin, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, January 19, 8pm. Entrance is R35.