Over the past Easter week, South African audiences were treated to a range of South African and foreign music. Visiting musicians included American R&B artists Regina Bell and Lauren Hill, who performed at the Redds Divas Concert at the Dome. Ashanti was also scheduled to feature at this concert but, after the tragic death of her cousin, she did not perform.
In spite of the technical hitches and the perennial South African artistic line-up problem — too many bands on a single stage — this concert only ended at 3am, with Hill closing the show. If Ashanti had performed at this late hour, I wonder how many audience members would have remained.
Halfway through the show, Hill abandoned her ‘depressing” acoustic set and gave the fans what they wanted — her old hits — much to the delight of the sexy Mzanzi girls who shouted: ‘SAA loses our luggage. Why did they not lose your guitar?”
African superstar Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award-winning pop star Alicia Keys and Lokua Kanza from the Democratic Republic of the Congo also came to South Africa and performed in Newtown.
Keys treated Jozi to a surprise guest appearance at the double-bill concert featuring world-class African music with Kidjo and Ringo Madlingozi. Keys certainly has it all: incredible artistic talent, beauty and she is a genuine humanitarian who loves Africa. Through her music, work as a Unicef ambassador (Kidjo is also a Unicef ambassador) and as co-founder with Leigh Blake of the Keep a Child Alive Foundation, Keys supports various projects focused on youth in the fight against HIV/Aids. She is a role model for our youth — and should be for those pop stars who are only obsessed with spending their millions on bling, luxury cars and yachts.
The Lokua Kanza and Zimbabwean guitarist Louis Mhlanga show, hosted by Alliance Française and the French Institute, had its ups and downs. Both artists, with their respective bands, gave us great music. This was Kanza’s first Jo’burg concert and he is an acclaimed vocalist, songwriter, composer, producer and guitarist who has worked with the likes of Miriam Makeba, Youssou N’Dour and Manu Dibangu.
I had the opportunity of seeing him perform years ago under the Reunion Island skies. He performed acoustically, to an appreciative crowd, with the Rai King, Cheb Mami. In contrast, the Jozi concert was bedevilled by too much smoke and a rowdy audience.
Kanza’s performance consisted of an intimate, beautiful acoustic quartet with him on guitar and vocals, Komba Mafwala on drums and Jean-Marc Reyno and Malaika Lokua on vocals. Their performance required an attentive and discerning audience in order to appreciate the music. With the venue’s bar being open and a core group of over 28yearolds, the so-called Jozi cultural cognoscenti of world-class music and arts continued to disrupt the melody with their drink, smoke and talk during Kanza’s performance.
Amid the noise and technical hitches at the Bassline, Kanza addressed the audience: ‘I am sorry. Maybe I will stop singing. I cannot hear myself. I was told by the people that South Africans are very good listeners and … I cannot continue, I am forgetting my words, this is hard” Fortunately he was spurred on and the night ended respectfully.
As music lovers and concert producers, we really have to strive towards creating professional and good conditions for the artist as well as audiences. Should we not simply introduce what is standard best practice worldwide at discerning international music venues, such as The Blue Note in New York and Ronnie Scott’s in London, where certain shows call for the bar to be closed during performances? We must take control to ensure that the breaking of smoking laws and the abuse of listening time is not tolerated.
I now understand Bra Hugh Masekela’s constant complaint that he is not background music and people must shut up or ship out.
As we approach 2010 and beyond, the challenges are: fighting corruption in the arts, improving technical and creative excellence, developing professional music venues, cultivating discerning music audiences and educating the public on the rich and diverse cultures that occupy the world.
Roshnie Moonsammy is the producer and director of the Urban Voices International Arts Festival