SPANNING three countries in 23 days and featuring 25 concerts and seven bands, The Concerts SA Music Mobility (CSMM) event is set to be one of the biggest displays of live music in southern Africa.
Brought to you by the CSMM Fund (a funding mechanism administered by the Samro Foundation), the shows will take place in four South African provinces – Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and three SADC countries – South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania.
Some of the acts set to perform include UCT graduate Thandi Ntuli; Samro Overseas Scholarship 2013 winner Bokani Dyer; Maskandi legend Ihashi Elimhlophe and The Mike Rossi Project.
According to managing director of the SamroFoundation, Andre Le Roux: “The Mobility Fund concept has enabled performers to travel to a range of locations throughout southern Africa – in some instances to obscure or unknown venues which do not regularly enjoy live music events of this calibre. We are hugely grateful for being able to provide the strategic support required through Concerts SA and the Samro Foundation.”
Tonight caught up with Ntuli who will showcase the 11 compositions off her debut album, The Offering in various performances across four cities. Explaining her sound, the musician says: “It’s a mixture of various genres mixing jazz, African and strong influences of church music. It’s not really modern gospel, but the traditional Church sounds.”
On the concerts being played throughout the southern part of the continent, Ntuli says: “For me as a musician, I want my music to be heard by as many people as possible. I think sometimes with the genre I play, people don’t really support jazz and are not exposed to it as compared to other genres. I always wanted to do concerts like this and now I get to.”
Of the diverse range of musicians, Ntuli says they’re all incredible: “I remember watching Bokani Dyer and I think they’re all amazing. I have a huge respect for all of the South African music that exists now and most people are not exposed to it because they don’t hear it on radio or see it live.”
Shedding light on her album which was nominated for a Metro FM Award in the Urban Jazz category, the artist says that was really exciting: “2014 saw a lot of amazing jazz being recorded and released so to be chosen as a nominee, it means someone considered my album as one of the best that came out in 2014 so it was a huge honour to be nominated.”
Ntuli says of her performances: “The music you hear on the album is not going to sound the same. It’s live music and that aspect is amazing so you can expect to hear those songs but they will be rearranged and there will be a lot more improvisation.”
• Concerts take place during the month in SA. Info and dates at concertssa.co.za