Cape Town - Tens of thousands of people attended the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday for the first night of one of the city’s biggest music gatherings – the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
Patrons were still trickling in past stringent security checks at sunset when Mafikizolo opened the festival on the main indoor stage, Kippies.
DJs Suga and Monde Kapa compered the stage.
Mafikizolo’s Theo Kgosinkwe and Nhlanhla Nciza were poshly kitted. Kgosinkwe wore wayfarers, a check jacket and a bowtie, while Nciza was dressed in a printed bustier and a tulle white skirt.
They sang hits like Hamba Nawe to much excitement as couples danced and sang along to the chorus.
On stage with them, four dancers performed classic 50s-era Meadowlands-styled routines.
The performance set a celebratory tone for the festival.
Meanwhile, tickets for the festival, which continues today from 5pm, have been sold out.
However, a number of people were turned away at the gates after organiser espAfrika’s announcement on Friday that they had identified the barcodes of more than 1 000 fraudulently purchased tickets.
Following a barcode scan, the tickets were rechecked, after which the fake ticket holders were refused entry.
Mohau Mokemune was one such unfortunate patron. Mokemune was turned away with three relatives and friends from Lesotho for whom he had bought tickets.
Mokemune said he had bought the tickets in Adderley Street on Thursday from a man he had been referred to by a friend. He had spent R4 200 on four weekend passes.
“I feel angry and disgusted. I also spent R12 000 on flights for them (his family and friends).”
After Mafikizolo had opened the five-stage mega-concert, Kippies also featured the Cuban band Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club and Zonke, and closed with the acid jazz/funk group The Brand New Heavies.
Meanwhile, upstairs on the Moses Molelekwa stage, jazz singer Auriol Hays opened the seated venue.
Earlier this week Hays said, “I am nervous. I have had no sleep.”
People understood her better after the release of her new single A Better Man, she added.
Of her performance last night, she said, “I want people to feel good when they leave. I am working with great people.”
A little later, the well-known gospel musicians Jonathan Rubain and Don Vino played a bass-and-saxophone duo, something that was being done for the first time in the city, according to Vino.
Rubain said they played at churches every week. “In the secular world, jazz clubs are closing; churches are opening,” he said.
A younger crowd gathered outside at the Bassline stage where acts like Trenton and Free Radical, Mi Casa Music and Brother Ali performed.
This is Trenton and Free Radical’s first appearance at the jazz festival.
Keyboard player Clement Carr described their music mix as one of reggae, hip hop and ska.
Mi Casa Music joked yesterday they had been so busy they now only needed to play at a funeral.
After a recent sold-out concert at Kirstenbosch, they will be heading to lead singer J’Something’s homeland, Portugal, later this year.
A star-studded line-up will feature on all five stages today.
Contemporary traditional singer Thandiswa Mazwai opens the Kippies stage this afternoon.
At a master class this week, Mazwai said, “I am at the jazz festival, but I don’t do jazz.
“Maybe we shouldn’t call it a jazz festival. But audiences must stop having hectic expectations,” she said.
Headliner Jill Scott, who skipped the festival last year, will perform after Mazwai.
The last two performances on the Kippies stage on Saturday are by Jimmy Dludlu and Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club.
On the Basil Manenberg Coetzee stage local jazz singer Claire Phillips will perform for the first time in the main line-up of the festival.
While paid stage Rosies will open with a tribute to late musician Victor Ntoni, a major highlight at the Bassline stage is the Grammy-award winning Robert Glasper Experiment.
The performance will feature the masked rapper MF Doom.
Glasper, who attended school with Beyoncé at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, said the tracks of Black Radio were recorded in one take.
“I hate over-dubs. We don’t do it. We relate the live playing to the record as much as possible,” he said.
l The Mahogany Room jazz club in Buitenkant Street will host jam sessions on Saturday and Sunday night.
Entry costs R30 today from 9pm and R20 from 7pm on Sunday. - Weekend Argus