There have been plenty of music competitions - whether televised or not - that concentrate on various genres. But it’s not every day that Jazz is put under the spotlight. Through a new talent competition called Pursuit of Jazz, major record company collective, Universal Music Group and the airline, Emirates, are doing just that.
A production company called Thatch Music, along with James F. Bassingthwaighte, Marlon Witbooi, and Thandi Ntuli, will be scouting talent around the country all of August. Once they have been whittled down to 100 hopefuls, Universal as well as Kaya FM will be tasked with coming up with a Top 10 in September.
In November, that Top 10 will have to perform and only five of them will go through to the next round. Those five will be decided by Universal’s managing director, Sipho Dlamini as well as producer, Alexis Faku, and Kaya FM’s Colin Kgari. It’s very disappointing that there is no woman involved in this judging process.
In December, one of the Top 5 will be crowned the winner. They will walk away with a new single and a performance at the Winter Jazzfest in New York.