Cape Town - The way of jazz is to mix things up in more ways than one and that is the experience the 18th Cape Town International Jazz Festival director Billy Domingo hopes festival goers will have this weekend.
“People come out to the jazz festival, to escape and I want the festival to be an experience, an experience of different sounds, different foods, people, cultures and religions. I want people to walk away, saying it was an incredible experience,” said Domingo, the chief operating officer of espAfrica Event Management and Production Company.
Customer satisfaction is crucial to the success of the festival and that is why Domingo walks from stage to stage, checking to see if everything is in order, from the queues at toilets to whether the lighting is great or not.
“I speak to the people, make a note of things. I ask what else is there that we can do better. It is what I am there for, to ensure that they get value for their hard-earned money. I have to ensure that they are getting quality for their money, that we give them what we promised,” said Domingo.
About their decision to include more dance bands in the line-up, Domingo said jazz is indescribable, as “it’s the rhythms that turn us on” and that is why in Cape Town there is the dance called “the jazz” which is only danced here and nowhere else.
“When Cape Town people come to the festival they want to hear the music they dance 'the jazz' to, Shakatak and George Benson. We try to get the sounds people can dance to. This year we have Mango Groove, a Kwaito stage, a Hip Hop stage, an African music stage, all the stages are different and that is what makes the festival unique,” said Domingo.
As long as there is CTIJF, there will be a free concert where where there will be an international, a national and an African act and up-and coming young Cape Town musicians so that “people can get a feel of what the festival is about”, he said.
The free concert takes place tonight on Greenmarket Square at 5pm and people can expect to “dance, dance some more” with Mango Groove, En Vogue, All Star Band 2017, VuDu, South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union’s talent winner Danielle Jacobs and Moreira Chonguica.
Domingo would rather that the festival be called the people’s concert, in line with his vision that more South African artists be showcased because that is “who we are and where we are”
“The festival is not called USA’s grandest gathering or Europe’s grandest gathering, it is ours. And if we don’t start expressing that and if we don’t start respecting our own artists, how is anyone else going to do that."
“South African, it’s who we are, we must showcase that and be proud to say ‘I’m standing up and saying I really like and appreciate this,” he said.