Cape Town Jazz Festival & Kristel Birkholtz

by Daniel Brown

Article published on the 2009-04-03 Latest update 2009-04-03 06:46 TU

Kristel Birkholtz with her petrol can violin
(Photo: Kristel Birkholtz)

Rashid Lombard has put Cape Town's name on the global jazz festival circuit thanks to a savvy mixture of local and international jazz musicians. On 3 April, the tenth anniversary of the festival starts a weekend that features forty concerts and culminates with a 70th birthday concert by Hugh Masekela. 32,000 people are expected to attend this year's event, compared to a mere 6,000 spectators at the first edition in 2000. Much of that success is due to this man…

Festival director Rashid Lombard has been able to transform visiting artists into ambassadors for the Cape Town festival.

Rashid Lombard, director of the Cape Town Jazz festival
(Photo: Rashid Lombard)

Indeed, the organisers have calculated that 42 per cent of their audience finds out about the festival through word of mouth.

Lombard described his vision at the Moshito Conference in Johannesburg last year. Describing it as the "mother of all celebrations".

“We want to mix the jazz with other genres like hip hip and R&B music. This is not a festival for the purists," says Lombard.

“I suppose its success is due to an eye for detail we’ve developed. It’s also about hospitality, good food, conference exchanges on topics of the day,” he told World Tracks.

The setting and quality of music has attracted an impressive audience, with 15 per cent coming from international destinations.

“We’ve been sold-out for the past two years,” says Lombard.

Krystel Birkholtz is an accomplished violinist who did not make it to the Cape Town Jazz festival this year, but will be in the line-up for the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, in July.

Birkholtz juggles her music career with academic research on live performance in South Africa, and the challenge it presents for professional musicians.

The Johannesburg-based artist was also at the Moshito gathering, dealing with the business side of the music industry.

She presented World Tracks with her vision of the reality of South Africa’s music scene and played tunes from her debut album, My Revolution.

The violinist is preparing a follow-up album with more original compositions that continue to mix classical, jazz, funk, rock, and local influences.

Quiz of the week

• Can you name two bands or artists performing in Cape Town this weekend?

Answers: [e-mail].