Karyn White and Kirk Whalum light up Jazz Safari

Oct 04, 2015

THIS year’s Nile Gold Jazz Safari edition was a fight against all odds to succeed and as it turned out on Friday night at the Kampala Serena Hotel, it was a great night of music

By Steven Odeke

 

THIS year’s Nile Gold Jazz Safari edition was a fight against all odds to succeed and as it turned out on Friday night at the Kampala Serena Hotel, it was a great night of music.

 

Ageless liveliness from Karyn White and a flamboyant performance from saxophonist Kirk Whalum summed up the two headline act’s performances. Kirk started off the spectacle at 8:30pm as expected. 

 

He set up his one-hour-plus show at brisk pace playing, his popular tunes like “Ascension,” “Grover Worked and Underpaid,” Toni Braxton’s “Breathe Again”, Stevie Wonder’s “All I Do”, Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” and lastly Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

 

His time was seriously intense, throbbing and great, playing many of the familiar pieces to keep his audience glued. He also endeavoured to engage his audience, at times preaching a word of wisdom or two. 

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Revellers at the Jazz Safari at Serena on Friday night. Photo by Richard Sanya

And when he talked about Whitney Houston, the person he worked closely with on several musical projects, a tinge of nostalgia wafted in the Serena Victoria room.

 

“Talking to Whitney all those years, we developed a relationship and I think I missed something. When we were recoding song for The Bodyguard called “I Will Always Love You” she insisted to the film director and said there are two things you need to know about me. I need to sing this song live with my band and my band is going to play live as I sing live for the film. They don’t do that in movies because you got to sing over and over but Whitney refused and it was great for me to rub shoulders with an amazing person like her,” he said.

 

After Whalum’s performance that roused a standing ovation, it was Karyn White’s turn. For someone who is making 50 in two weeks, to defy theory and perform with youthful energy was amazing for everyone. 

 

She started off her performance with “The Way I feel About You” off her Ritual Of Love album. From there, her dazzling set took fans down memory lane with songs like “Secret Rendezvouz,” James Brown‘s “Get On Up”, “Love Saw It”, “Hungah” and “Tears Of Joy”. 

 

For her part, before singing “Superwoman” it was the 1994’s “Hungah” that nipped into everyone to get off their haunches and dance.

 

 It was a fine time for everyone, for an event that has weathered all kinds of storm to make it.

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