Lots of jazz with a touch of soul at Jazz Safari

Oct 06, 2014

JUST how much jazz can folks from Kampala take? Not very much, it seems, especially if it is not smooth jazz. It must have been the largest amount of jazz played in a single night at Kampala Serena last Friday during the Jazz Safari.

By Kalungi Kabuye

Just how much jazz can folks from Kampala take? Not very much, it seems, especially if it is not smooth jazz. It must have been the largest amount of jazz played in a single night at Kampala Serena last Friday during the Jazz Safari.


Many in the crowd grew restless and impatient while waiting for the headline act, Joe Thomas, who does not do jazz, but R&B.
But it is that combination of international jazz acts and legendary soul singers that has made the Jazz Safari such a success over the years, and the 2014 edition did not disappoint. Long before Joe took the stage, some extraordinary performances happened.

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Norman Brown strumming the guitar

First up was the jazz quintet Tizer, with Lao Tizer on keyboards, Andre Manga on bass, Raul Pineda on drums, Chieli Minucci on guitar, and saxophonist Steve Nieves. For about an hour, they treated the capacity crowd to a new jazz experience, a fusion led by deft guitar work by Minucci.


By the time Norman Brown came on stage, it was going on to 10:00pm and part of the crowd was getting restless, clearly they had as much jazz as they could take, and some loudly called out to Joe to come onto the stage. But trust the maestro, who started playing guitar aged 8, to take them on yet another trip. By the time his hour was up, the audience was all up and dancing to a whole new experience.


Joe came on after that, although it took a whole 30 minutes before they could get the instruments tuned just right for his band. By then, the folks that had come just for the jazz left, but nobody really noticed, and the whole place went crazy when Joe came on stage.

trueExcited fans dancing to jazz at Kampala Serena


He was clearly the person they had been waiting for, and who cared if you really could not hear what he was singing? They knew the words to the songs, and as soon the first notes of a song were sounded, everybody sang along.


There is a debate going on whether the Jazz Safari should get a bigger place, maybe a stadium, to cater for the growing crowds.
But, as the Americans say, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it". I think the Jazz Safari formula is doing just fine, thank you.
 

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