Nellie . . . and all that jazz

A two-post epic about my encounters at Cape Town’s International Jazz Festival.

Maria, Mike and I arrived fashionably late to the International Convention Center eager with anticipation. After turning the corner I was taken aback by the sight of a huge train of people wrapping around the ICC. We were given some misinformation by a well placed pedestrian and inadvertently cut the whole entrance line thinking it was for will-call, which just goes to show that walking with conviction will take you places.

I had been to part of the ICC previously for a Tallest Man on Earth concert, but was awe-struck by the size of the venue. The main hall held several thousand people with rows of bleachers fitting comfortably in the back. We wove our way to the front of the crowd and listened to Zamajobe for a few songs, she wore a beautiful pink dress and had a silky voice to match. There are four other stages within the venue, each with the capacity to fit a huge crowd. One of the outdoor ones, Bassline, was my favorite. The stage was nestled between illuminated old hotels, with strings of rainbow tea lights between trees over some picnic tables. The atmosphere was conducive to the great music being made.

The three of us were walking through the crowd at the back of the main stage when Maria spotted Marita sitting with her friend Marilyn. We went over and chatted for a bit and I sat with them for Dave Koz’s set. Koz played the best sax I’ve ever heard. As Marita put it, he’s a less mellow version of Kenny G; he featured Patti Austin on vocals who has to be an angel fallen down from heaven. She is the epitome of a class act, standing with grace in a long black dress, her shoulders peeked out and her smooth grey bob which swayed as she sang. She later went on to duet with James Ingram which was musical candy. The seats we were sitting in felt like lecture hall seats in Arjona, probably in the hopes of bouncing people out of them. But not a person in the crowd was sitting still, everyone was grooving to his sax riffs. Some women with ‘Xhosa attributes’ got up out of their seats and really broke it down. This is their prom.

After Koz’s set I went outside with Maria and Mike and we sat in a very inviting tree by Bassline. We waited until around ten minutes before Atmosphere’s (an American rap-fusion group) set to weasel our way into the front, we made some small talk with the concert-goers around us and not-surprisingly (as it is a small-world after all) one of the South Africans we were talking to had been to Connecticut. He asked us if we knew who the Higgins were, whom we unfortunately didn’t, but it definitely created some more camaraderie with those around us. Atmosphere played an energetic set, and, after turning off my critical-lyrical-analysis switch, I really was able to enjoy it.

After Atmosphere we were wiped out, our endurance isn’t as good as the likes of Vernon and Marita. We headed back into the main stage and sat in the back against the dividers for a quick rest. We lounged at the back for James Ingram’s set, I closed my eyes and with my sweet free tote bag stuffed with a raincoat as a pillow, I closed my eyes. I could feel the energy of the several thousand people in the room swaying, I could hear Patti Austin’s soulful voice reverberating through the speakers, I could hear the boisterous voices of the crowd forming a choir to every word of each verse, I could feel the rhythm of the bass as it rose up through the floor, I was fully in that moment, I was swallowed by the jazz. 

Maria & Mike at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival