Nellie: jazzin' part 2

After a wonderful afternoon at the Firefighter’s tournament, Casey drove us into the city and masterfully found some event parking. After taking a cozy shuttle ride we were dropped off right by the entrance and rolled in with no line.

Theresa and I leafed through the very well produced event progamme to scope out our plan for the evening. After taking a lap of the venue we decided on Bassline as our first stop. We ran into Meika’s French friends from her internship who had gotten jobs on event-staff, after a quick chat we sat down at one of the picnic benches beneath the tea lights. We were talking when we heard a loud crash behind us. I turned and saw a startled guy clutching his cone of chips on the ground, after realizing his bench had collapsed I invited him to ours. We started talking with our new friend Malik, and before we knew it, we had sat and talked through the entire ‘ILL-Literate Skill’ set. Our conversation spanned a great number of topics but peaked on the concept of how music (and math too) is the universal language. It brings people together (and funnily enough to hear him over the rap group we had to lean in close) and how we couldn’t fathom a life without music. We spoke of how we treasured the diversity of people there, every color and age, dressed to the nines or in a hoodie and jeans, everyone brought together by great music.

Theresa and I stuck at Bassline for an act called The Nouvelle Vague, a French duo. I was happy to note that their guitarist looked like our RA Ben. One of the guys in their band broke out this really cool narrow upright electric bass device. Their sultry singer with blue shorts and red top made bed-eyes at the entire crowd and at one point took out a melodica (which I’ve played thanks to my friend Wes), and after she put that away, it got weird. Their lyrics got creepy and repetitive and she started buzzing like a fly and asking the audience to buzz with her. Theresa and I had enough of that nonsense and went inside, if only we had gone in earlier, we heard the last minute of Marcus Miller’s set and it apparently was amazing. Oh music festival regrets, so many choices, you can’t always make the right one.

An act we made sure not to miss was Hugh Masekala. Marita, Dorith, and Casey had set up camp right in front of the soundboard—which as all concert-goers know, is the best spot. Hugh and friends brought the house down, he preformed a tribute to Mama Africa, with special guests, Vusi Mahlasela, Thandiswa Mazwai, and Zolani Mahola (of Marita’s favorite band, Freshly Ground). Their music was so soul-fufilling-good that even crusty-old-white-male-diamond-vendors found their fluidity and danced to the music. The crowd became a living sea of people. Swaying to the beat with pockets of spontaneous impromptu but seemingly coordinated group dancing within the currents. Hugh’s trumpet lines were as if those were his last breaths. When Vusi performed solo he ‘shhhed’ the crowd. A quiet fell over the arena, a slight breeze began to stir, and then when he crescendo-ed it gave you goose-bumps and simultaneously cleared your sinuses.

 Theresa, Dorith, and I wove our way up to get a good spot for Lauryn Hill, we waited for 45 minutes which really did a number on our backs and feet (we’re getting too old for this), and the crowd grew quite restless. After half an hour of mic-checks we were not in the mood to listen to her DJ play a quick set before her entrance, when she finally did come out any buzz from Hugh’s amazing last number was gone and it was more just relief we had something to look at. She’s still just as attention grabbing as ever, wearing pink flowing flying-squirrel pants, a black cropped leather jacket and a hat in 80s Madonna fashion. The sound was horrible, her band was way too loud so you couldn’t hear her back up vocalists at all, and it just wasn’t her sound. After fighting with the sound guys for a few songs and obviously getting nowhere, we, and much of the audience decided to go outside for a bit and listen to Third World.

I'll give a prize to whoever can identify this instrument for me

It was nice to take off our shoes and jam to their reggae sound.  Their drummer was nuts. He did a truly Muppet Monster drum solo and then the next song he played the flaming bongo with such fervor I’m shocked he didn’t pop the bongo’s membrane. They were so chill and the last song we heard featured a beautiful solo from what appeared to be an electric mandolin. 

Went back in for Lauryn and stood at the now empty back and had a blast, it was fun to dance and stretch out our backs. She played some Fugees hits and you could finally hear her better. She did a redemption version of Killing Me Softly, the version she opened with was heavy rock and remastered, but this one was much better. It started with her chilling A Cappella, and she teased us a bit before the funk line dropped. I had such fun dancing the last drops of my energy off to that song. Marita and Casey found us right before that last perfect song and after a fantastic weekend, we headed home. 

Theresa and Nellie at Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2012