Top artistes for Joy of Jazz in South Africa

August promises to be another memorable month for Jazz in Newton, South Africa, as the country’s jazz giant, Abdullah Ibrahim joins Grammy Award winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard at the opening night of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz event.

With celebrated pianist Ahmad Jamal also on the bill, the organisers say the edition once again reinforces its status as South Africa’s premier jazz festival, and one of the best on the African continent.

 Others expected to be in action include American Carmen Lundy, an enduring act in a jazz vocal tradition that stretches all the way back to Billie Holiday; acclaimed “Big Chief” of the sax Donald Harrison, who will be performing with his nephew the acclaimed New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott as well as South African trumpeter Lwanda Gogwana; Grammy Award winning tenor saxophonist Eddie Daniels; Japanese jazz pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto and American saxophonist Tia Fuller, who was a member of the all-female band touring with Beyoncé.

“Also on the bill, which features more than 50 artistes, is Dennis Edwards, a former lead singer for the Motown act The Temptations; Peter White, from the UK, who first gained fame with his distinctive guitar style as accompanist to Al Stewart and played on Stewart’s landmark Year of the Cat album; Argentina’s Tango String Quartet; the DRC’s Ray Lema; US vocalist René Marie; Cape Verde’s Marie de Barros and Lenora Raphael from the US.