WINDHOEK– Next Friday, the Warehouse Theatre comes jazzily to live when the Fu Jazz Band will be celebrating jazz.
The night also serves to introduce to the media and general public a new Fu Jazz ‘project’ in the making – which focuses on music from different times and eras of jazz. The band specializes on – say – the swing era (1920 – 1935), presenting songs from famous protagonists of the era, accompanied by a narrator who tells stories and anecdotes relevant to the period – interspersed with snippets of video material projecting images of jazz days long gone by. Four Seasons of Jazz encompasses four concerts from 13 September 2014 – 11 July 2015 and is presented in collaboration with and at the Warehouse Theatre over that period.
Thus on the night revelers should expect red-hot solos, original compositions from the band members and ‘jazz’ arrangements of let’s-face-the-music-and-dance rhythm & blues a la Power of Tower, Michael Jackson, Hot Chocolate and Christina Aguilera, courtesy of Raymond Pande and Romancia Shoonga.
The Fu Jazz Band is one Namibian outfit that does not shy away from international competition. At the October 2013 Windhoek Jazz Festival the nine piece musical powerhouse successfully defended their spot as the major Namibian jazz combo and stood their ground against the ‘big guns’ from South Africa, Hugh Masekela, and the USA, the Anthony Stanco Enxemble. The nine piece big band amazed the crowd with funky jazz from Tower of Power (‘Diggin on James Brown’), Spyro Gyra (‘South American Sojourn’) and Pat Metheny – Dan Gottlieb (‘Watercolours’) – as well as with original numbers ranging from South African town-ship inspired melodies (Tayo Kasinda’s ‘It’s Time’) to rhythmic, South American jazz (Olav Slagsvold’s ‘Windhoek Samba’).
Borne from a Warehouse Theatre music project in 2007, the Fu Jazz Band comprises an eclectic group of professional musicians from different walks of life who have three things in common – supreme craftsmanship, total freedom of improvisation and an insatiable lust for Jazz. The rhythm section comprises of three members of the Kasinda family, namely uncles Jeremiah ‘Tayo’ Kasinda and John ‘Kally’ Kasinda on bass and keyboards and nephew Fernandez ‘Piu’ Paulus on drums. Jan Willem Beuke, a fine, young guitarist who holds a B-Tech degree in Jazz guitar from the Tshwane University of Technology, joined the group in 2013. Jakus Krige, who plays baritone and alto saxophones as well as the flute comes from a similar musical background, also holds a Tshwane B-Tech Mus degree and is currently busy with his Master.
Early to mid-2013 Fu Jazz teamed up with two singers of remarkable talent and individuality. Raymond Pande embraces two different African musical cultures, the South African and the Zimbabwean – plus he loves soul and R&B. Similarly impressive is Romancia Shoonga, erstwhile member of the Swakopmund Mascato Youth Choir and later of the jazz a-capella group ‘The Ninjazz’.
Tickets cost N$ 60 in advance (Warehouse Theatre Tel 402253) and N$ 80 at the door. Online advance tickets are available from www.staytoday.com.na The door opens at 20h00 and the show starts at 20h30, with Senga Brockerhof, Zenso’s Vanessa and Chris Polony offering an acoustic set as “curtain raiser”.