Luanda Jazz festival back and bigger than before

Friday 30 July to Sunday 01 August is when the eight who are from Cuba, United States, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and South Africa will take to the stage at Cine Atlantico. "With Angola having been at the centre of the slave trade, as festival organisers we are conscious of how people from this part of the world took their music all over the world. The Luanda International Jazz Festival provides a homecoming to all rhythms that were exported from our shores," says Ritek's CEO António Cristóvão. The festival is Cristóvão and his Angolan hospitality company's brainchild.

Headline acts this year are Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, US vocalist Dianne Reeves. Valdés is a doyen of Cuban piano with 83 albums and seven Grammy awards under his belt. A founder of well-known Cuban band Irakere, with his percussive piano-playing Valdés has followed the footsteps of pianist father, Bebo Valdés. The 68-year old pianist will be in Angola with one of his many groups, Chucho Valdés and The Afro-Cuban Messengers; with his sister vocalist Mayra Caridad Valdés, bassist Lázaro Rivero Alarcón, drummer Juan Carlos Rojas Castro, percussionist Yaroldy Abreu Robles, bata-player Dreiser Durruthy Bambolé, saxophonist Carlos Manuel Miyares Hernandez and trumpeter Reinaldo Melián Álvarez. The band's rumba-inspired music will definitely have resonance in the region.

Dianne Reeves, who is the premier female jazz vocalist in the world today, comes to Angola riding on a crest of a successful music career. She is the only singer to have won Grammy Awards in the Best Jazz Performance category for four different albums. Known for her impeccable phrasing, the Denver-born musician has the ability to whisper a ballad into listener's ears while equally capable to swirl and hit the highest register with her voice. A longtime embracer of music of the diaspora, Reeves not only sings jazz but her roots in blues and gospel are very deep. She also cut her musical teeth in Caldera; a Latin band led by Eduardo del Barrio. Early in her career she worked with Sergio Mendes and Harry Belafonte's bands. On her last visit to Southern Africa in 2009, Reeves broke into an impromptu song for Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama.

Sharing the stage with these great musicians are the diamond and oil-rich country's two top musicians, guitarist/vocalist Waldemar Bastos and Filipe Mukenga. Although he decided to leave his country in the early 1980s to live in Brazil and Europe, Bastos has more than any other musician been the ambassador of Angolan sounds through a style that fuses Angolan folk music such as semba with Brazilian, Portuguese, and even Congolese rhythms. In Europe, he linked-up with musicians from other former Portuguese colonies and developed a hybrid Lusophone-style of music. Whenever he performs in his country, Bastos not only fills stadiums but his shows are sold-out. Equally, Mukenga is popular singer in Angola. He penned one of Angola's most popular songs, "Humbi Hummbi". He was also involved in the writing of Angola's peace song in the 1990s. As recent as January this year, Mukenga, sang the Africa Soccer Cup of Nations tournament's official anthem, "Pais de Futuro" (Country of the Future).

Giving the festival a stronger Lusophone feel are two bands; a Cape Verdean singer Lura and a Mozambican quartet known as 340ml. Born in Lisbon in 1975 and an offspring of parents from Cape Verdean islands of Santiago and Santo Antäo, Lura is an active promoter of music and culture of her West African native land. Her sultry contralto voice has won her fans from different parts of the world. Since she launched her Afro-Portuguese zouk album in 1996, Lura has grown as a singer and musician. In 2006, she was awarded Best Newcomer at the BBC Radio 3 Awards and Best World Music Album at Les Victoires De la Musique in France. Over the last few years, Lura traveled the world and wowed audiences at festivals such as Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival de Marseille and Garden Nights Festival in Merano, Italy. Besides releasing four CDs, she worked Angolan musicians such as Bonga and Paulo Flores. She also collaborated with fellow Cape Verdeans, Tito Paris and Paulinho Vieira. Lura's latest CD Eclipse got into the Sunday Times Top 10 albums in the world music category in 2009.

Although now based in South Africa, 340ml keeps its music rooted in the sounds that they heard when they grew up in Mozambique. Describing their music as "Southern African contemporary sounds", the four band members have worked hard to fuse reggae inflections with dub, ska, Latin and Mozambican marrabenta music.

Back at the festival by popular demand is Freshlyground; a band that is currently making waves throughout the globe. Freshlyground - a band that draws heavily from different tributaries of contemporary music - is the first South African act to receive a MTV Europe music award as the best African act. Having brought down the house last year, the group is back at Angola's music extravaganza after a successful year. They come to Luanda with a recently-launched CD and their blend of kwela Afro-beat, folk, funk, rock and soul. Freshlyground is one of the few regional acts to perform at the opening of the FIFA World Cup tournament in June. They will share the stage with Shakira.

At the Luanda International Jazz Festival, Africa's senior musician - Jonas Gwangwa - will be the other South African act at the event. Gwangwa's appearance in Angola is another homecoming. Gwangwa, who is the only African artist to have been nominated twice for an Oscar, lived for a while in Angola in the 1980s when he fled his country of birth and went into exile. "I am very passionate about our traditional dance music. I know that when we were in our youth, we too were listening to American music - doing bebop, swing and all that stuff. But one thing we did not do when we were in exile was to live our own music behind", says the 72-year old trombonist who is a founder of the ANC's cultural department and who led the organisation's Amandla Cultural Ensemble on a 10-year world tour.

Gwangwa was the conductor of the 1965 recording Evening with Belafonte & Makeba that went to win a Grammy the following year; a first by an African artist. His work with George Fenton in Richard Attenborough's movie Cry Freedom won him two Oscar nominations for original song and score.

Gold sponsor Unitel spokesperson said:....... "We are very happy with the initial lineup. The calibre of the musicians we have fits very well with our vision to grow the festival into an international cultural experience".

Although other 12 artists who will be at the festival are still to be announced, from the lineup unveiled there is no doubt that the Luanda International Jazz Festival is fast positioning itself as an important event on the world jazz calendar, thanks to the partnership between Ritek and EspAfrika, known for organising the prestigious Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

Silver sponsor is Internet Technologies Angola and the broadcast sponsor is TPA. Festival associates include DDM, British America Tabacco Angola, Coke and Peroni , Alliance Française and Maimi Beach Restaurant.

Tickets prices are 15.200 Kwanzas per day and 38000 kwanzas for a weekend pass Tickets will be available from 1 July from selected outlets still to be announced. Please visit the {{www.luandajazzfest.com}} for further info.