By Ben Kangwa –
THE stage was set. The Levi Park car park adjacent to the Misty Jazz Restaurant and Café in Lusaka had been turned into a mini music outdoor open air theatre.
It almost resembled the annual Harare Jazz Festival that attracts mostly African jazz players who perform different genres of music with a connotation of jazz.
By nature, jazz festivals are often reminders of the venerable players who continue to shine, and of what a young art jazz is, because the pioneers of some of its defining moments are still around to rub shoulders with rising stars.

. Mutukudzi

In the recent past in 2014, Zambian local artists such as jazz guitar player Uncle Rex, jazz songstress and writer Maureen Lupo Lilanda, Gospel singer and writer young Pompi, Zambian folk musician MumbaYachi including South Africa’s most celebrated female artist, Zonke were part of the Stanbic Zambia Jazz Festival, the first ever in Zambia, while the main artists were Africa’s best jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela and one of Africa’s best known musician, and king of “Tuku” music, Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi.
The 2015 StanbicZambia Jazz Festival, whose main artists were American finger picking jazz guitar player Earl Klugh and Africa’s most prolific recording artist Oliver Mtukudzi,took place in the first week of October.
The festival was to seek new levels of interest for jazz and encourage jazz lovers to preserve and promote the genre while at the same time offer a platform to upcoming Zambian musicians to showcase their talent in their type of music.
The Misty was well set and ready for the jazz task. The first show opened on Friday 2nd Octoberat 16.00 hours. The line-up of musicians was a mixed grill……Kiki, Afro Red, Abel Chungu and South Africa’s Micasa.The next Act was by Oliver Mtukudziat 21.00 hours.
Standing tall and dressed in a white shirt, a yellow ascott with black dots, contrasted by a black trousers and black shoes, Kamiza Chikula, the main Master of Ceremony introduced the five piece Oliver Mtukuzdi band as they stepped on the stage amidst joyful noise and whistling from the audience.
Dressed in a half black and half white trousers, white shirt, black shoes and his usual multi-colored head dress, Oliver led his band on stage as he almost induced a loud applause while he strung his acoustic electric hybrid guitar as first notes of the song“ Shanda” – a Shona song about hard work and perseverance no matter the challenges in the world, became clearer.
The harmony and synergy of the band was in sync with the light effects on stage, while the two big projectors on either side of the stage provided the audience with actual action. All was smooth and sleek.
As the song was coming to a fade, Oliver shouted aloud, “Hello Lusaka…” He got no further as the almost entire fans of more than a thousand erupted with a resounding yeah! yah! In different high and low notes. It was just unbelievable that on the first night the show recorded a record breaking 607 VIP and 603 ordinary tickets sold.
Tuku continued to take the audience by storm and never looked back as he sung a second song about actions or deeds that determine each one’s future.
The song is called “Zvinoitatikudzwe” whose, literal translation from the band’s drummer and band manger Tendai Samson Mataure was as follows,” Heroes are not foretold but are made of what seemed impossible that they overcame in the past.”
The evening got progressively more boppy, helped by the fact that many in the audience related to the lyrics. In between the ordinary seating section and the VIP section, enthusiasts danced in a cluster and by the time Oliver and his band had done “DzokaUyamwe” a song portraying a wailing mother calling upon a lost child to return and be with the mother. The translation further reminds the child that her mother’s breast was still full of milk and intact just in-case she wanted to return home.
DzokaUyamwe was followed by another touchy and inspiring song about a typical African farmer who diverts seed meant for the next planting season only to realise at planting time he is not ready for the season (Vamwe vanopfimbikamhodzi yambeuiwewokanga).
The song calls for anybody with any project to always prepare for the tasks ahead.
The last but one song “Mutserendende” – a satirical poem on the ever changing and taxing hardships faced world over, the song showcased the bands’ individual expertise in instrument playing starting with the keyboard player Munyaradzi Ziya who impressively entertained the audience, followed by Enock Piroro on the bass, the only lady Alice Muringayi and Oliver Mtukudzi shared glomour as Tuku who indulged in his own spot of dancing. The guy of the moment was the drummer Tendai Samsom Mataure who rolled the drums to the amazement of the audience as was expected.
His music bio is not surprising. He has been involved in Jazz projects such as the Zimbabwe National Jazz Festival, Summer Jazz Festival, Jazz Veterans Concerts, Oliver Mtukudzi and Friendas Festival, Mature Summer Jazz Festival which was a tribute to the late SimangalisoTutani, a Zimbabwean Jazz saxophonist and bassist
Others include the Louis Mhlanga/Steve Dyer Jazz Concerts. Louis Mhlanga is considered as one of the best Zimbabwean Jazz guitarists, a Celebration of African Township Jazz Concert. To add to his credit, he has regional and international tours to most countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Far East and South America. The hefty credits were displayed throughout the Oliver Mtukudziplayset.
He reminded this writer of the late Boyd Sinkala of the great ‘Whitch’ band.
Oliver and his band signed off at about 21.15 and as everybody was either re-filling their glasses with beverages or ordering snacks, this writer took time to go back stage for a quick talk with Earl Klugh’s Manager Denise Waichunas on Earl Klugh’s final Act of the night. Denise was so welcoming. She said Earl Klugh would perform some old songs that are familiar to the Zambians as well as other songs that would be of interest to Zambian jazz lovers.
As soon as Earl had taken stage, the music graduated to another Jazz level. During the 60 minute plus session, Klugh shared the spotlight with his players: Tom Braxton on saxophone, Ron Otis on drums, Al Turner on bass and David Lee Spradly on keyboard. Each contributed to the tropical music gumbo.
Brazilian Stomp kicked off the show reminding some of the audience of the good old days of jazz on Radio Mulungushi.
It was a good introductory song as Earl finger-picked one string at a time instead of strumming and at the same time borrowed from the Latin style of Laurindo Almeida and his old time protégé Chet Atkins.
The night had just started, the list of songs to be played included Midnight In San Juan, Last Song, Across The Sand, Joann’s Song, CaboFrio, Heartstring.
Tropical Legs stole the night as the audience appreciated the wonderful acoustic nylon stringed guitar. Other music lovers on my set of row left, right and in front of me simply watched and tapped their legs, slowly shook their heads in rythm with the sound of the music, while as I turned to look at the far back, others could not help but dance excitedly. Next was “Living Inside Your Love” another familiar beautiful jazz piece, with no studio backing vocals. Earl took care of that by strumming the chords to fill in the gap.
In between, there were songs such as Vonetta and Dr Macumba.
The crowd kind of seemed lost a bit but once the band played Twinkle, a jazz-funk piece, the crowd was awakened to the bass line by Al Turner, Solo Sax by Tom Braxton and a rear treat of excellent drumming by Ron Otis while Earl himself was master of his art. David Lee Spradley was all systems go on the keyboard, funny man and a self-appointed spokesperson for the band on stage. He had earlier tried a bit of Bemba phrase such as in “Mulishani Mukwayi” but with that deep American accent!
Towards the end of the show, Spradley had asked if the audience wanted more songs to be played, a usual stage gimmick when time has come to stop.
It was almost 22.30 and the band could only play one last familiar song Wishful Thinking to mark the encore on a romantic evening of jazz.
The playlist for the following day Saturday 3rd October, 2015 was no different from the previous Friday’s. However, the opening Act at 16.00 hours saw Scarlet perform, followed by James Sakala.
Once that was done, it was time for the Zambian music legends of yesteryear to take control of the stage. Rikki Ililonga of the famed Mosi-o-Tunya performed two songs. His famous Ulemu and a new tune yet to be released called Mama Afrika.
He was hoping he would play later, a chance that faded. Later there came, Victor Kasoma of the famous mid 70s Oscillations and by the time Emmanuel Jagari Chanda of the 70s Witch was getting ready to perform, he only had five minutes to play. He could not play any further as the 45 –60 minute slot had elapsed.
The second Act this time round was by the evergreen Oliver Mtukudzi with his captivating songs such as Mai Varamba, Muchatura, Wasakara, Neria, Chirinani, Hera Me Lord and Ndima Ndapedza He was followed by South African Micasa before the final and closing Act by Earl Klugh.
Having watched Earl Klugh perform three times before and Oliver Mtukudzi perform once before at different times and dates, in Washington DC,  the stage management and the music transition at the Misty was simply a superb output for the two giants from two different worlds. One could see a lot of improvement in the general management of the festival compared to the one in 2014.
This time round, all seemed well, except of-course for little technical mishaps, a bit of time mismanagement by local artists and other backroom issues such as video tapping of the show without authority from the owners.
As we look to the next Stanbic Zambia Jazz Festival, it is worth recognising other players that made the festival a success such as the Misty Jazz Restaurant and Café, TajPamodzi Hotel, Southern Sun, Dstv and Alliance Motors Zambia whose contribution made a huge instant impact to Zambians at large, visitors such as those from neighbouring Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa including the main artist and his team Earl Klugh.
The writer of this article is a broadcast journalist and media consultant.