The Safaricom Jazz Festival is back and will be going down on 21st February 2016. The main act this time around will be Branford Marsalis, a 3 time Grammy Award winning artist. He has had an impressive career that includes touring with rock star Sting and British singer Phil Collins, with his band the Branford Marsalis Quartet enjoying the honour of having the Best Instrumental Jazz Album in iTunes in 2012.
According to Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO, their goal since they launched the festival was to make Nairobi an internationally recognized hub of Jazz music and he believes that the wide array of performers that have graced Safaricom Jazz concerts so far has shown that indeed Safaricom is committed to giving Kenyans world-class concerts right here at home.
Branford Marsalis will be joined on stage by Belgian Jazz and Classical music pianist and composer Jef Neve, Italian duo Giampalo Nuti and Fransesco D’Orazio, Maya Beltsitzman and Matan Ephrat from Israel, Shabaka Hutchings from the UK and Siya Makuzeni from South Africa. Making a return to the festival this year will be Nigerian born guitarist Kunle Ayo. This year’s performance is set to satisfy even the most critical of Jazz music enthusiasts.
Other than the international acts there will also be two Kenyan bands AfroSync Band and Edward Parseen and the Different Faces Band. These two bands were selected after a challenging round of auditions that took place last year that saw them perform alongside Grammy winners Kirk Whalum and Norman Brown as well as multiple Grammy nominee Gerald Albright and rising star Shelea at the Safaricom Jazz lounge that was held in December at Nairobi and Mombasa.
The first edition of the Safaricom International Festival was held in February 2014 and was headlined by New York based Cameroon artist Richard Bona. Jazz artists Aaron Rimbui, Kavutha Mwanzia, Jacob Asiyo, Eddie Grey and Chris Bittok were also part of the ground breaking concert. The inaugural festival was attended by an estimated 5,000 Jazz lovers at the Ngong Racecourse. About Kshs.4.5 million collected from ticket sales was donated to Ghetto Classics. The funds were used to purchase music instruments for the 500 children who benefit from the programme. Over the years Safaricom has donated 12 million to the programme and as has been the tradition, the proceeds from this year’s event will go towards Ghetto Classics.
Tickets for this awesome event will be on sale via M-Ticketing, Safaricom shops and the Michael Joseph Centre. They will retail at Kshs.1,000 advance and Ksh. 300 for students with children under 12 years getting in for free accompanied by a paying adult.