The 2nd Jazz on The Lawn Festival Reviewed

The line-up included quite a few Bruinou.com members like the multiple SAMA award winning Ernie Smith, the majestic pianist and vocalist, Celeste Williams, Comedian and Host MC, Wayne McKay, radio DJ and Co-host Roger Lewis of Bush Radio FM and

members of various bands who have recently joined our site.

The previous event was held specifically to assist The G-Spot Leisure Lounge to meet its legal and financial commitments in trying to re-open. That has now been achieved.

This time around, much of the proceeds went to organisations like the Western Cape Musicians Association which looks after the financial and medical needs of members who find themselves in crisis situations. The nature of the entertainment industry up until recently did not leave much room for artists to plan their long-term financial security. The WCMA aims to change that.

The first part of the day had opening acts that were introduced by Gary van Dyk, a stalwart journalist and community worker who I fondly call Cape Town’s ‘Patron of the Arts’. Those included the young bands, Lady Soul and Jazzinco. These young muso’s all showed a great level of maturity delivering tight performances to such a huge crowd.

They were followed by the more established artists and bands of which many have recently released new CD’s. They included Richard Ceasar, Wilmot Fredericks, the bassist Sammy Webber who had Tony Paulse joining him on vocals, Don Veno, the young saxophonist who plays like a veteran, The Ezra Ngcukana Jazz Connection, The Glenn Robertson Jazz Band and The Intrumentals.

The audience was treated to exceptionally vibrant performances from the world renowned Tucan Tucan and The G-Spot resident band Jade had the crowd dancing and singing along.

Celeste Williams and her band introduced the crowd to some songs that will be on her new CD available at The G-Spot as from this week. The crowd loved it and sang along to one of the songs that is already getting radio airplay.

I’ve heard about a new group called The Next Step, six vocalists who recently released a CD of mostly cover versions and I was surprised that they were performing with old friends of mine, the band Just Us led by Nazeem Brown. What was more surprising was that I knew three of the vocalists since we were all in our teens. Their first performance in front of such a massive crowd and they had a few thousand people in the palms of their hands with their awesome stage presence.

After, Gavin, David and Vicky sang their final individual solo items, I finally understood why The Next Step was up there just before the main attraction of the whole event.

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When Ernie Smith, multiple award winning guitarist and vocalist, who collaborates with the likes of Jonathan Butler, Kirk Whalum, Jimmy Dlulu, Judith Sephuma and many other international stars was introduced to the audience by Wayne McKay, the crowd went absolutely wild.

With his band and back-up singers Heinrich Frans, (who sang back-up on the last Jonathan Butler SA tour) and Alicia Solomons, Ernie performed many of his hits from the past few years, all crowd favourites, and he also ventured into some of his newer songs.

I got a brief chance to chat with our honorary Capetonion who is in fact a Durban boitjie and long time member of Bruinou.com. He always enjoys playing in the Mother City, having had a residency at the old G-Spot Leisure Lounge a few years ago when I first met him, but nowadays he is always on the rush to get home to his lovely wife and their beautiful little baby.

His hectic schedule also does not allow him much time on Bruinou.com nowadays but I am hopeful that he will visit us in cyber space soon again.

The live music performance part of the event was then wound up by the legendary N2 who also hold a residency at the G-Spot Leisure Lounge, with a full ensemble that included a violinist.

This group has been around for a few decades and played just the right stuff to get the crowd ready for the “Old School Flashback Party” with legendary Cape Town DJ Superfly who opened his set with the intro he has been using since the 80’s at the defunct Le Club.

Russell “The love Muscle” who has also been getting crowds hyped up all over the country since the early 1980’s and will always be synonymous with The Space Odyssey can also still rock a crowd like the best of the new bunch.

Also rocking the decks were Mikey G, DJ Keith, Neville Louw and Oscar Wells. Jazz on the lawn became a disco on the lawn till the wee hours of the morning.

When considering all the planning that goes into an event like this, one would expect something to go wrong. Well only one thing did go wrong… The organisers had to constantly keep artists that were not booked from trying to get up on that stage. Only kidding.

It was actually quite heartening to see the many musicians who were not on the line-up, coming out in support of the event.

Theo Platinum of the of the group Black Current who made their debut on live national TV last week, said that after almost a full week of travelling, it was an awesome opportunity for their band to just kick back, mingle with the crowd and enjoy being part of the audience for a change, but “Next time around Black Current wants to be up on that stage as well”.

With the advent of the 16 Days of Activism, the MC’s, speakers and a few of the musicians made reference to the scourge of violence against women and children and encouraged people to stop the cycle by speaking out.

Also with the International HIV/Aids Day that lay ahead,” The G-Spot Super Dot” SABS approved condom was introduced and distributed free to people who showed interest. There was much laughter and comedy surrounding the introduction but Calvin was quick to bring across the serious message of the importance of preventing the transmission of HIV and other STD’s.

As with the first event, the crowd behaviour was exemplary and is definitely helping to dispel the stereotypical view that is held of bruin mense. Dispelling the stereotypes is after all what Bruinou.com is about.

Roger Lewis of Bush Radio, in his Sunday lunchtime show a few weeks ago had Calvin Peters and me, representing Bruinou.com, in studio on air to discuss how Bruinou.com has come to have a relationship with the festival and are getting involved with other initiatives in the music industry.

Besides introducing www.Bruinou.com to his listeners, it was quite easy for Calvin and me to demonstrate that what the organisers want to achieve with these events, bringing our people together to have a great time, experience excellent entertainment, while giving the artists, the many different businesses involved and quite a few charity organisations, the opportunities to make some money and get exposure, is in line with what Charles Ash has always been trying with his initiatives. Building a ‘bruin-economy’ that is sustainable and self-perpetuating. This type of event is normally a once-off occurrence, but the networking opportunities that are created by bringing all these role-players together are enormous.

Having had the opportunity to give the listeners a brief history of our website, I was asked what else Bruinou.com wanted to see come out of all this.

The answer was simple.

Everyone who was listening to his show or attended the festival as well as those that will read this article should make sure that they are registered and become actively part of our online community.

Bruinou.com is looking forward to what The G-Spot Leisure Lounge will be serving up next.