Smoortjies en Smoothies is intended to take us on journey of tastes and flavours and to get the event we had to take a little journey to the town of Paarl. As we were winding our way through the beautiful rural scenery, we were wondering how anyone not familiar with the area would even find the venue but once we arrived at the Old Mill Theatre, we realised that the trip was going to be all worth it.
No, Smoortjies & Smoothies is not a food festival but it was definitely a feast filled with musical flavour.
Jitsvinger aka Quintin Goliath, though mostly known as a Hip Hop artist, is not your run of the mill rapper.
The well-established Cape Town-born conceptual writer, composer, educator, musician and performing artist has a love for cooking up new fusion dishes across different genres.
He is an alumnus of Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the Grahamstown Standard Bank National Jazz Festival, the Migration Music Festival (Taiwan), and has toured across the world including France, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Chile.
As I write this, Jitsvinger has already left for his latest tour of The Netherlands where he will perform alongside and collaborate with a variety of different South African and international artists for a variety of different gigs.
Jitsvinger is all about collaboration; the fusion and amalgamation of different musical ingredients.
Smoortjies and Smoothies, the culinary kind, according to their original meanings, are both fusions and amalgamations of different food ingredients. When you add a few different chefs together bringing their own ingredients, you are definitely going to have a flavour-filled event.
The proverbial 'kitchen' for the Smoortjies & Smoothies, the Old Mill Theatre or Ou Meul Teater in Paarl has a rustic setting and apparently at some point in history served as the fire station for the area.
My companion, Wafiqah Osman who drove the two of us there, commented on the very long and far drive saying: "Though the road seemed never-ending, the scenes of greenery for days and the mountains approaching made it a beautiful drive. The theatre was quaint, hidden... A gem!"
Helping Jitsvinger cook up their fusion was Mervyn Africa who is one of the great names in African jazz and has been in the jazz scene for over 40 years. He has played with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Dudu Pukwana. He has played stages across the world and is known for his technique, composition and improvisation. He has a reputation for being a strong band leader as well as a soloist.
Being the versatile storytellers that they are, Jitsvinger used music and narration to describe different flavours of the regional cuisines of ordinary people in different parts of the world.
Their descriptions were so vivid, we could actually taste some of the herbs and spices as they were describing flavours from the Congo, Ghana and other places in Africa as well as Europe, South America and other places.
Of course they also described the flavours of South Africa and the Cape Flats in particular.
Watch the Live Video of one of the songs they performed further below.
Jitsvinger is genuinely skilled on the guitar and his style of combining that with his storytelling rap technique creates a unique sound that still has a Hip Hop feel but on a different musical plane.
Doing solo items and also accompanying Jitsvinger, Mervyn Africa added to the smoothness of the fusion event.
I was completely mesmerised by the way he caressed the piano keys with his fingers gliding over them, as if barely just touching them.
The fact that growing up there was a piano and guitar in our home, both played by my dad and that I had taken music lessons from the piano teacher at school, the combination of these two instruments always captivates me.
Adding a mystical dimension to Smoortjies en Smoothies were the Khoi Instruments including the bow played by Bien Petersen. This added even more of a spiritual vibration to the cosmic energy that Jitsvinger & Mervyn Africa brought to the stage.
Many musical shows nowadays add a visual arts element to the show.
Having artist Holmes the Creative do an exhibition of his work at the show added that element and he took it to another level by painting a portrait of Jitsvinger performing right there at the event while the show was on.
Houghmordeen Jansen aka Holmes the Creative moved from the Garden Route to Cape Town in 2016 and in a span of one year his work has been accepted and is being exhibited at The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, The AVA Gallery, Art It Is Gallery, Knext Art Gallery, Art Mode in Cape Town and The Gavin Project in Johannesburg.
All these elements brought together makes Smoortjies & Smoothies a unique experience and the production was of a really high standard.
The show was really fluid seeming to have seamless change-overs and only a very few minor technical hiccups.
The only fault I could find is that though the sound setup had an adequate volume for the venue; it seemed the show lacked a dedicated sound engineer to free up the artists from having to adjust the sound themselves. Perhaps the size of the venue made it seem unnecessary to them but though it did not do any major harm not to have one, having a dedicated sound engineer might have made it even better.
The whole concept of Smoortjies & Smoothies has the potential to grow in popularity and definitely needs to be seen by more people. Perhaps it can be better marketed and also held at other more accessible venues without completely taking it away from venues like the beautiful one it was held at this time around.
Jitsvinger did mention to Bruinou.com's editor that he is looking into possibly further developing the Smoortjies & Smoothies concept and taking it on a national tour, so keep your eyes open for details of that.
The audience was fairly small but quite diverse. People from different cultural backgrounds seem to have all equally enjoyed the show.
Jitsvinger and Mervyn Africa both having travelled to different parts of the world took all those diverse flavours from all over and created a show that showcases our own diversity we have right here.
I asked Jitsvinger how it was possible and sustainable to put such a good quality show together for a fairly small audience at a realistically affordable price and he told us about how pleased he was with his sponsorship deal with the Temo Consulting CSI program.
“Sponsorships make it possible for me to host high quality shows for smaller audiences like this.”
“Big salutasies to Temo for supporting the show!” he concluded.
As I have mentioned, Smoortjies en Smoothies really is a flavourful experience and had the element of being educational too.
It definitely needs to be performed in front of more and perhaps even bigger audiences, but my friend Wafiqah is the one who has summarised it brilliantly.
"Smoortjies en Smoothies as a concept allowed me to step out of my body and look in on the realness of the message Jitsvinger had to bring alongside Mervyn Africa who caressed the piano keys. The show was raw; just like the Cape Flats. The Afrikaaps was real. The words spoken and the musical jams they played took me to the streets in a soulful manner. The visual artist really put the cherry on top."
"Our diversity is tops and I have never been prouder. Our artists are realer than life itself... and that’s liberating."
Keep your eyes peeled, your ears open and your musical taste buds ready for when Jitsvinger returns from The Netherlands to take us on some more musical journeys to savour the flavours of the world and also make more of our own home-grown Smoortjies and Smoothies.
WATCH Jitsvinger Live at Smoortjies en Smoothies
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Click Here to Like the Jitsvinger Facebook Page.
You can also Follow @jitsvinger on Instagram and visit www.jitsvinger.co.za.
Frankie Herwels is a creative artists, a stylist, a costume jewellery designer and the owner of the missAnke Jewels brand.
You can check out her missAnke Jewels Facebook Page.
You can also Follow @missankejewels on Instagram.
Wafiqah Osman works in marketing, publicity and social media management in the entertainment industry.
You can Follow @wafsickle on Instagram.