18
international jazz festival
Ivan Mazuze
Monique Bingham
Gazelle
Gazelle’s Nick Matthews This “Afro-Future Electro Lim Pop” group from Cape Town employs fashion inspired by Lesotho Highlands herdsmen, as well as Mobutu outfits, to pull in the crowds. “Aesthetics attract”, Nick explains in an interview with 021 at the launch of this year’s Jazz Festival. “Fashion and the performance are vehicles of what we want to convey to our audience. We want to create questions. We live in a country with a lot of political challenges. One way to deal with this is to empower other local musicians. We perform regularly with bands from the townships, such as the Caesar’s marimba band from Khayelitsha. The other way is to transport the message of building responsibility in our society through our lyrics.” Naima McLean
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JAZZ_FESTIVAL.indd 18
M AGAZ I NE
Summer
2010
2/21/11 4:38:52 PM