MUSIC MEMORIES: GIL SCOTT-HERON'S LONDON GIG TWELVE YEARS AGO...

Recalling Gil Scott-Heron's London gig in 1999...
Back then most of us weren't as active on the net as we are now. I have upgraded some of the info below:

Jazz Café, Camden Town, North West London, has been his favoured concert venue for years.
We have been told the event shall start 9 p.m. but 25 minutes are gone. To make things worse it is a “standing” gig. Half way through the concert some people (especially ladies)massage their lower backs. If you want to sit, you have to book a table upstairs “and eat” says the regulations. Many of us have come to see a great musician, not dine.

Gil Scott Heron (left) and the blogger after his gig at Jazz Cafe, 1999.
Photo by : Amita Tiwari Macha

Nobody announces him.
There is no hint, either. The funk music from more than four JBL speakers is still on. Sometimes James Brown; sometimes Chaka Khan…we are in African American territory here.
A man with a cotton hat slides quietly down the stairs- there are ropes – barriers …so he steps under like someone doing something forbidden. The “I don’t care vibe” is on- it will colour the gig from start to end.

JAZZ POETRY NIGHTS LONDON

@
PANGEA PROJECT
72 Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington N16 6XS
Opposite Morrisons
8.30 pm – Midnight
Free entry

St Patrick's Day Wednesday, 17th March, 2010

1- Jonny Virgo: Hip hop artist- promoting his new CD.
3-Brother Niyi: Afro Beat poet and percussionist
4-Ogmios- Local Stoke Newington hip hop poet
5- Tunes Under Fire- Free jazz guitar and sax duo
6- Ursula T: German writer and performance poet

In -house musician ♫♫♫
André Mathurin on bass
And other surprises

Hosted by Freddy Macha- writer and musician

Info : +44-7961 833040
Email: kilimanjaro1967@hotmail.com

PICS FROM JAZZ POETRY NIGHTS-FEBRUARY 2010

Images from the 10th February Jazz Poetry Nights at Pangea Project, where we had fantastic music, spoken word and suprise guests. One of them was international photographer, David Green who took some of these pics:
JAZZ DUO- Tunes Under Fire

BURNT TOAST

BURNT TOAST -bass

JAZZMAN JOHN CLARKE - the fast lip
Jazzman John pic by Rob Kenyon

JJ OTIENO - Multi-instrumentalist


URSULA T.-Performance poet and writer


BURNT TOAST


ANDRE MATHURIN - on bass


FREDDY MACHA- host


We are now preparing for next Jazz Poetry Nights on St Patrick's Day March 17th. Expected acts include Italian jazz and R&B singer,
Ira Menin hip hop artists Jonny Virgo and Ogmios from Stoke Newington.
Check this space for more news...

DOUBLE FOCUS- New CD of Music and Poetry

HARD WORKING ARTIST OF THE SEASON
RAS NAS


Ras Nas aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi performing in Sri Lanka with band recently...
Pic by Solveig Korum Manga


Ras Nas is my choice of hardest working musician on the African scene in Europe. In a year the Oslo based singer song writer has released two CD's. Double Focus, a collection of poems and music features materials written in three decades.
Personally, I am celebrating this rare ocean of good music and well written poetry combined by a man who knows the craft. I should know. For four years (1980-84) I worked with Nasibu in the Sayari collective, in Dar es Salaam.
He is a committed innovator.
Mwanukuzi has injected the African penicillin to an artform that is very demanding and held high by the likes of Bob Dylan, Gil Scott Heron, Tom Waits, and Gabon's melodic master Pierre Akendengue...

Amongst the highlights of the collection is a Kiswahili poem by the great East African maestro Shaaban Robert, whose poem "Titi La Mama" praises the love for one's mother tongue; and a homage to Nelson Mandela. Ras Nas performed for Mandela upon Madibo's visit to Oslo in 1992.
Last year he released Dar es Salaam a CD of African music and reggae.