Nairobi to host Manu Dibango on Workers' Day

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said the organisers had decided to hold the concert on the Workers’ Day public holiday instead of 30 April when the event was normally held.

“It’s a privilege and a dream come true for us to host Manu Dibango as we kick off the events that will lead up to the sixth edition of Safaricom International Jazz Festival next year,” he said.

“Not only is he well known and loved the world over, he brings to our stage an energy and fire that has been well stoked through a lifetime of passion for jazz, and puts us in the same league as some of the biggest jazz festivals on the continent.”

Dibango and his band, the Soul Makossa Gang, will share the stage with 12 local jazz bands including Mwai & The Truth, AfroSync, Edward Parseen & the Different Faces Band, James Gogo, Swahili Jazz Band, Chris Bittok & Eddie Grey, Jacob Asiyo & Kavutha, Shamsi Music, The Limericks, Mambo Tribe, Ghetto Classics, and Nairobi Horns Project (NHP) who will be performing alongside Africa Plus from South Africa.

NHP member MacKinlay Mutsembi told Music In Africa that the band would unveil the Afrika Unite project alongside Africa Plus.

“After making a connection at last years’ Safaricom International Jazz Festival, we decided to embark on a project that would push instrumental music and Afro-jazz into a new space,” Mutsembi said.

“Africa Unite is as a direct outcome of the platform that Safaricom Jazz has offered by connecting artists across the continent and beyond. It has been an amazing experience so far, as it has been challenging since it’s not something that has been done locally before, but the synergy and enthusiasm on both ends has made it worthwhile.”

Safaricom International Jazz Festival has grown to become one of the most recognised jazz events in the East African region. For the past 17 years, the event has created opportunities for local musicians in the jazz and jazz-related genres.

Since 2014, Safaricom has donated about 37 million Kenyan shillings ($370 000) from the proceeds of the jazz festival to Ghetto Classics, a community-based programme that aims to transform the lives of children living in the slums of Nairobi.

“The programme uses music education to provide the youth with opportunities,” Collymore said about the programme that has impacted about 650 children to date. “This is to better themselves and their communities, equipping them with skills in live music performance as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty that many of them are born into.”