Thursday, 25 April 2013
Through a flurry of high security, we enter into the inner circle of the Ambassador's residence. Everything's pretty much set up and ready to go for us, so we do some meet and greet including finally having the pleasure to meet the delightful fellow who hired us, the Cultural Affairs Officer, Rob Quiroz. He's doing his best to make sure we have everything we need, and before you know it, it's time to slip on the fancy dress, and red nails to make our Tanzanian début!
Someone's prepared an excellent and well researched speech for the Ambassador to kick off the evening with. He's apparently a huge jazz fan, so for all I know he wrote it himself - evoking the rich history of African, American and European origins of Jazz music. I'm thrilled when he mentions a few catch phrases such as "call & response" and "work songs", since our own program is slated to demonstrate these very concepts!
But first, we bequeath the stage to Wakwetu Jazz Vibes who leads off with a cool opening number that sets the mood. They then invite singer Saude Simba to join them for a couple of jazz standards - this lady has a great vibe, and a rich voice with authentic jazz style - we're sorry we didn't get to work with her ourselves! But apparently, we shall meet again...
Wakwetu does one more number featuring their dapper lead singer, Demian, who instantly wins over the crowd with his sweet and mellow sound. And then it's time for us to hit the stage. The sound system is turned way up, so it's hard for me to tell just how well this VIP crowd is participating in the aforementioned call&response of Duke's Place, but the Ambassador assures me they're singing along, so we go ahead and lay into it.
It's America's Jazz Appreciation Month, so we stick mostly to our purely American repertoire, rather than The French Connection material. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, traditional Blues, with a nod to Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt's birthplace, New York, New York.
Then Wakwetu joins us to Take the A Train to Sugar Hill up in Harlem, and to pound out a Work Song penned by Oscar Brown Jr. Apparently we're running over time though, so sadly we have to skip over one of Wakwetu's compositions and jump straight to the closer, ringing it in with Sweet Home Chicago. And now the VIP crowd finally let's loose as a couple of people can't help themselves from getting up on the well-kept-lawn-cum-dance-floor! So, in the end, the job gets done, once again!
Epilogue:
The post concert DJ cycled through a series of classic line-dance songs, at which point the hippest Ambassador I've yet to meet actually LED the gang through the Electric Slide. I totally dig it.
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