I have this vision of producing an outdoor
festival that showcases original local artists from across
the diverse genres of music and I’ve been trying to
find a sponsor for the event.
The idea is to ultimately encourage collaboration between
these artists to develop a truly new and unique South African
music.
But this is an expensive exercise, and to
date, no sponsor has bought into the concept.
In the meantime, I have been doing bread
and butter events working with DJs in order to keep the
wolf from the door.
A few weeks ago, one of the sponsors of
these events asked me to book two international DJs for
an event.
While negotiating with American and European agencies, I
came across a phenomenon that was new to me.
Most DJs out there worked with what they call a hype artist,
or hypeman.
The hypeman’s job is to hype up the crowd, and it
is exactly this element that was missing in the local version
of such acts.
I thought that the DJ himself was responsible
for communicating, inter-acting and hyping the crowd.
It turns out that DJs are too busy scratching, mixing and
dropping to do this!
Then a new idea started forming in my head.
Why not use DJs performing with live musicians and a hype
artist to get my vision off the ground.
Voila!
Traditional Healer.
Traditional Healer features two young Cape
Town DJs in Ashton Abels and Luwayne Wonder on the decks,
with two seasoned musicians in Brazilian percussionist John
Hassan and under-rated electric guitarist Nazeem Brown.
Finding a hypeman was not as easy because
there simply are no hype artists in South Africa.
But
Siv N, a comedian, model and actor was excited when
approached to do the job, and I suspect that this
young man is going to be a revelation |
|
Traditional Healer had their first rehearsal
yesterday, and Luwayne Wonder’s reaction sums up the
outcome.
When Nazeem Brown played the first notes of a solo over
a house track, Luwayne rushed up to me and showed me his
arm.
‘Look at this!’ he exclaimed. ‘I have
goose bumps.’
Watch this space for the launch of Traditional
Healer.
A breath of fresh air in the Cape Town entertainment scene.
