Amos Ngaira
10 February 2004
Nairobi — The scheduled Valentine Day's performance by veteran South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela in Nairobi has been postponed.
Mr Joe Kabiru, the organiser of the show, said bad weather had prompted the postponement.
The event was to be held at the Karen Blixen Museum grounds and would have been probably the most expensive ever at Sh20,000 (about $260) per head.
The new jazz date is set for February 28 at a venue to be confirmed later this week.
"We felt that it would not be worth the risk staging the show this week, with the apparent signs of bad weather," Mr Kabiru said.
There had been 30 bookings with more to have been confirmed this week, he said. However, in view of the change, the organisers are making arrangements to refund the money.
"We were hoping that this would have been an opportunity for an exclusive Valentine's treat but nobody wants to take chances with uncertainty of bad weather," Mr Kabiru added.
He said he spoke to Mr Masekela yesterday about the provisional new date.
The 65-year-old Masekela will be making his third visit to Kenya.
He was due to have arrived tomorrow with a 15-member backup band.
Proceeds from the exclusive concert were to go towards selected charities.
"All is not yet lost for his Kenyan fans as Masekela is still eager to come and perform here again," Mr Kabiru said.
The next show will focus on Aids awareness.
Masekela's 1987 hit, Bring Him Back Home, became the anthem for Mr Nelson Mandela's world tour following his release from prison in 1990.
Mr Masekela is one of the forerunners of Afro-Jazz, having spent a greater part of his music career in self exile in the US and other African countries.
Some of his popular hit songs include Stimella, Coal Train and his latest, Time.
In the latter album, released in late 2002, Masekela sings about the changes on the Kenyan political scene.
During his stay in the United States, he was able to record with some of the leading American jazz music legends like pianist/producer Dave Grusin.
He also collaborated with another American jazz musician Herb Alpert, a fellow trumpet player, who was the president of A and M Records.
Earlier, Alpert led the Tijuana Brass Band which inspired many other jazz musicians.
In Africa, Masekela's contemporaries include the late controversial Nigerian musician Fela Ransome Kuti, known for his hit song African Lady.
Masekela was instrumental in the South African Broadway-style musical King Kong alongside some of his contemporaries like pianist Dollar Brand (now known as Abdullah Ibrahim), Jonas Gwangwa and Kippie Moeketsi, while they were teenagers in the Father Huddleston Band.
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