Kampala — IN 2006, sax wizard Isaiah Katumwa held his first jazz gig in Uganda. It was a surprise appearance at a relative's wedding at which Katumwa had personally requested to perform, free of charge.

After his one-song performance, Katumwa was held hostage by wedding guests turned fans either asking for an encore, autograph or complimentary CD. The first option was not possible, while the CDs he had on him ran out.

The following weekend, he was yet again invited by one of the guests who had taken home his autographed CD, to perform at another wedding. Overwhelmed by the positive response to his music, Katumwa's then manager, Jennifer Mwangi, "forced" him to stage his maiden concert in Kampala. Three weeks on, in January 2007, he was launching his first known album, Sinza, at Theatre La Bonita. That launch, in Katumwa's own words "was a full house".

For a name that seems to loom large, this bit of information, delivered to me with his characteristically calm, detached demeanour, takes me by some surprise. We are at the Serena Hotel's Bambara Restaurant, where Katumwa begs me not to delve into minute details about his every move like I had done a few months ago at the Grand Imperial, when I last interviewed him. I oblige.

Katumwa had just jetted into the country from Dar-es-Salaam, where he has been staging free gigs in a bid to export his unique jazz strain, which he describes as "an interpretation of smooth jazz from an East African perspective" to the region.

"Perception is value," he says with conviction. "If you have something to give, you gotta put it out there first."

Katumwa is in town for a three-in-one series of concerts aptly dubbed "X-mas Gift Concerts". This time, he is breaking tradition (Serena Hotel) and taking the concert where it all started, Theatre La Bonita.

"I have received lots of correspondence from fans who thought sh50,000 would be too much because they want to come down with their families, being Christmas. I am what I am today because of my fans. I thought a concert at sh25,000 and sh50,000 would be a good idea," he says, adding, "The programme is balanced between Isaiah and Christmas. We'll have some traditional hymns from a jazz angle. It will be educative on Christmas, because Christmas is not all about eating and drinking. I'm using a choir too, whose members come from different church choirs."

The concerts are slated for December 4, 5 and 6.