Keira-WitherKay
-Warm up with Jazz & Blues this winter
Centurion's Steak & Ale warms up this winter with it's 6th Annual Jazz & Blues Festival on Friday 17 July 2009, once again featuring well-known, and introducing the not-so-well-known Jazz & Blues musicians. Fans will experience the Blues guitar mastery of Albert Frost and Gerald Clark, the folk/roots Blues of Vana & The Oh So Serious, as well as the funky Jazz stylings of The Jonathan Crossley Electric Band and acoustic finger style World/Jazz newcomer Keira Witherkay. The show kicks off at 20:00 and tickets are R100. Pre-bookings are essential on 012 6645 155.
Albert Frost, whose second solo album should be released in summer this year, was voted Best Blues guitarist in South Africa by Stage Magazine, and not overlooking this man’s serious rock abilities, he’s proved that statement time and again. www.albertfrost.com
Gerald Clark, who made his name to audiences nationwide as the red-hot frontman for Delta Blue, has since gone solo and written an Afrikaans album, Sweepslag, which was nominated for a 2009 SAMA. www.facebook.com/pages/Gerald-Clark/46099269862
Vana & The Oh So Serious, who also releases a new album in summer, delivers a show featuring a host of songs and stories wrapped in guitar, mandolin, double bass and violin. Strong vocal tales of street smart short cuts, together with a strong blues guitar style, bring the music to life. www.facebook.com/pages/Vana/28499296966
On the Jazz front Jonathan Crossley's Electric Band explores compositions and improvisation along the Nu-Jazz stream. Nu jazz is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music styles that blend jazz textures with funk, electronic music and free improvisation. www.myspace.com/thejonathancrossleyelectricband
Keira Witherkay has developed a unique style that allows her to play bass lines, chords and melodies all on one instrument. This polyphonic approach to playing the acoustic guitar allows her to create a full sound with as many as 3 parts simultaneously from only one instrument. Keira will be accompanied by Alicia van Dyk on vocals. www.showcaseyourmusic.com/keirawitherkay
The details:
Date: 17 July 2009
Venue: Steak & Ale, 66 Botha Avenue, Lyttelton, Centurion
Couvert: R100 - Booking is essential on 012 664 5155
Time: 19:30 for 20:00 (kitchen closes at 21:00)
Line-up:
Keira Witherkay
20:00
Vana & The Oh So Serious
20:45
Gerald Clark
21:30
Jonathan Crossley Electric Band
22:25
Albert Frost
23:20
FatBoy
Sounds like an awesome gig! Bring that stuff over here to CPT!
MikeM
Wow very very tempting! Maybe i should invite a girl with... Haha
Matt-White
Guys, this is a really, really great line-up.
Vana is the unknown factor, but Ive seen them live. A great folksy bluegrass band. Worth experiencing.
Keira-WitherKay
yay glad you like the line up... yeah it's a great mix of blues and jazz... the organisers tried to cover the wide variety offered by the genre.... acoustic and electric and each artist is so different from the next ... but all under one genre so should be an awesome gig
and the venue is great for it it's a true music bar with inhouse sound and plenty of seating all with great view of stage ....
hope to see some of you there ......
peace and light
keira
Sean
Gearhead and I are going tonight, any other forum members we might run into?
[deleted]
I think I might just be there...
Going to speak to the other half ?
Sounds awesome
Sean
Wow, had a great time last night. Don't know how Keira does it ? seems to be so much going on when she plays, sounds really full, I thoroughly enjoyed her set. I also enjoyed Gerald Clark and Albert Frost, great guitarists who gave a fantastic show ? I must say I still struggle to listen to jazz. Jonathan Crossley's band is exceptionally skilful, really amazing artists, but the genre still simply eludes me ? All in all, a really great evening ?
[deleted]
Music was great, really enjoyed it too. Gerald Clark was awesome.
The venue and service leaves a lot to be desired though, I won't go there again.
Waited 1.5hours for food... Came up with all the excuses under the sun (There is no excuse in the world that could explain a small plate of fries taking 1.5hours) I am not even exaggerating the time...
Then the Johnny Walker black label that I ordered was a very pungent mix of not so Black Label...
Then the bill came and all the drinks where doubled up... So That had to be fixed too.
And I got charged 10% tip on the food AND the R400 cover charge... Which I made clear that I would not pay for 10% tip on COVER charge.. I was then told that it couldn't be taken off. Only to stand my ground then all of a sudden the bill was corrected without the tip included.
So if you guys want to go there, eat before and don't drink anything that doesn't come to you straight in the bottle. and don't ask them to put the cover charge on your bill for convenience. Either way I don’t recommend them, and I definitely won’t go back. No matter how good the music is.
AND I HATE COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS KIND OF STUFF. BUT THEY REALLY SPOILT MY NIGHT >☹
And why does Albert Frost only have 6 songs on his album? Could a Muso explain to me?
Gearhead
Our drinks were on time, our food was on time and everything was as ordered. I can even proudly mention that I guessed the brand of whisky my wife ordered while I was off buying Keira's CD, so either I was wrong and they poured the wrong drink or both were right.
Sad to hear you did not get what you wanted but I would not go so far as to say the venue leaves a lot to be desired, let's give them a chance next year. Come sit at our table, maybe it helps :goodtimes:
[deleted]
Gearhead wrote:
Our drinks were on time, our food was on time and everything was as ordered. I can even proudly mention that I guessed the brand of whisky my wife ordered while I was off buying Keira's CD, so either I was wrong and they poured the wrong drink or both were right.
Sad to hear you did not get what you wanted but I would not go so far as to say the venue leaves a lot to be desired, let's give them a chance next year. Come sit at our table, maybe it helps :goodtimes:
I still pointed out to them, all the tables around us got their food... The drinks came on time. They just tried every excuse under the sun... mmmm I don't know if I'll go back, if I do, I'll make sure I only have drinks and enjoy the music... I think I was just unlucky, everything just went wrong.
Should have joined your table... Oh well
Keira-WitherKay
hey Brent i never even saw you there........ i know i have met you once at TJ's but i have a mind for faces like a sieve.... sorry i didn't bump into you....
sorry to hear you had such a bad dining experience...... if you really want i can refer you to the owner Charlene and you can hopefully either get a descent apology or some kind of explanation.....
peace and light
Keira
Keira-WitherKay
well apart from hearing brent had a bad experience service wise..........
i thought the festival was well run and great variety of acts.... and their cheque didn't bounce ...heheheheh
i had fun , but only after an hours panic while i was stuck in traffic at an accident scene with no way past ....on the phone to the organisers saying don't start without me.... but eventually i made it at &-30 just before the show... i was supposed to be there at 7 ... and i left at 6 and the venue is 10 min from where i live .......so me sitting for an hour and a bit in traffic almost made the show run late as i was starting the show....... but thankfull i was set up 10 min to showtime and it was a fab set ....
the audience responce was awesome from the 1st song which was not blues but some of my original cuban/flamenco flavoured pieces ...actually called "Havana "....... sometimes festival crowds take a while to warm up so playing 1st can be a nightmare but this crowd was ready from the 1st song...yay for that .......
anyway i had fun doing a few original songs from my cd.... which sold quite a few copies on the night .... and then busking some jazz standards with Alicia a fabulous vocalist i work with ........
second band was Vana and the oh so serious .... who do country/blues which was fun with great blues harp and violin solo and a double bass....
then the guy that seemed to steal the show played ...gerald Clark(ex front man for delta blue) he just sat on a chair old blues style with his acoustic ....which sounded mind blowing awesome.... he had this fat blues tone when he sings that makes his blues sound so authentic ......... think his acoustic sounded best out of everyones..... it had a warm fat sound...and yep.... when i asked him after the show what guitar it was ....it was a eastern built guitar .... that even sounded better than the martin that were there ... go figure
he was joined by albert frost and they jammed the best set in the show in my opinion.... true heartfelt blues that was improvised....
then Albert frost did a set .. solo and was joined by the violist and blues harpist from vana and the oh so serious.... another way cool impromtu jam session .......and wow i loved alberts slide playing awesome
the last act was incredible..but prob too jazz to be everones cup of tea.... it was the fabulous jonathan crosley ( ex jazz lecturer at wits if i'm not mistaken) he had his jazz fusion quartet ...ending the night with awesome "herbie hancock" esque jazz.... they were so tight and jonathan played awesome modal solo's and used his loop station and midi guitar synth so well..... with the sax player dropping in some arbitary sounds from the "moog" type synth they had on stage... not sure what it was but it was old...and had unique tone....
so yeah and what made my evening was hearing jonathan crosley say at the beginning of his set that he was impressed that everyone played live with out backtracks ...despite there being mostly smaller bands....
heheh and i swear i did not put him up to say that heheheh ..... but yeah it seems local music is being played more and more 100% live and it rocked.....
so yeah a fab night.... and i was glad to be part of it....
peace and light
keira
[deleted]
Gerald Clark was INSANELY good!! Now if only we could find a few extra CD's to buy, A website? A Myspace page? I guy that is that good needs all those things... I can't find out more other than that night.
Excellent show allround!
