Ms Debbie Mari. UKZN Music Lecturer performs at Jazz Centre
UKZN’s Jazz voice Lecturer, Ms Debbie Mari, performs at the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music today (Wednesday, 19 August) at 6pm.
Mari describes herself as a Singer, Pianist, Educator and community music practitioner and has experienced many musical collaborations as a singer, who enjoys singing mostly jazz standards.
She returns to the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music stage, for this month’s Women’s Day series in a concert that celebrates her love for vocalese and poetry.
Burton Naidoo (piano), Ildo Nandja (bass), Jude Kenrick (drums) and George Mari (trumpet) will join Debbie as she journeys through selected poems, by Cape Town-based performance poet Malika Ndlovu, and vocalese lyrics (in the jazz tradition words set to an improvised instrumental solo), by Anita Wardell and a selection of jazz standards including ‘Moanin’, ‘Blues On The Corner’ and ‘LushLife’.
Joining the long list of professional musicians who are also alumni of UKZN, this Woman in Jazz is also an active creative industries advocate. She is the Board Chairperson of the UKUSA Arts Programme – one of Durban’s longest running community Music projects and the current Chairperson of KUMISA (KwaZulu-Natal United Music Industry Association).
She has recorded with Darius Brubeck (Before It’s Too Late, title track), George Mari (Since I Met You) and Richard Walne (The Only One Around, title track) and performs often in Durban as vocalist and pianist in a range of musical settings with George Mari, Melvin Peters, Burton Naidoo, Philani Ngidi, Ildo Nandja, Gerald Sloane, Shaun Peterson and Sidney Rash to name just a few.
More recently she performed with Sharon Katz and the reunion Peace Train band at the Durban International Film Festival and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra at the 2015 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
In 2013, Debbie and George Mari established Marigold Music School as an opportunity to share their knowledge and skills as professional musicians, mentors and experienced educators with children and adults of all abilities in the greater Durban area.
Join Debbie Mari at the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music (CJPM), Level 2, Shepstone Building at UKZN Howard College campus on Wednesday 19 August 2015 2015 at 18:00.
Doors open at 17.30pm show starts at 18:00. R50 general admission // R30 pensioners // R15 students. Please contact Thuli on 031 260 3385 or email Zamat1@ukzn.ac.za for more details.
Melissa Mungroo