Afro Fresh jazz band impresses at Spring Jazz show

05 Oct, 2014 - 17:10 0 Views
Afro Fresh jazz band impresses at Spring Jazz show Afro Fresh Jazz Band members on stage at the Spring Jazz Show at Intwasa Festival recently

The Sunday News

Afro Fresh Jazz Band members on stage at the Spring Jazz Show at Intwasa Festival recently

Afro Fresh Jazz Band members on stage at the Spring Jazz Show at Intwasa Festival recently

PERHAPS in a bid to debunk the misnotion that the arts industry is the preserve of the academically ungifted, Afro Fresh Jazz Band comprising college students and graduates in different fields demonstrated that they are not only talented academically but artistically too when they put up an impressive act in a show that was headlined by seniors in the game.
Opening a top billing event such as the Spring Jazz Show featuring Tariro neGitare, Cool Crooners, Outfit and Jam Session is no easy feat – yet the calm, novel and resoundingly fresh Afro Fresh Jazz Band did justice to the role and proved they are no longer novices.

The youthful and ambitious eight member band was one of the bands that featured at the jazz show at Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo recently at the Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel  where they warmed the crowd and wowed them with their blissful music as the jazz night began.  The band boasts of winning the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo’s Most Amazing Talent in 2013.

Mostly comprising students from the National University of Science and Technology, the band comprises Blessing Guveya (keyboard/vocals) and Nqobile Behane (bass guitar) who are Marketing and Architecture graduates at NUST. The group also has NUST Architecture graduate Makabongwe Ncube (saxophone/percussion) and vocalist Tsepo Ndlovu who is a graduate at the same institution in Risk and Insurance Management. Saul Namati Ndlovu (lead guitar) studies Applied Biology, Caleb Dube (drums) studies Automotive Engineering at Westgate Tech College, Sanelisiwe Ntini (lead vocals) studies Electronic Engineering at NUST and Emmanuel Gordon (vocals) who is an Electronic Systems student at Bulawayo Polytechnic.

In an interview with Sunday Leisure, the band revealed its plans to release an album and subsequently grow the Afro Fresh Brand.
“The band was formed in 2010 by Nqobile, Tsepo, Makabongwe, Nkosiphile Sibanda and Tsepo Dube. Our passion and common interest in music brought us together. We wanted to form the first music club at NUST similar to other universities, which we successfully managed to do,” said Blessing Guveya.

Having met at NUST, the group went on to pioneer the first band at the Cecil Road institution.
“We met at NUST and each person used to play music at their respective church, so the love for music brought us together. We have managed to acquire assets which comprise a full set of our musical instruments. We also managed to establish the first NUST band,” said Guveya.

He added that some of the struggles that the band faced had to do with funding.
“We have challenges with rehearsal space many times as we do not have a place of our own. We also have issues acquiring a public address system and generally all the funding to record,” he noted on behalf of the band.

The band has huge ambitions as they are set to record and launch a new album soon.
“We are planning on recording and launching an album soon. Our long term goals are to establish a school of music – establishing and growing the Afro Fresh Brand, not only in music but also in music marketing and administration, events management and catering as well as having an academy of music perhaps in the long term,” he said.

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