Concerts SA supports national and SADC regional touring
The SAMRO Foundation is proud to announce the results of the January 2018 round of the Concerts SA Music Mobility Fund. Initiated in 2013, this fund offers opportunities for South African musicians to undertake live music tours across southern Africa. A total of sixteen applications were successful where ten tour projects will be supported in South Africa and six tour projects in the SADC region
Since it was initiated in 2013, the Music Mobility Fund has received over 900 applications and supported more than 160 tours through nine funding rounds. Artists who have benefitted have included Freshlyground, Madala Kunene, Moonchild Sanelly, Samthing Soweto, DJ Lag, Bombshelter Beast, The Brother Moves On, Sibot, Taxi Violence, Sibusile Xaba, Msaki, Native Young or Make-Overs.
More than 700 musicians have successfully toured across the nine South African provinces as well as ten other countries in southern Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and Madagascar), playing more than 800 shows to over 50 000 people, spanning genres from folk to hip-hop, from gqom to punk-rock, from jazz to indigenous music.
The projects selected for regional (SADC) touring in the January 2018 round are:
- SAMA winner blues guitarist Albert Frost whose duo will be doing a 5-country tour;
- Electronic musicians K-$ & DJ DooWap who will tour the Igoda festival route;
- the Tune Recreation Committee’s debut album launch tour;
- Afro-fusion vocalist Mae Sithole Zimbabwe’s tour with multiple shows at HIFA;
- R&B/soul quintet Masandi who will be carrying out a multi-country tour; and
- Black Matter’s collaboration between Mozambican beatmaker Nandele, Swazi artist Mr Freddy, and SA-based Iapetus Records artists: Fifi The Raiblaster and Kanif.
This round’s recipients for national touring support are:
- young sensation Benjamin Jeptha’s second album pre-launch tour;
- Heels over Head, an all-female outfit, taking the Cape by storm;
- Tshwane-based collective Capital Arts Revolution’s music exchange in rural KwaZulu-Natal;
- Madosini-lead AmaThongo who will be touring Gauteng;
- soul vocalist Dumza Maswana’s trio on a coastal tour;
- legendary bassist Carlo Mombelli is presenting live, his latest studio offering;
- hip-hop artists Beatmochini & F-Eezy expanding their national footprint towards Durban;
- Afrobeat sensation Femi Koya will be launching his 10-pice band folk trio Hezron Chetty & the ZugZwang doing a multi-province tour; and
- eclectic soul quintet The Muffinz who will be touring KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
Former grant recipient Asanda Mqiki said: “The support from Concerts SA Mobility Fund gave my band and I the opportunity to tour and share my music with brand new audiences in a way that just would not have been possible otherwise. We were able to perform for the very first time as a full band outside of South Africa. I was amazed at their response to the music and we are already in discussions to return. We also had the opportunity to collaborate with some other local musicians, and really appreciated what they brought to the music. The preparation ahead of the tour, and actually being on the road together for ten days, was also invaluable to us as a band, bringing us together and enabling the music to develop and mature.”
Blvck Crystals saxophonist and tour manager Nokwanda Nkala said: “Touring Mozambique is the highlight of the progress we have made thus far as a band of young musicians. The cultural and musical exchange we experienced has broadened our horizons and enlightened us of the live music scene in our continent. Through the Mobility Fund we reached audiences across the border and have received many more opportunities that would have taken longer to obtain had we not been afforded this opportunity.”
The Music Mobility Fund is administered by Concerts SA, a joint South African/Norwegian initiative housed under the auspices of the Stakeholder Hub within the SAMRO Foundation. It receives financial, administrative and technical support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the SAMRO Foundation and Kulturtanken.
