Rashid Lombard, founder, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, South Africa tagged ‘Africa’s Grandest Gathering’ is the guest speaker at this year’s International Jazz Day Lecture in Lagos and also special guest of honour of the Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015.
Lombard’s reward for his hard labour and contribution to arts and culture over the past 40 years have come in various ways and awards including official recognition with the South African National Order of Ikhamanga Award. This year’s International Jazz Day on April 30 is both the culmination of the Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and start of the three-day Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 organised by Inspiro productions.
Lombard will be speaking on the topic, ‘International Jazz Festivals: A Driver for Tourism and Economic Growth – the South African Perspective.
Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa on April 10, 1951. Rashid Lombard trained as an architectural draughtsman and then worked as an industrial photographer before becoming a photojournalist covering Africa, and, particularly, South Africa where he focused on photographing the rise of the South African democratic movement.
Widely travelled, he has worked for the BBC, NBC, AFP and a number of progressive publications such as Grassroots and South, and his works have been part of exhibitions all over the world. He was a member of the Vukalisa artists’ collective which promoted community-based cultural activities in Southern Africa. His book of jazz photographs, Jazz Rocks, was published in 2010.
Passionate about music, particularly jazz, he managed several radio stations before starting the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, now in its 16th year. The Mandela Bay Music Festival was also launched in Port Elizabeth, his home town, in 2011 and similar jazz festivals under his leadership have been held in Mozambique and Angola with plans to expand into the rest of Africa including Namibia, Tanzania and Botswana with all having a strong tourism component to them.
The signature annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival, a jewel in Cape Town’s event crown which he founded brings a mixture of more than 40 African and International musicians from all over the world to perform over two days attracting audiences in excess of 30,000 people from around the globe. Ranked one of the top five jazz festivals in the world, below Montreaux and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and above the North Sea jazz Festival, part of the week-long programme focuses on workshops, training and mentoring sessions to develop music appreciation, performance and tourism.
Top performers at the festival in the past include the Buena Vista Social Club, Mi Casa, Jimmy Dludlu, Jill Scott, Gregory Porter, Al Jarreau, Spyrogyra, yellow Jackets, Lauryn Hill, Miriam Makeba and Femi Kuti to mention a few. The annual event currently contributes about R700 million (N1.4 Billion) showing an increased and sustained positive multiplier effect to the Western Cape economy. The festival created over 2500 additional employment opportunities across several different industries, roughly 400 of which were exclusively dependent on the festival. This is quite an achievement for a two-day event considering that a large number of other South African arts and music events take place over a week or more.
The International Jazz Day Lecture and Lagos International Jazz Festival 2015 will be held at cultural hotspot Freedom Park in Lagos.