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Lilongwe Jazz Fest back

The Lilongwe Jazz Festival (LJF) is back this year with a special platform for secondary schools and college bands that play jazz music set to take centre-stage.

Organisers say three international performances are set for this year’s edition of the festival.

TJ is an up-and-coming jazz artist who performed last year

Scheduled for August 30 and 31 at the Lilongwe Golf Club, the second version of the festival is set to attract about 20 acts.

“This year we will have five school and college bands,” said Fikile Chisimba, one of the organisers.

She said they will also have established and up-and-coming jazz artists to beef up the line-up.

“We will also have three international and regional artists and bands. We will be unveiling the artists as the weeks go by,” Chisimba said.

Under the banner of Great Music, Exciting Moments, Lasting Memories, she said LJF will continue with its dream of providing an opportunity to children to experience and learn more about the music genre.

“The festival comprises of the display and the performance of jazz music in Malawi with the overall goal of increasing the appreciation and the enjoyment of jazz music as an art form in the country,” Chisimba said.

She said the festival aims at promoting the appreciation of jazz as a music genre.

“We also want to support the development of the Malawi jazz scene through the training and support of young and upcoming jazz artists; hence, working with schools in the country; hence, the involvement of students,” said Chisimba.

She said there will be a series of pre-events in Lilongwe and Blantyre.

Last year, the festival attracted 16 musicians, including Erik Paliani, Owen Mbilizi and Waliko Makhala, among others.

Commenting on the LJF 2019 launch, Paliani decried the lack of interest in the genre.

“We are running what I would call kangaroo schools in terms of introducing it to people,” he said.

Paliani said Malawi needs to have proper structures that will motivate and nurture the talent of the youngster if the country is to protect jazz music, which he said is as much entertaining as it is intellectual music genre.

However, the festival, which the organisers said  will be held on the last weekend of every August, is set to clash  with another big musical show by The Temptations from US at the Bingu International Convention Centre (Bicc).

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