AMERICAN jazz group, Birkhead, has cherished its recent visit to Zimbabwe to support projects and help preserve a wide range of cultural heritages through workshops and performances.
The group’s tour last week was made possible courtesy of the America Music Abroad Programme.
As part of their cultural exchange programme, the group toured historic buildings, archaeological sites, paintings and other forms of traditional cultural expression like Matobo rocks in Bulawayo.
They also performed at the recently held Stanbic Jacaranda Music Festival in Harare before staging their last performance at Academy of Music in Bulawayo last week.
“We were about 10 bands of about 500 people who auditioned and we were chosen to come to three different locations, one of them being Zimbabwe,” a member of the jazz outfit, Tyler Glenn Leak told the media at a Press conference in Bulawayo.
The jazz outfit also attended a series of interactive workshops ranging from different themes like music as business, creating a career in music as well as on collaborations.
Bulawayo-based Afro-soul-and-pop artist Butholezwe Ntini said the workshops were helpful and timely.
“I now know how to be recognised as an artiste. I now know I have to be registered with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe for me to be a recognised artiste in Bulawayo.
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“This comes with benefits that when an international artiste comes to the country, you can then be given first preference as a registered artiste to have a session with the invited guest,” Ntini said.
He said sharing the stage with the visiting group was a great experience which provided him a networking platform. Ntini hopes to release his Extended Play titled AmaMbriyano in December. He believes the Extended Play will play a huge role in changing his approach to music from the view that music was all about following trends to doing music that defines him.
