Gavin Minter / Leslie Kleinsmith play Jazz and Soul Fridays
Schedule
Fri Jul 19 2024 at 06:00 pm to 08:00 pm
Location
V&A Waterfront | Cape Town, WC
Advertisement
In January, Makers Landing, Cruise Terminal at the V&A Waterfront continue their Jazz and Soul Fridays. Why sit in traffic, when you can come down and listen to some jazz and soul music. Great food and drinks available from various vendors.
There is no cover charge for this event, first come first seated. Limited access
Music starts at 6pm
Makers Landing is situated at the Cape Town Cruise Terminal.
26th January 2024
6pm
Gavin Minter
7pm
Leslie Kleinsmith
Gavin Minter is a singer, saxophonist, percussionist, writer, composer, producer, promoter, manager and music agent. He was born in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, son of a trumpet player father and a jazz singer mother. Minter started playing guitar at the age of twelve years old and at sixteen years old, he started playing the solo pub circuit in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region. Eventually he moved up to Johannesburg and continued paying the solo artist dues. In the 80's he started playing the saxophone and made the transition into the jazz arena, a genre on which he had been raised. He met the legendary Johnny Fourie and was added as the singer for the Johnny Fourie Band. For the past 3 decades Gavin Minter has toured the world and graced many jazz stages in South Africa. Some of his highlights include performances with artists like Judith Sephuma, Stevie Wonder, Winston Mankunku, Johnny Fourie, Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Errol Dyers, Robbie Jansen, Marcus Wyatt, Andrew Lilley, Mark Fransman, Melanie Scholtz, Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, Allou April, Ard Matthews, Arno Carstens, Cape Heritage Big Band, Prime Circle, Strait and Narro, Tina Schouw and Steve Newman to name a few.
Gavin has released 7 albums to date "Art and the Dollar" with his funk rock outfit "Wired to the Floor”,
His debut soul album in 1993 "Gavin Minter" was nominated for an Artes Award. He then did an Acid Jazz Album "JaciDazz" in 1995.
In 1997 he recorded his first jazz standards album "The Second Time Around” featuring the incredible Johnny Fourie.
His fifth album “I'll Be Seeing You” featuring the legendary Stockholm Jazz Orchestra and Winston Mankunku, was SAMA nominated for Best Jazz Album 2009 – which resulted in a successful 3 week tour of Sweden with the above Orchestra.
In 2012 he released an acoustic folk/rock album "My Return To Paradise”
2017, he released his 7th album “A Beautiful Friendship”, an American Songbook of jazz standards, and was recorded in Stockholm after a 12 date tour of Sweden.
In November 2022 he released a new EPK “Retrospect” which is a selection of original tunes covering different genres in homage to his 40 years in the music industry.
Leslie Kleinsmith
After many years in the South African Cabaret and Jazz music industry, Leslie Kleinsmith has deservedly earned the title of Grand Performer.
Starting at the tender age of 13, in "District Six", a part of Cape Town where abundant musical talent proliferated, Leslie shone like a star.
Currently living in France, he is an artist who has the stage presence, voice and charisma of performers such as Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis jnr. All of whom, were influences in his formative years. They were artists, whose craft was a studied balance of talent, choreography and timing which, when combined, commanded respect and recognition.
Leslie offers the same professionalism. His every move on stage, once choreographed, is a natural flow of grace and delivery.
His voice, now a sculpted tone of contra-alto leaning towards golden tenor, evokes a warmth and pliability that turn great songs into personal innovations of love.
Timing is what Leslie is all about. He has honed the magical art of delivery to a degree that sees the great standards of the American songbook, interpreted in a confident jazz style savoured only, as one with experience can.
Through the years, he has learnt to master many different genres of music which includes Pop, R&B, Rock, Funk, Ballads and (Big Band) Jazz.
Since 2009 Leslie has been performing with 12 dancers aboard the cruise liner "Costa Pacifica" as Production Singer.
Critics, music directors and colleagues throughout the years have been unanimous in their praise for the professionalism and finesse Leslie has brought to a varied career, from cabaret and club dates to stage productions and television cameos.
Needless to say, the young Leslie started a career that would, over time, take him to the international stages of the Edinburgh Arts Festival in Scotland and the 1992 Miss World Contest where 600 million television viewers got to see him perform.
Leslie can be proud too of being an African performer. For a dynamic young black performer, his home country offered limited career options. But, he remained resolute to making a success and firmly believes his African odyssey gave him the impetus to reach for the very top of the entertainment world.
Today Leslie's commitment to his audience has been rewarded. He owns a following second to none. Whenever he performs an emotion wells up in women and men alike. His delivery of love ballads is their romantic inspiration.
Leslie has never sounded better; he has never looked better - in fact he looks ten years younger today that he did ten years ago! A zen-like spiritual existence balanced with a healthy lifestyle preserves him for a 4th decade in music and a 3rd generation of music lovers to enjoy.
Leslie continues to sing and perform jazz standards and a variety of other genres, with polished confidence, candid humility and love for the audience that has nurtured him, through the years.
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
V&A Waterfront, Tie Stop, East Pier St, V&A Waterfront, 8001, South Africa,Cape Town, Western CapeEvent Location & Nearby Stays: