Local icons to ignite 2019 Stanbic Jazz Festival

The 2019 Stanbic Jazz Festival is barely a couple of days from now, and jazz lovers across the country are getting ready to be treated to music from some renowned jazz artistes. Ghanaians will welcome, for the first time, legendary UK reggae and pop band UB40, Salif Keita and Richard Bona as headline acts for the 2019 edition of the Stanbic Jazz Festival from February 28, at the Labadi Beach Hotel, through to March 2,  at he Fantasy Dome. The question on the minds of many Ghanaians is which local act makes the grade this time to join these global icons at this year’s jazz nostalgia event? In keeping with the Stanbic Jazz Festival tradition, patrons of the event will witness a solid representation of Ghanaian acts to truly make the event as thoroughly ‘glocal’ as possible. They are expected to rub shoulders with global legends like UB40, Salif Keita and Richard Bona on the same stage. The Ghanaian flavour would be provided by a contingent led by Akablay, who marks three decades of churning out delightful music in March this year. Ghana’s elite saxophonist, Steve Bedi, is another member of the Ghanaian contingent who promises to match Salif Keita and Richard Bona boot-for-boot on stage. Bernard Ayisah and Victor Deh are also back on the jazz festival stage to prove themselves as Ghana’s best jazz band. Latest talented sensation to hit the live performance stages of Ghana, SSUE is also billed to perform. She delivers well-crafted and mature performance infused with percussive African rhythms, raunchy RnB and sultry Soul-Jazz, reminiscent of soul divas of old and a touch of the new. Kyekyeku is in there with his palmwine Blues, retro Highlife and all the unique sounds that only he can create. Two new acts who were revealed at the 2017 edition of the festival, Riffs and Licks and PaaKow, will make a return to the stage but this time as strong members of the Ghanaian contingent. For a musical journey that has been charming jazz lovers for the past five years, the platform would undoubtedly see the best in the genre in Ghana this year. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank Ghana, Alhassan Andani, Jazz music with its long history in Ghana, is loved by many people in the country and the Stanbic Jazz Festival provides a platform for both local and global icons to meet and musically interact with each other. “We are a local bank with global links and we believe that getting the chance to play with legends would make for the cross fusion of ideas between our indigenous and foreign artists to make them greater acts, thereby enhancing the ‘glocal’ nature of the event,” he said. Stanbic aims to present top-flight musicians to the people of Ghana, by bringing global legends and local icons together in keeping with the tradition of the Standard Bank Group, hosts of the annual Joy of Jazz, arguably the largest gathering of jazz lovers on the continent. The festival would be in aid of the fight against malaria and part of the ticket proceeds would be used to support the Infanta Foundation. Source: editors.3news.com|Ghana