Safaricom International Jazz Festival is happening on Sunday 26th February at the Kasarani Training Grounds. This time round, Safaricom is bringing American Saxophonist and Grammy Award winner David Sanborn as the headline artist.
David Sanborn is an American alto-saxophonist and is no new comer to music having released his first solo album in 1975. He has 24 albums under his belt in a career spanning over 4 decades. Eight of these albums are gold while one went platinum. His music is a clever blend of R&B, Soul, instrumental pop and traditional jazz and he has played with big names like David Bowie, Luther Vandros, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
Safaricom promises to deliver an event of international standard, like it has been delivering since the launch of the festivals in 2014.
“David Sanborn is a prolific musician and performer with wide appeal, and he will be joined on stage by an equally talented line-up of musicians drawn from the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa at the event, whose theme is: Music That Moves,” said Safaricom CEO and Festival Founder Bob Collymore.
As always, all proceeds of Safaricom Jazz go to Ghetto Classics, a community program in Korogocho slums that nurtures less privileged children through music. We have been to Korogocho to capture the touching stories of these children and you can read the stories of Mary Anyango and Joseph Omondi. Safaricom’s contributions to Ghetto Classics have reached Kshs.19 Million as at last year.
Ghetto Classics currently supports around 650 children. Other than teaching them music, the program also shields them from the vagaries of slum life. Some of these children even go ahead and take up music as a full time career.
The Ghetto Classics meet for practice every week, undergoing instruction from volunteer tutors via face-to-face and Skype lessons during which they learn how to read and write music, and play different musical instruments.