Three Eastern Cape and one Port Elizabeth musician are members of the Black South Easter five piece plying their trade acros South Africa. Black South Easter take their name from the uplifting and revitalizing winds that blow across the Cape Peninsula and the music they play follows in its path. With infectious grooves and soaring melodies the band captivates and moves their audiences in a typically South African celebration. Their sound mixes the best of local flavours including elements of jive, soul, dance, reggae and afro-rock.
The band is fronted by the silken voiced Nhoza Sitsholwana, who started her career at 17 singing backup with Simphiwe Dana and now at the age of 24 has become a leading lady of great power and beauty. Nhoza hails from King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape and comes from a family of female vocalists where she was raised in the tradition of the church choir, starting from a very young age.
Jimi Curve is on Bass and also produces the band using his vast experience gained from years of playing music professionally. Jimi hails from Port Elizabeth originally and studied music at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He played in a very influential PE trio called Chakra Tickle before moving to Cape Town and playing with many well known artists and groups from Blunt to Arno Carstens.
Dan Boshoff plays guitars and is also originally from the Eastern Cape, Knysna, Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. Dan has developed his own unique style of guitaring based on the fusion of the classic western and world music he admires, filtered with a great Southern African influence ranging from Steve Newman, Tony Cox, John Selolwana, to the rock sounds of Theo Crous and dub of Tiago Paulo.
Jerry Mbowa plays the drums and hails from Maputo, Mozambique. Jerry has been touring locally and internationally for the past twenty years including the hit show Diamonds and Dust and musicians of the calibre of McCoy Mrubata and Winston Mankunku. Jerry brings an interesting fusion of rhythms to the music as he mixes subtle African rhythms with rock and dance patterns.
Vaughn Tromp plays the horns and has been touring the world extensively over the past few years with Lucky Dube and Gito Baloi. Vaughn is originally from Johannesburg and is also a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar and Piano. Vaughn brings a deep and Soulful voice to the Black South Easter sound and puts the experience gained in playing on most of the continents in the world into every performance.
Black South Easter gigs are up-beat dance orientated affairs which create a celebratory atmosphere and get people on their feet. The bands also play soulful ballads that incorporate a wistful beauty and soul connection.
Black South Easter are busy recording their debut album at the moment which will be released at the end of 2011.
In 2011 Black South Easter have completed three tours of the Southern Cape coast including a highly successful trip to the 2011 National Arts festival in Grahamstown, where the band did 15 shows in 15 days – 11 in Grahamstown as well as shows in PE and Jeffrey’s bay for the launch of the Billabong Surf Tournament. Black South Easter play at all the major venues in Cape Town on a regular basis.
Black South Easter will be appearing at The Music Kitchen 69 Mangold Street, Newton Park, on Tuesday 20 December at 7:30 pm. The entrance fee is R50 and bookings can be made on 0413641964 or 0828739759.
Black South Easter
