Soweto

About one hour outside of Johannesburg is Soweto. There, the kids learned about the diversity of the city. Financially diverse. High, middle, and lower class citizens are all integrated. It is a united population in which they all live together as one.

Soweto, which our tour guide says stands for South West Town Ship, was just as welcoming as the previous countries.

Our tour guide, Sunny, provided us information on how Aparthied affected Soweto. There was a lot of history that seemed to keep the AJA intrigued, including a visit to the famous Regina Mundi church. It was the place of the “Youth Uprising” in which students protested against police and the government who refused education for black students.

The church which is still in ruins, is also somewhat of a museum, complete with extravagant photos of the “uprising” movement in the 70′s.

We continued the day with a performance at the Rosa Parks library. It was well received and the host of the library kindly asked us to return soon for an even better musical performance experience at the park next time we come.

The day concluded with a fabulous dinner at The Local Grill restaurant. The gorgeous restaurant, complete with a wonderful staff provided us tables outside on the patio.

The next day we headed around the corner from the hostel to the music Academy of Guateng. We were welcomed by the founder, director, and famous jazz trumpeter Johnny Makoa. Johnny walked us into his establishment and his students and staff cheered and gave us a standing ovation as we walked into the music hall.

Their outstanding and talented students performed a short set for us before we went up and performed our set for them. They cheered on all the kids as if they were a platinum selling band in an arena.
The performance was followed by a lovely lunch of fish and chips.

After they allowed us to use their rhythm section instruments, we traveled down the street to the orphanage where volunteer, Anna, was extremely helpful in getting us set up, and preparing refreshments.
The orphans sat in front of the band and danced during the performance. It definitely inspired the AJA to play at a top level.

We ended the day with a lovely dinner prepared by the hostel and a bon fire that brought the students together to talk about their experiences the past week.

Today we leave for our excursion on a safari tour in Kruger Park.
We look forward to an exciting time and can’t wait to share it with you.

Cheers!

Molelekwa

Yesterday we arrived in Benoni, just outside Johannesburg. We expected to arrive near 11am, but with the help of two friendly and determined bus drivers, we got there 3 hours earlier.

The host Of the Mufasa hostel was excited to have us, but we opted to let her prepare our rooms while we grabbed some breakfast at a nearby mall.

A few hours later, we came back and unloaded our gear to a place that resembled a scene out of the jungle book. Fire pits, swimming pool, open field for soccer, and 3 wonderful dogs.

Twiny, the Norwegian host, is very friendly and has taken great care of us.

After we chilled a bit, we headed off to our 3rd concert at the Moses Molelekwa school. His son, Jerry, and about 2 dozen very well dressed elderly women welcomed us with a traditional song and dance. Some young musicians who surprised us with their stunning talent.
We then stepped up and played our set which was well received. At the end, a nice little jam session with our kids and theirs was followed by a wonderful “feast” that was catered. It was like an after church fellowship on Sunday afternoon.

After another wonderful day of good will and good music, we headed back to our place of slumber, enjoyed a night around the fire pit, poker, and pool, and headed to bed.

Today we play our 4th concert.

Will let you know how it goes!

Cheers!

Town Ship Jive!

What a spectacular day.
We started with a bus ride to one of the town ships in Cape Town. Definitely third world worthy. Their place Of living made the kids think a bit about how privileged they are with what they have.

The kids, who live in a section Hugh Masakela refers to as “refugee camps”, seemed to not have a care about how they lived. They were very attentive and even joined us on “Oop Bop Sh Bam”. The entry level school kids played violins, recorders, guitars, brass, and percussion. They even performed for us a bit before taking a group photo.

We headed out to Hout Bay and took a nice boat ride to Seal Island. Followed by some fish and chips on the bay.

We then took the bus through the bay area where we treated to spectacular views of the beaches.

Soon after we went back to Day 2 of the Cape Town jazz fest where we watched The Sinton high school band, Marcus Miller, and the most anticipated performance of the weekend, Hugh Masakela.

It was, in fact, the perfect day, and it was only the beginning.

We’re now having breakfast and preparing for an 18 hour bus ride to Johannesburg.

Will update soon.

Cape Town

After a 26 hour road trip across the world, and babies destined to be free of the aircraft for over 17 hours, we finally landed in Cape Town late last night. The hostel staff is very friendly and accomadating. The kids took showers and prepared for the day.

After exchanging money and grabbing some food, we took a small sight seeing tour of the Table Mountain and sights around.

We shared a practice room with the Sinton high school group for a few hours. While the directors were waiting their turn to be interviewed by a video team, the high school students and AJA members enjoyed a time of soloing, and sharing their knowledge of jazz.

We then made our way to the Amy Biehl Foundation where we will be having a few workshops with the students. Amy Biehl’s story is pretty powerful so the kids feel a bit motivated to work tomorrow.

We are now headed to grab some food and a night at the Cape Town jazz festival.

Wi Fi is very scarce here, so I will try update you whenever I have the chance.

thats it for now.
Everyone is well and having a good time so far.

Cheers!

AJA Tour 2012

We are all on board, (with a LOT of crying babies), but ready to go!

Still waiting to see if Aaron will make it on.

Not to worry, there are a few seats available.

Look for an update in about 20 hours when we land.

Ciao!

another one in the books

we’ve come to the end of the CSC winter tour. After a great performance at the Istinye Park mall, they went to downtown Istanbul for their final dinner together. They then headed to a local bar to listen to a band that performed original Turkish music in a pop style that captured the groups interest.

They were gracious enough to even let the combo perform two numbers.

Unfortunately, they had to leave soon after they performed to prepare for the long journey back home.

Pictures and videos will be available soon and please feel free to watch the performance from earlier today on ustream.com by searching the name Jon Laine.

thanks to everyone in the Consulate, Darussufaca school, Beyoglu Youth orchestra, the bus drivers, and especially reuniting with our tour guide, Sahli, whose endless efforts to help them along the way and manage the sight seeing was extremely helpful and made the trip worth it.

see everyone at home!

Ustream Istanbul

Go to ustream.com and search Jon Laine to watch the live broadcast of the combo!