Black Coffee - Africa Rising DVD 2012

In 2011, Black Coffee’s AfricaRising contributed a triumphant chapter to the global house music story and scored some of its most exciting pages within the rising South African sound. Combining the irresistible dancefloor groove of one of Africa’s best-loved DJ/producers, Black Coffee, with the staging prowess of one of Africa’s most future-facing DJ/producers, DJ Strat3gy, the AfricaRising show at the Moses Mabhida stadium on 16 December 2011 was an audio-visual presentation that provided and extremely emotional experience for performers and audience alike. Designed against the spectacular architecture of Durban’s world-famous stadium, the debut AfricaRising performance at the Vodacom Unlimited Festival powered by SABC1 featured an exclusive two-hour mix of Black Coffee’s biggest tracks, boldly stripped down to accommodate a live band with vocalists and 24-piece orchestra, and highlighted Black Coffee’s natural crowd rapport and indisputable courage to grab the moment. That moment was wrapped in DJ Strat3gy’s stadium-busting high contrast LED and synchronised lighting style, all specifically mapped to five unique physical constructions, the largest of which towered more than 15m into the air. To create the unique sound of AfricaRising Black Coffee and DJ Strat3gy turned to the multi-talented Brendan Jury. Classically trained Jury has a stellar reputation as the front man of Urban Creep and for his work with the likes of Arno Carstens, Jabu Khanyile, ProVerb, HHP, TK, Kabelo and The Parlotones, and also collaborated with Brian Eno, Dave Gilmour and Chrissie Hynde on the debut solo album from Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music. He explained, “Black Coffee stripped down the arrangements to very funky beats, and his music was interpreted in big, orchestral sounds. It was enormous fun: beautiful deep house music, which, when explored with an orchestra, became melodically intense. It kept that warm street funk of Black Coffee’s beat and took the music into the realm of art music – modern classical music.” Black Coffee added: “It was a challenge because my music is not just house: it even incorporates elements from things like Mbaqanga, jazz and Rhythm and Blues. So the challenge was to bring all of these elements together without compromising any of them.” This was certainly achieved in 120 monumental minutes, which featured new arrangements of the house supremo’s material as well as unreleased material. The result was richer, deeper textures and soundscapes as Black Coffee explored new facets to his music with the aid of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Muses String Quartet and the participation of vocalists and musos like Bucie, BOP, legendary organist Black Moses (of Soul Brothers fame) and Zakes Bantwini. Joining this super-ensemble were special guest vocalists and musos performing Black Coffee’s mega hits, including Tumelo (“Arise and Shine”), Tsepho (“Never Saw You Coming”), Vuyo (“Don’t You Give Up”), Bucie (“Superman” and “Turn Me On”), Zakes Bantwini (“Juju”), Zano (“Someday”), Thiwe (“Crazy”), Black Moses (“The Chameleon”), Soulsta (“Rock My World”), Marissa (“Time To Go”), Jacky (“Masquerade”) and Brothers of Peace (“Sik’khuzile”). Said Black Coffee: “This was a very special project: house music meets classical music and staging in a very profound way. It’s a very fresh idea that’s taking house music to another level; exploring new ideas.” He added that AfricaRising would have been “impossible to execute” without DJ Strat3gy’s innovative energy, and DJ Strat3gy in turn affirms that only “one of Africa’s most uniquely talented music producers” could have provided the musical platform to explore this genre-shifting moment for the biggest house music market in the world, in one of South Africa’s most beautiful stadia. Both agree that it was time for all to see: AfricaRising!