Grammy winning hip hop icons Digable Planets to perform at the 12th Annual Cape Town Jazz Festival

March 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Grammy winning hip hop icons Digable Planets will perform at the 12th Annual Cape Town Jazz Festival on March 26, 2011. The group will be backed by their tour band the Cosmic Funk Orchestra.

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival has grown into a hugely successful international event since its inception in the year 2000. Attendance figures have increased from the initial 14 000 to 34 000 in the last 11 years.

Melodytrip has ranked this proudly South African event as No.4 in the world, outshining events such as Switzerland's Montreaux Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland.

The festival’s winning formula of bringing more than 40 International and Local artists to perform over two days on five stages has earned it the status of being the most prestigious event on the African continent.

Known as Africa's Grandest Gathering, the festival which will be in its twelfth year when it takes place on Friday 25th and Saturday 26 March 2011 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Once again Cape Town International Jazz festival will thrill loyal and new fans with world class music.

For more on the Cape Town Jazz festival 2011, go to:

http://www.capetownjazzfest.com/about.aspx


About Digable Planets:

When hip-hop trio Digable Planets emerged in the early 90s, their memorable moniker raised eyebrows. What, exactly, did it mean? The name sprang, they explained, from the notion that every individual is a planet. But the unique worlds that their tracks mapped out were not insular ones; as their Grammy-winning hit Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" would prove, the Planets were primed to connect with audiences weary of the aggressive posturing of gangsta rap. Filled with literate lyrics, honey-smooth flow, and inventive arrangements, their albums Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time and Space) (1993) and Blowout Comb (1994) redefined hip-hop, and set standards for the generation of soul poets and innovative producers that followed, as the anthology Beyond The Spectrum: The Creamy Spy Chronicles effortlessly reiterates. The group first took shape in the early
90s, in New York City. Former Seattle resident Butterfly (a k a Ishmael Butler) hooked up with Philadelphia native Doodlebug (Craig Irving), who was also a member of collective Dread Poets Society, and Ladybug (Mary Ann Vieira), a Maryland denizen of Brazilian descent.

On their 1993 debut, Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), the threesome showed just how rich and vibrant the musical product of three distinctive minds working in harmony could be. Musically, they incorporated elements of funk, samba, and psychedelia into their street-savvy hip-hop; jazz, in particular, played a pivotal role. The group gave shout-outs to icons Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker, and sampled others, including Sonny Rollins and the Last Poets. Like hip-hop, they developed a language and style that was unique, noted Butterfly of their jazz forefathers. “Those cats used their vernacular to communicate a new perspective.” With unabashedly intelligent lyrical references to everything from Karl Marx (on the reggae-tinged Where I'm From) and Jimi Hendrix, to feminist bell hooks and poet Nikki Giovanni, the Planets boldly followed suit. Critics responded to the Planets debut platter enthusiastically.” Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) is everything hip-hop should be: artistically sound, unabashedly conscious and downright cool”, proclaimed Kevin Powell in a four-star review for Rolling Stone. And Digable Planets is the kind of rap act every fan should cram to understand. The record would eventually hit .15 on the Billboard 200, break the Top 5 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and achieve Platinum sales status. Buoyed up by a bubbling bass line and curlicues of brass (the latter lifted from a sample of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers), and peppered with finger-pops, the sublimely chill single Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) became the albums biggest hit. It peaked at 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, winning legions of fans across a variety of radio formats as well as in clubs. The track deservedly earned the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

After touring extensively, accompanied by a live band, the trio returned to the studio, emerging in 1994 with their sophomore outing, Blowout Comb. Even more so than its predecessor, the Planets second full-length pushed stylistic boundaries. The group downplayed samples in favor of live performances. Ladybug left the group in 2008 -- talented emcee Lady Madarocka, of Nigerian heritage, now joins the group on stage and fully maintains the female energy essential to the Digable Planets formula. Doodlebug and Butterfly continue to tour consistently, as well as pursue other ventures. Butterfly formed the band Cherrywine, releasing the album Bright Black in 2003. He also composed music for commercial clients including Pepsi and Fila, and ventured into acting, with roles in film (the 2002 Sundance fave I Am Ali) and Off Broadway. Working as Cee Knowledge, Doodlebug has been leading Philadelphia live hip-hop ensemble Cosmic Funk Orchestra since 2000 and is producing independent film projects. He is founder of the independent label Heaven n Earth records which is scheduled to release the digital download “Digable Planets Live from The London Jazz Café” in summer 2011.

For more on Digable Planets, go to:

www.myspace.com/digableplanets

For Booking and Press Inquiries:
Melody Forrester
Artists First, Inc.
267-252-0186
mforrester@artists1st.net

# # #

Artists First is a full sevice entertainment management and consulting company.
Managing recording artists, musicians, music producers, screenwriters, film and television producers, directors, videographers, spoken word artists and actors.