Jazz this Friday in Kalk Bay at The Holy Trinity Church with the Mike Rossi Project

Please note this venue is the Holy Trinity Anglican Church across from Dalebrook Beach by the graveyard in Kalk Bay

A consumate Jazz legend of South Africa is Mike Rossi.

Mike is Professor Emeritus in Jazz and Woodwinds at the SA College of Music at the University of Cape Town. His achievements include stage appearances with Tony Bennett, Darius Brubeck, Winston Makunku Ngozi, Hein van de Gyn, Johnyy Fourie, Carlo Mombelli, The African Jazz Pioneers.

He is the first recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. ?In 2018 Mike became a Cavaliere - Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (OSI - Ordine della Stella d'Italia) for promoting and contributing to the arts in South Africa and in Italy especially in the field of jazz and jazz education.

In 2019 he received a special Honors Award from the Joy of Jazz Festival for his contributions to jazz and jazz education in South Africa since 1989.

His band "The Mike Rossi Project was created in 2012". Since then his project has produced four CDs with over thirty original compositions. Most of the original works have been published internationally by Advance Music/Schott Music, Germany. Works from all the recordings have been performed in South Africa and internationally in Europe, United Kingdom, North America, South America and Japan.

One of the main goals of the Project is to provide and sustain a platform for new music and to showcase upcoming students and graduates to wider audiences.

The group was featured at the Inaugural Journey to Jazz Festival in Prince Albert in May 2023 and consists of Blake Hellaby, (keyboard/piano), Lilavan Gangen (percussion), Sibusiso Matsimela (bass). Their musical styles include samba, swing, jazz rock, kwela, ghoema, mbaqanga and jazz standards

Albums: The Mike Rossi Project: Trespassing Permitted (2013); The Mike Rossi Project: Take Another Five (2015); The Mike Rossi Project: Journey (2018), and The Mike Rossi Project: Roots & Routes (2022).