Rudo Chakwera thrills at Lilongwe  Jazz Festival

Lilongwe based female Jazz giant Rudo Chakwera gave an outstanding performance at the Lilongwe Jazz festival (LJF) over the weekend.

The two-day festival started with the performance of the Lilongwe based Jazz band The Smooth Grooves on Friday night.

In an interview after her performance, Chakwera said the festival was a good opportunity for her and other artists to showcase their talents.

She along with the Gentiles Band sang a number of songs including Love, Fly me to the moon and Anawa akuvutika.

“I grew up singing some of the songs with my father and they just come naturally because they are not new songs to me,” Chakwera said.

She further said she has not been active for some time because she was preoccupied with other things.

“Now that I am back, I have plans to work on an album. In fact, I will not do one album because I have so many projects that I prepared while I was not active in the industry,” Chakwera said.

Chakwera’s fans refer to her as the Aretha Franklin of Malawi because of her style of music.

“I actually get challenged every time I think of the late Aretha Franklin because we don’t really have that kind of sound in Malawi; and people say that that type of music is not for local Malawian.

“That is the challenge because I have to sing something that is true to our culture. At the same time, I feel not to be limited; and that’s how the Aretha Franklin comes in and there is need to balance the two” Chakwera explained.

One of the organisers of the event Frank Mvalo said the festival is going to get better every year because they would like to showcase Malawi talent in form of Jazz music every year.

Other artists who performed at the festival included Owen Mbirizi and the Jazz Cafe, Smooth Grooves, Rick Deja, Erick Paliani and the Lilongwe Jazz Festival Ensemble.

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