Great Media Reaction to new Dizu Plaatjies album.

The media reaction to the new Dizu album - UBUNTU - THE COMMON STRING  - has been nothing less than stunning. Here is a selection.

Cover art of UBUNTU Digipak.

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TRANSGLOBAL WORLD MUSIC CHARTS - Position 7 this month!

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Great review in World Music Central

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Top of the World Album in SONGLINES - UK

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Double page spread in FOLKER - Germany

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Review in fRoots - UK

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Press Ads - FRANCE

UK

GERMANY

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Will add stuff as we get hold of it.

DIZU - French dates coincide with album release

Dizu Plaatjies and members of his Ibuyambo Ensemble will play 4 dates in France in December 2015. The schedule is as follows -

Strasbourg - 8 December
Lamballe - 10 and 11 December
Brest - 12 December

The concerts coincide with the French release of his new album, Ubuntu - The Common String. The album features different guest performers but Dizu will perform the album repertoire with his traditional instrument ensemble.

Although a regular visitor to France over the last 10 years he has not performed at the locations in the north West of the country before.

Official Bio - Dizu Plaatjies

This is the official bio of the artist - DIZU PLAATJIES. No reproduction without permission.

Dizu Plaatjies for Penang World Music Festival 2015

DIZU PLAATJIES AND IBUYAMBO FOR PENANG ISLAND FESTIVAL

Internationally acclaimed World Music star and African musicologist, Dizu Plaatjies, will lead his Ibuyambo Ensemble on stage at the Penang World Music Festival in April 2015. Dizu is the former leader and founder of Africa's popular marimba group, Amampondo.

Ibuyambo have confirmed their participation, which will be the second international appearance by Dizu and his 7 piece group since their concert in New York a month ago. The festival runs over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of April at the Padang Esplanade in George Town, Penang.

Standing ovation in New York's, Carnegie Hall, November 2014

The group are expected to present an uptempo program including some of Dizu's new songs, to entertain the open air festival fans. The actual date and times of the show are not yet available but will be published on theses pages as soon as we have these.

Dizu and Thongo live at WOMAD, UK

Photo - Graham Boynton

Dizu's manager, Patrick Lee-Thorp, said that the artist is delighted to get this invitation to return to Malaysia, which builds a presence of African musicians, and particularly Dizu, since headlining the Rainforest World Music Festival in 2013, in S E Asia.

Dizu Plaatjies & Ibuyambo International Concert List

Dizu (centre) live 2007.  © Songwrights Publishers

We have tried to re-construct the list of shows done by the group and by Dizu solo over the last few years. The list begins with the season at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town where Dizu's first solo album was launched with a stage production in 2003. It excludes all other shows in South Africa.

The pics below are taken from Dizu's profile in the Ethnoworld website. The list in incomplete but hopeful will be updated as we remember all the places where he appeared! There are a couple of duplications due to the info on that site being altered.
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Some more from 2010 in France, info from Maitemusic, thanks - 

2013

WOMAD UK - JULY
RAINFOREST WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL - JULY
SAUTI ZU BUSARA ZANZIBAR - APRIL


2014

Twiza Festival, Morocco, 2014 - OCTOBER

Standing ovation, Carnegie Hall, 1/11/2014 (c) Songwrights

2015

THAILAND - JANUARY

PENANG WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL - APRIL

IBUYAMBO MEMBERS GIVE DEPARTED MEMBER A ROUSING SEND OFF

Dizu Plaatjies and members of the Ibuyambo Ensemble attended the funeral of PONKIE NGQULANA the former marimba player and percussionist of the group who started with them in 2004. Ponkie performed with Ibuyambo for about 3 years including their debut European shows in France.

The memorial to pay respects to the late member was organised by his family in Nyanga East and he was buried in Khayelitsha outside Cape Town on Saturday 8th February.




Ponkie (second from the right) here with some of the members during their visit to Reunion Island as part of the celebration of the freeing of slaves on the island.. All rights Songwrights Publishers (c)

The group gave him a send off with a Kudu horns chant song. They were joined by former student colleagues of Ponkie who knew him from the UCT College of Music.

Ponkie was a music teacher and former student of Dizu. He died in hospital last week after a short illness.

Dizu for prestige Africa Gig

On the 16th of February, Dizu Plaatjies and his Ibuyambo ensemble will take the stage around 10pm, at the prestigious Sauti za Busara festival in Stone Town, Zanzibar, off the east coast of Tanzania.

http://www.busaramusic.org/festivals/2014/

"I have been wanting to play the festival for some time" said Dizu. "I will take the 5 piece ensemble and put together a program featuring many of the vocal songs in our repertoire. I am looking forward to this as it will be a bit different to the recent shows where we used the xylophones".

Dizu will also take part in a, Meet the Artists discussion group on the Sunday afternoon, where members of the public can ask questions and interact with the Performers.

Like on FB - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dizu-Plaatjies-Ibuyambo-Musical-Group/192402654192439

Dizu and his group perform in Zanzibar with the support of MOUNTAIN RECORDS - http://www.releases.music-production-ideas.com