By the time Navio appeared at around 9:30pm, the waterfront crowd had already been properly jazzed.
The evening at Explorer Resort and Marina had begun with the sort of elegant musical restraint one might expect from a jazz festival: warm lighting, light reflections on the lake from across, champagne being popped, glasses being raised and the gentle conversation of a Kampala crowd that had turned up to listen.
Then Navio arrived and effectively asked everybody to forget the chairs.
Within moments, the affluent crowd was on its feet, trading the evening’s jazz sophistication for some unapologetic Ugandan hip-hop. It was one of several delightful curveballs thrown at the inaugural Kampala Jazz Marathon, an event that seemed determined to demonstrate that jazz need not spend the entire evening wearing a bow tie.
The night had begun at about 8pm with young vocalist and songwriter Eduwado Kayondo. Kayondo had the unenviable task of opening a brand-new event, but he handled it neatly, performing three songs before handing the stage to The Ubeatablez band. The band immediately established the musical character of the evening, filling the waterfront venue with the warm sounds of wind instruments, piano and an assortment of jazz instrumentation.
There was something particularly fitting about hearing live instruments beside the water. The music seemed to travel differently, with the horns, piano and rhythm section creating a sonic softness that recorded music simply cannot quite reproduce.
Gita followed with five or six jazz classics, taking the audience deeper into the evening’s central theme.
Then came Navio. And that was the moment the Jazz Marathon revealed that it had no intention of being predictable. His appearance was completely unexpected, but the reception suggested that perhaps nobody cared about the programme anymore. Navio’s homegrown hip-hop sent people to their feet, proving that there is a very short distance between a sophisticated jazz audience and a crowd ready to shout along to a familiar Ugandan rap anthem. Apparently, the distance is about three bass notes.
Veteran performer Rucci, who was the MC of the night, came next, not in the role of MC but as a musician. And with a cover of Malaika, Rucci reminded the audience that old-school musicians possess a rather irritating ability to make retirement look temporary. The 59-year old reminded everyone that with music, when you got it you got it. It never leaves. Then, while everyone was still processing that information, he announced a Limit X concert for February 13, 2027. So Rucci’s retirement, it appears, had a very generous return policy.
His performance was nevertheless a serious reminder of his credentials. The veteran has the ease of someone who has spent enough years on stage to no longer need to prove that he belongs there.
Mitch Isabirye the Poet then brought spoken word into the mix. Mitch has been doing this poetry performance thing for years, and that experience was evident. He knows how to work a crowd with nothing more than words, timing and expression. His performance brought smiles across the venue and provided another change of pace in a programme that seemed increasingly interested in how many different artistic worlds could comfortably occupy the same stage.
Then came a solemn moment. The Toro anthem was performed in honour of the fallen king, bringing a measure of reflection to an evening otherwise dedicated to celebration. It was a fitting reminder that music in Uganda often carries far more than melody. It carries memory, identity and history.
Then Sheila Katumwa stepped forward. The wife of saxophone maestro Isaiah Katumwa took the audience somewhere completely different with a couple of gospel classics, including Let It Shine and did them more than justice.
There are singers who possess good voices and singers who know how to use them. Sheila appears to belong to that rarer category of people whose voices seem to have considerably more room than the song requires. She sang, and suddenly the evening acquired another dimension. She’s Uganda’s best kept Jazz secret.
By around 10pm, it was time for the headline act, the man behind the idea, King Wizzy. The Ugandan jazz pianist based in the Netherlands, had already assembled an impressive musical cast around his event. Now he had to justify putting his own name at the centre of it. He did.
Wizzy delivered a performance with the energy and confidence of a musician who has played in the most exclusive ball rooms. He understood exactly what he wanted the evening to become. He did not merely headline the first Jazz Marathon; he gave the event its musical signature.
It was the kind of performance that makes the idea behind the event easier to understand. Wizzy has spent years abroad, but he is increasingly looking homeward. And his interest appears to go beyond performing for Ugandan audiences. There is a growing investment angle to his return, an attempt to reconnect with home not only culturally but economically. Jazz lovers in Uganda have not been catered for pretty much since the discontinuation of the Nile Gold Jazz Safari in 2013. This will be the answer going forward.
Babaluku came on and immediately floored the accelerator. His performance injected another burst of energy into the audience, and his eventual collaboration with Rucci produced one of the evening’s more memorable moments. The two men share a church background, among other things, and their coming together on stage had the easy chemistry of musicians who understand that sometimes the best performance is the one you don’t overthink.
Kenneth Mugabi was sitting in the audience. Chilling. Watching. Enjoying himself.
Until somebody apparently decided that having Kenneth Mugabi in the audience while a stage was available constituted poor resource management. He was pulled out.
The audience got Katambaara, the beautiful ballad from his Kibunoomu album. It was precisely the kind of spontaneous moment that gave the night its charm. Mugabi had not come prepared to perform, yet somehow ended up contributing one of the performances people were likely to remember.
The a young trumpeter you’ve probably never heard of, Marvin Birungyi, took his turn, adding another instrumental voice to an evening already rich with horns and live musicianship.
And that, ultimately, may have been the most impressive thing about the first Kampala Jazz Marathon: the sheer musical generosity of it. The event did not behave like a tightly guarded showcase in which the headline act is protected from everyone else. Instead, musicians appeared, collaborated, surprised one another and occasionally surprised themselves.
For a first installation, the Jazz Marathon also arrives with considerable institutional muscle. Dr Allan Shonubi, owner of the venue, the brand-new Explorer Resort and Marina, Kakira Sugar, Mehta Uganda and Perlino Prosecco champagne were wind under the concerts wings.
The venue itself may prove to be part of the attraction. Explorer Resort and Marina gives the Jazz Marathon something beyond a stage: it gives it an atmosphere. The combination of water, open space, hospitality and live music creates the possibility of an event that feels less like another item on Kampala’s entertainment calendar and more like a destination.
And for a first attempt, the Kampala Jazz Marathon found an impressive number of perfect octaves. The challenge now is to keep hitting them.
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