The Lady Day Big Band is an all-women professional big band founded by Amanda Tiffin, Lana Crowster, and Kelly Bell.
The Lady Day Big Band (LDBB) will launch their debut album, Livus’umoya, on Friday February 23 at the Star Theatre at the District Six Homecoming Centre, in Buitenkant Street, Cape Town, at 8pm.
The all-women professional big band was founded in 2018 as a legacy project aimed at showcasing the talents of professional female musicians while fostering new talent.
Founding member Amanda Tiffin spearheads the band with fellow musos and creators of the group, Lana Crowster and Kelly Bell.
The band incorporates contemporary styles with traditional big band sounds.
Tiffin describes the launch album as a collection of all South African music.
“We chose to feature an all-South African repertoire as we are passionate about showcasing South African works. Six out of the nine compositions have been penned by members of the LDBB, and the other three tracks are big band re-imaginings of some South African classics.”
The album features a mix of vocal and instrumental tracks as well as collaborations.
“Gloria Bosman was kind enough to lend us her powerhouse vocal skills while she was living and studying in Cape Town in 2021, on an epic rendition of Busi Mhlongo’s Yehlisan’umoya. This was sadly to be one of her last studio recordings. We will forever be humbled and grateful that we got to include her on our album,” said Tiffin.
The band hopes to convey encouraging and uplifting messages through their album.
“Ayo Ayo (lyrics by Phathiswa Magangane) conveys an uplifting message of hope and encouragement, to remain open hearted, and to embrace the future. We used a lyric from this song as the title for our album, as it embodies the overall theme and ethos of the LDBB. To awaken the spirit,” said Tiffin.
“Elegy for the Forgotten Child was written as a response to the shocking epidemic of child murders that happened and sadly continues to happen in the Western Cape.
“It is a lament for the children whose names appear in the press for a fleeting moment, a news cycle, and are then forgotten, while the violence continues, often unacknowledged. It Is a call to remember their names. The song is written using the voices of three women, three mothers who have each lost a child, and the lyrics are written in Afrikaans, English by Quanita Adams and Xhosa by Nomfundo Xaluva-Dyantyis,” said Tiffin.
The full 20-piece Lady Day Big Band will perform songs from the album, as well as some of their favourite South African and global tunes at the launch.
The evening features Lynelle Kenned as guest vocalist and co-MC for the evening along with a selection of other surprise guests.
Tickets cost R175 each through Quicket.