Moshito Conference – Day 2 [Biko's Anniversary]

Today is the 31st anniversary of Steve Biko's death at the hands of the Police, so an important day in South Africa. It's also the day that South African President Mbeki has brokered a compromise in Zimbabwe between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangerei. To celebrate, here's a photo of a Zimbabwean $50,000,000 note. That's right - the inflation is so astronomical that everyone is a billionaire. The note has an expiry date on it as well! So after June 2008, this note ceased to be legal tender.

I'm at the conference to speak about new music formats and trends on the Net and mobile phones, as well as a talk on how to do promotion and marketing using these tools. It's pretty sobering to learn that South Africa has a 9% Internet penetration and only 3% of the nation use it. We take so much for granted. So a good part of the session was spent talking about how mobile phones can be used to spread the word about your music; everyone can get a text message on their phone, so we went from exotic Net apps to very basic stuff pretty quickly! The sessions themselves were really enjoyable but it's the whole experience that I'm treasuring.

The music juice started at lunchtime when a Zimbabwean guitarist gave an acoustic performance. Unfortunately I didn't get his name, because he was stunning, playing really intense highlife on an acoustic guitar. It's one thing to hear those riffs on three electric guitars; it's jaw-dropping when one guy does it all with an acoustic.

In the evening a young Soweto group called The Soil gave an outstanding acapella performance. Together five years, they have yet to make a record. Their voices were a fabulous blend, with intricate harmonies that gave the sound real drive and rhythm. One of them told me later that they have nothing against instruments but they want to remain true to the spirit of acapella. I was standing about six feet from them during the first number. The girl was looking and sounding nervous, when they came to a change in the song. Almost involuntarily she moved back slightly, her face changed expression and she leaned into the mic, her voice suddenly intense and deeper, lost in music. The whole group lifted at the same time and it really took off. I started thinking about how I was listening to the oldest music there is, in the continent where it started. They told me their name comes from the fact that God created us from the soil and everything meaningful is made of the earth, so their name is in honour of Him.

If this photo of them singing is unseeable, blame my crappy phone camera.

In the lobby of the restaurant where they sang is this photo of Miriam Makeba, taken in 1958. The dress she's wearing is burnt orange in colour, made from two-way stretch bathing suit fabric. Just looking at it makes me wish I was there. We're going to try and get to the place where there's an archive of this photography from the 50s and 60s.

Then it was across the road to Nikki's Oasis, a longtime home of live music. I'm getting the impression that Jo'Burg doesn't do clubs the way we do - this was more like a café with some booths and a low stage. The band onstage couldn't have been more than 20 and launched into a great interpretation of Miles as we entered (blame the Hanepeet wine on my lack of memory). As someone remarked, this was real jazz, not that noodly stuff. The drummer was exceptional, always with his foot on the beat, even in his most Elvin Jones flurries. They were rewarded with some intense dancing by some of the audience. They also gave us all a first - towards the end of the last piece they started packing up their instruments while they were still playing!

Jazz fan at work. The guy in the white shirt is dancing without spilling the drink in his hand.