Local marimba band celebrates 20 years of making music

The multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist eight-member marimba band, Abavuki, celebrated its 20-year-anniversary with a performance on Saturday at Gallery 44 & Theatre on Long Street, Cape Town and live-streamed the event as well. These gifted men who are from Langa and Philippi have already toured 13 countries, IOL reports. Andile Makubalo, who is one of the band members, pointed out that even though they have been in the industry for a while, not many people know about them, News24 says.

“We established the group in 2001 and we’ve been performing all over the world. Our first gig in Asia was in China in 2006. We were performing on the Silk Road Festival. Also in 2015, we had a European Tour where we performed in different countries including the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, and Belgium,” he mentioned.

Meanwhile, band member Siyabulela Jiyana said that the group had originally come together when they were teenagers and would play at the V&A Waterfront to earn a few bucks, while their first booked performance was at the switching on of the lights festival on 2 December, 2001.

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