Sam Dondo under fire
By Silence Charumbira
Showbiz Editor
Jazz 24/7 will not stay out of controversy; at least for now.
The launch may have come and gone and dust settled but grudges seem to have outlived the event as manager Yasin Dlala feels hard done by budding artiste Sam Dondo.
Dlala told Showbiz on Thursday that he feels sabotaged by Dondo who was billed to perform on the night but absconded.
The manager who also found himself at the center of the controversy as his former employer was allegedly not happy with the “backstabbing” said Dondo was an employer and should not be drawn into fights at the expense of his band’s survival.
“He is also an employer and he has employees to pay. He should be ready to play every time he sees a stage and not sabotage promoters. We need each other. After all this is a small industry. We have bigger opportunities coming and him as a budding artiste should learn to embrace opportunities,” Dlala said.
Dondo’s manager did not respond to calls to his mobile phone on Thursday afternoon.
Dlala said they were ready to revive the jazz fraternity that has been yearning for attention owning to lack of venues.
He however said they would not stick to jazz music alone for the sake of diversity and viability.
“We are back. Yes it’s jazz but we are not restricted. We will be accommodating all genres. Jabavu has been performing at the venue before and they have their mature following who are pretty much the high spenders that the market is yearning for,” he said.
“We are also giving out an incentive for clients that use plastic money. If one spends $30 whether cash or by card we will give them $50 cash back and if they spend $50 we give them $100 cash back. This we are doing to relieve revelers who are obviously experiencing cash shortages like everyone else.”
He said they had also introduced draught beer available for $1 per glass while parking is manned by security personnel.
Jabavu Drive front man Phillip Svosve said he was relieved to be playing the venue again although with a different name.
“We are very excited with the opening of new venues. People had been starved of jazz and they didn’t know where to go but this is a positive development that also opens up the market for us as artistes,”Svosve said.
He added: “We have been playing on Fridays Bar Rouge but we have been more or less been restricted to private functions. We have pretty much been hoping from this end to that end.”
