Blue Gum Jazz Band

The band started in 2012, we are group of 5 members who play smooth jazz. We started by having jazz sessions at Kutlwano jazz club every first Sunday of the month. I Dumisani Matanga would invite dear friends of mine who are vocalist to assist with the performances. The name BLUE GUM came as we had to submit a video to a pub which requested us to perform, the name just pop up at that time and since then we were The Blue Gum Jazz Band.

From playing at different places , different crowds we grew and it gave us platform to perform on bigger stages such as The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, Ekurhuleni Sports Awards, Nikki’s Oasis, Birchwood Hotel, etc. As a band we play smooth soothing jazz, that makes unique from other bands. We dig deep into our souls infusion with the performance to feed the audience as ”music feeds the soul”. We mainly focus on the African jazz, the drummer is more of a Blues drummer, Bassist is more of a Modern Jazz bass player, keys/keyboardist is more of a soul keyboard player.

We have done our own event in partnership with the city of Ekurhuleni Springs Theatre. We have two projects namely,” It’s a love thing” and “Live your dream”, “It’s a love thing” usually happens around June and “ Live your dream” is hosted around December, that’s the annual mini festival we do every year. We are passionate with what we do and do it with our all.

Bands Philosophy

“Use every given opportunity to it’s fullest advantage. This has enabled us to work smart and to deliver quality presentation of our soulful music” - Blue Gum Jazz Band