The past this past weekend one of the biggest jazz events, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, took place at its resident venue, the Cape Town International Convention Centre. On the bill were some of the biggest musicians in the world as usual.

One such musicians is Bilal Oliver, the American classically trained soul/jazz musician. Bilal replaced G.U.R.U. and his band The Jazzmattaz after an unfortunate incident that left the hip hop pioneer in a comma. Weeks before it was announced that Bilal was part of the line-up, one of my boys involved in the festival tipped me. I couldn’t contain my excitement knowing I’ll be seeing one of my favourite artists in the world.

Through my boy, I got to meet Bilal at the MTVBase gig that took place at Chrome on Friday night. He was so cool and collected, which enhanced my adulation of the musician. We even exchange tweets after the meeting. By coincidence, as we left Chrome, walking pass Pepper Club hotel where the artists were staying, there he was with his manager (who’s also a cool dude), Rachelle Ferrell and a few locals talking about their experiences in Cape Town so far. Now, I had met Rachelle earlier. She was also a bubble of positive energy and ball of kindness. These traits displayed by the visitors made it easier for us to join in the enlightening conversation. Could our day get any more dope?

My next encounter with Bilal was on Saturday at the press conference. After the press conference I actually got to have a one-on-one interview with him (would have posted already but ran through some difficulties with the audio clips when the interview was edited).

The reason most of the people had come for was to see the man perform live. He was supposed to perform at the young and trendy Bassline stage, but due to gale-force winds, the stage was destroyed. This proved a blessing in disguise because he ended performing at the massive Rosies stage that had seen powerhouses like George Benson, Jonathan Butler, Vusi Mahlasela, and Rachelle Ferrell (Bilal actually gave us an astounding preview as he did a duet with Rachelle a few hours before) doing what they are best know for. Bilal’s show was simply electrifying! What a momentous and brilliant experience! He commands the stage and performs like a true rockstar he is. There was a point where he seemed like he was possessed by some musical spirits where he ended up humping one of the speakers, to the audience’s delight of course.

This is one of the moments I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. From meeting him on Friday, to hanging out outside the hotel later that night (or is it the following morning, I’m sure it was in the wee hours of Saturday morning), to the brief interaction at the press conference and then the one-to-one conversation, to the ultimate concert experience. I definitely would like to see him do the magic again.