Lorraine Klaasen

Born in South Africa, Lorraine Klaasen is a famous African vocalist who has been living in Montreal for the last decade. She is a great songstress and a performer of many talents. Her showbiz career started when she was 10 singing with her mother, Tandi Klaasen, a famous jazz singer known throughout South Africa.

Lorraine has entertained music lovers all over Europe and North America and is much in demand for television performances and other engagements. She has starred is such productions as The Black Mikado (in which she played the lead), Jesus Christ Superstar and Sola Sola, a show that took her to Israel and Greece. She produced African Broadway, in 1986, an ambitious variety show with 15 musicians and dancers.

Klaasen’s performances have mesmerised all jazz and African music lovers with her lively repertoire and her dynamic onstage choreography. Her music blends influences from the smooth soukous sound of Zaire to the earthy Soweto township jive in a pan-African approach. She adds the jazz, pop and rhythm and blues styles she has picked up in North America in a musical mix of world beat. Lyrics are in French, Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa or English. Her first album, Soweto Groove, was released in France, Holland and Italy in 1988; it was an instant hit and is still doing well.

In 1994, her first CD Free At Last got rave reviews that went beyond Canadian borders to the United States, the Caribbean and Europe. This CD is a celebration of the new freedom of the people of South Africa; it reveals Lorraine’s exceptional vocal power and offers an infectious mix of rhythms arranged with exuberance and style.

Lorraine Klaasen journeyed to the Caribbean for the first time to perform at the Barbados Jazz Festival in 1996 where she was such a hit that the organisers of the festival immediately asked her back for more. In January 1997, she returned to Barbados for a command performance with such great stars as Patti Labelle, Roberta Flack, Grover Washington Jr., Al Jarreau and Nicholas Brancker.

She returned to South Africa in 1995 on an extensive four month tour where she shared the stage with her mother Tandi. They both performed in Cape Town City Hall, accompanied by the 119 musicians of the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. This dynamic duo also took Johannesburg by storm with their Together At Last performance at the Civic Theatre, in the company of the Dorkay House African Jazz Pioneers. She just returned again from her mother country, where she collected more South African rhythms for her coming CD and is currently working on its completion. Created in cooperation with famous musicians, this CD will reflect the beat and rhythm of the new South Africa. The album is set for release in August.

Lorraine is a regular performer at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and has participated in many festivals across Canada including at AfroFest in 1990. In 1997 she was awarded the Martin Luther King Award, a prestigious award given to those who have contributed to the awareness of their culture and the sharing their heritage.

Lorraine Klaasen performed at AfroFest in1990 and 1998.