Wednesday, 19th March 2008, DOUBLE FEATURE: Rocco de Villiers & Anna Davel

In our special Bravo Brava double feature tonight, Rocco de Villiers, the famous South African pianist, producer, author and cocktail connoisseur appears as our Personality of the Week. In the course of the evening the listener will be able to share in Rocco’s passions, performances and, also his past.

You can listen to his music and hear about his cd's, cocktail books, wine label and merchandise range.

And, it all started with his first album, Screen Test, in the winter of 1997. After that he became a roccoholic, arranging and producing 21 CD recordings, appearing as pianist and musical director and arranger in 62 stage productions, composing music for 9 televison and radio series, as well as hosting a 13 part television series dealing with cooking, cocktails and piano music.

Last year Rocco paid tribute to the most flamboyant entertainer ever: pianist Liberace. During this interview we hear all about the the furs, the rings, the candelabra, the thousands of notes, the witty lines, the beautiful tunes and the band. The show is Las Vegas, but also Africa. The show is Liberace, but also Liberocco. Music includes the Warsaw Concerto, Rhapsody in Blue, Jealousy Tango, Moonlight Sonata, Chopsticks, Tango from 'Scent of a Woman', and many more diamond-draped tunes!
Rocco writes a monthly column in the men’s magazine. MANWEES, titled "single or double?" Rocco writes about the alcohol industry and visit bars, talk about cures for hangovers, what famous people drink etcetera. http://www.manwees.co.za/
Rocco has just released an instrumental rock and blues CD called If Freud Knew the Steps. This is a first for South Africa and promises to "roc" your world. All the music is original and Rocco's own compositions. It is inspired by current issues with titles such as "on the street where Katrina lives", "urban legend" and "tango for two saints and a pregnant woman". Listen to samples on the cd page or http://www.mp3.com/
Rocco is an avid art collector and he owns works by Penny Siopis, Jeremy Wafer, Bronwen Findlay, Peter Schutz, Paul Edmunds and Clive van den Berg. For info on South African art and artists, visit http://www.goodman-gallery.com/

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:
28, 29 March: one rocco, one piano ABSA KKNK, Oudtshoorn, Computicket
2 May: one rocco, one piano Music in the Mountains, Winterton Computicket
2 - 4 May LIBEROCCO Rhumbelow Theatre, Durban. Book at 031 205 7602 / 082 449 8636
4 May Nelson Mandela Birthday Concert Artscape Opera House. Computicket
13 - 31 May one rocco, one piano Theatre on the Bay, Cape Town Computicket
6 - 29 June one rocco, one piano Montecasino Theatre, Johannesburg Computicket

In the second half of BravoBrava this week - and as part of our special double feature, multi award-winning South African singer, Anna Davel, is our Personality of the Week on BravoBrava. She was the overall winner of the 1997 Crescendo the ATKV National Singing Competition. Her winning composition, Violets, addressed domestic violence and established her as song writer and singer. The next year, in 1998, Anna completed her diploma in light music and jazz at the Pretoria Technikon.
Later that same year she joined the group Cutt Glas and performed for 6 six consecutive years with this popular Acapella group. During this time the group released 3 albums and toured Portugal, Finland, London, China en Belgium.
Anna left the group at the end of 2003 to focus on her solo career and, since, many exciting things have been happening in her career.
Davel records both in Afrikaans and English and her fifth album, Raaisels, skepe & 1000 drome (Riddles, ships and 1001 dreams) was released last year. She also premiered her brand new show on this occasion and even made her debut in TV soapies!
In Egoli she played the sexy Anke and, along with Chris Cameleon, Gloria Bosman en Zwai Bala participated in the Ball Scene to celebrate the 1000th episode of SABC2’s 7de Laan, telecast to 1,6 million viewers.
In 2004 Anna wrote the music for View on the Highway, a musical theatre piece with Alexa Strachan and Roelof Colyn. In 2005 she followed this success with the music for the hit comedy Haar Hare, which played to full houses at the Aardklop National Arts Festival. She also played in another smash hit show, Al daai jazz at the KKNK. Amanda Strydom, Mynie Grove, Gloria Bosman, Karen Zoid and many other greats featured in this show. The production then toured South Africa.
Also in 2004, for the first time, Anna played the role of director and also performed in the show Ma’Divine. Her co-stars were Trix Pienaar, Elzabe Zietsman, Sarah Theron en Natalia da Rocha. This troupe received standing ovations at their concerts in Stellenbosch.
This success is followed up in 2005 with a dramatic/ singing tribute to Koos du Plessis. In this show, Nagkantoor, she was joined by Matthys Roets and Jannie du Toit and they played to 3000 people at the Big Top Arena at Carnival City.

Since 1992 Anna has written music for stars such as Elzabe Zietsman, the Zing!-winners Johnny en Vivian, Jannie du Toit, Christa Steyn and Herman van den Berg.

She released her first solo-album Te Diep (Too Deep) her own steam. This album became one of the top releases and was nominated for 3 awards.

Her 2nd album, Gypsy, was nominated for 8 awards and then went on to win:

Album of the Year
Best Contemporary Album
Best Sound Engineer
Best Producer
Best Song Writer
Best Cover Design
Best Female Vocalist

Her third album – Goddesses on a Dust Road - was awarded the 2006 SAMA Award.

For more information:

infoan@nadavel.com

http://www.annadavel.com/