Auriol Hays 8th Album Launch At Selective Live

he has the knack to astound, and quite often her sound defies categorization’. Zakes Mda

With seven albums under her belt she effortlessly manages to deliver iconic

songs from each musical offering. In June 2019, Ms Hays opened for triple

award winning musician and producer Ben Harper, and in 2021 was the

only South African artist chosen to be part of the Commonwealth of

Learning Virtual Celebrations, focused in addressing increasing

inequalities. Ms Hays was chosen as one of 12 artists, to participate in the

Tankwa Artscape residency in the desert in March 2022. Her 7th album Silk

and Gravel was sponsored by SAMPRA and her 8th and 9th

, After Dusk and Fool’s Gold will be released at the end October funded by SAMRO. She also

participated in the Plettenberg Land Art Festival in September 2023.

Turn Up the Volume and Take it Slow were the two chart topping tracks off

her debut album Behind Closed Doors. A Better Man from her deeply

intimate Call It Love Anima Sola sophomore release. Her Deep Hays album,

collaboration with Rowick Deep, delivered two unforgettable songs that

can still be heard on the dance floors, Deeper Than the Ocean and Rhythm

Sublime. Dreaming Music was no different. She astounded her audience

with her own rendition of Sipho Hotstix Mabuse’s “Burn Out, thereby

making the song entirely her own. “Child Atone”, featuring Riaan Smit from

Crimson House Blues contained, as Zakes Mda said, ‘resonances of the

American Deep South of slavery and Uncle Tom, of tamed field hollers and

ceremonial chants. Auriol’s blues vocals here will surely wake Ma Rainey

from her grave.’

Ms Hays is no mere jazz singer. She is a musical storyteller, a sonorous shaman, a songwriter above all else whose musical and emotive range is influenced by a plethora of sounds. And all her music rendered is done so in a voice entirely and completely her own. She released various singles from her fifth musical release, TENtation, in 2018, and gave audiences a taste of her new material during an intimate performance in 2023 at Selective Live.

Doors Open at 5pm and show starts at 8pm.