Description
Belgian soul man N8N (Nathan Ambach) brings international flavour and a whole lot of funk to Cape Town. From London’s Ronnie Scott’s to the Blue Note stages of Beijing and Shanghai, this singer, DJ, drummer and born entertainer has taken his groove around the world. He sang with Michael Jackson as a child. He organised the aftershows for Prince and opened for Seal, Simply Red and Macy Gray. Expect a soulful live session where jazz meets blues, funk gets loose, and every tune comes with a little starlight.
He has also lived in Cape Town for years, and most people here have never seen him sing.
SeekArt presents N8N at Cape Town Jazz Club on Thursday 12 November. Two sets of his own songs with a four-piece band, then he moves to the decks.
N8N (pronounced Nathan) was born in Antwerp and has spent twenty-five years in front of a microphone and twenty-five behind a pair of turntables. The singing is soul and funk, drawn from his own catalogue, including Losing Control, On & On, Baby Blue, Lost Soul and Relax & Watch Me Work, cut with Detroit’s Amp Fiddler. The DJing is the other half of him: hip-hop, neo soul, disco and house, a craft that has taken him to Tomorrowland more than once, to afterparties for Prince, Nile Rodgers & Chic and The Roots, and onto bills with DJ Jazzy Jeff, Questlove, DJ Premier and Mark Ronson. Since 2019 he has been resident DJ and music curator at Athletic Club & Social.
The band is four of Cape Town’s finest. Bradley Prince on guitar, who plays for Jimmy Nevis and Tarryn Lamb and holds the guitar chair on musical theatre runs around South Africa and Asia. Nicholas Williams on bass, who has played with Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer, Beatenberg and Tresor and released his own album Light and Dark. Marlon Witbooi on drums, long-time Blu Bamboo resident, who has played behind Melanie Scholtz, Marcus Wyatt and Mango Groove. Blake Hellaby on keys, Nathan’s music director at Starlight. He was Mandisi Dyantyis’s first pianist and played on both Somandla and Cwaka, and was selected for the inaugural Cape Town International Jazz Festival Jazz Orchestra. He has produced, mixed and mastered records for Koos Kombuis, Jimmy Nevis and Lea Venga, and released the visual album Another Perspective and the studio album #NotJazz.
Thursday 12 November 2026
Cape Town Jazz Club, Bokeh, 11 Warwick Street, Claremont
18:30 Doors
20:00 First set
21:15 Second set
22:00 Finish
General admission: R250
Students: R150, limited to 30, student card required at the door
Early bird: R200, first 10 tickets only
