He spent seven years performing all over the world with SA music legend Johnny Clegg, but after nearly five months of lockdown Dan Shout has gone back to basics, busking on Sea Point promenade in Cape Town.

The saxophonist said he had been “blown away” by the reception his trio received “for coming out and doing something as opposed to being defeatist and staying at home doing nothing”.

Shout, bass player Sean Sanby and drummer Jonno Sweetman entertained people exercising on the promenade on Friday afternoon, and collected “grocery shopping cash” in a container labelled, “No gigs, no libations, we welcome donations”.

The Busking Mission Trio had decided that “rather than sit around doing nothing, we'd come and make some music”, said Shout, who played the saxophone and keyboard in Clegg's band between 2006 and 2013.

“There are a lot of people who haven't heard music, live musicians, for five months,” said Shout.

“I also think it's been doing some great stuff to raise awareness as to how many musicians, artists, stage hands, booking agents, you name it, have their hands tied at the moment because of lockdown.”

TimesLIVE