Some RESOURCES on South African Jazz
We focus on out of print South African, and other African music that is very difficult to find.
Ian Bruce Huntley captured more than 1500 South African jazz-related images and recorded and preserved in excess of 56 hours of reel-to-reel audio of jazz performed in Cape Town over the period 1964-1974. This site aims to make Ian’s jazz archive accessible, opening a window on a little-known era, an ‘underground’ scene that persisted in creative defiance of all that grand apartheid threw at it.
In 2008 music researcher Colin Miller together with publisher Nick Green of jazz.co.za, released the first ever sheet music collection of Cape Jazz compositions arranged by Jannie van Tonder, entitled the Cape Jazz Collection. The tunes included in this anthology are a modest part of the large body of music composed by some of Cape Town's premier jazz musicians. These include Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Merton Barrow, Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen who, among others, are household names in South African jazz. Though the genre existed long before official Apartheid, it has become a popular belief that these musicians provided anthems of resistance, challenged the Apartheid State through cultural activism and kept their fans dancing through the 1980s towards electoral freedom in the early 1990s.
Post-1994 saw the emergence of younger musicians, equally dedicated to the promotion of local music. Due to a new political dispensation, they had increased opportunities for professionalism in music. Among these are Paul Hanmer, Mark Fransman and Buddy Wells, whose compositions are also included in the Cape Jazz Collection.
Some important South African Jazz Musicians:
Jazz Photographs:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/rashid-lombard
https://africasacountry.com/2014/04/an-important-recording-of-jazz
Top 10 SA jazz albums - Tony McGregor
https://spinditty.com/genres/Top-10-albums-of-the-South-African-jazz-diaspora-Tonys-picks
Why we need a South African jazz photography archive by Rafs Mayet
https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-30-why-we-need-a-south-african-jazz-photography-archive/
- How did Jazz develop in South Africa? by Hotep Galeta
- Information on the South African Association for Jazz Education (SAJE)
- SAJE - Resources page
- Information on CAPE JAZZ
- Information about JISA - Jazz in South Africa
- Information on Electric Jive Blogspot
We focus on out of print South African, and other African music that is very difficult to find.
- Information on Keeping Time: Photographs and Cape Town Jazz Recordings 1964-1974
Ian Bruce Huntley captured more than 1500 South African jazz-related images and recorded and preserved in excess of 56 hours of reel-to-reel audio of jazz performed in Cape Town over the period 1964-1974. This site aims to make Ian’s jazz archive accessible, opening a window on a little-known era, an ‘underground’ scene that persisted in creative defiance of all that grand apartheid threw at it.
- Information on sisgwenjazz - blogspot by Gwen Ansell
- South African Music
- Information on Mountain Records started by Paddy Lee Thorpe in 1980
- Information on the Cape Jazz Collection
In 2008 music researcher Colin Miller together with publisher Nick Green of jazz.co.za, released the first ever sheet music collection of Cape Jazz compositions arranged by Jannie van Tonder, entitled the Cape Jazz Collection. The tunes included in this anthology are a modest part of the large body of music composed by some of Cape Town's premier jazz musicians. These include Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Merton Barrow, Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen who, among others, are household names in South African jazz. Though the genre existed long before official Apartheid, it has become a popular belief that these musicians provided anthems of resistance, challenged the Apartheid State through cultural activism and kept their fans dancing through the 1980s towards electoral freedom in the early 1990s.
Post-1994 saw the emergence of younger musicians, equally dedicated to the promotion of local music. Due to a new political dispensation, they had increased opportunities for professionalism in music. Among these are Paul Hanmer, Mark Fransman and Buddy Wells, whose compositions are also included in the Cape Jazz Collection.
Some important South African Jazz Musicians:
- Bheki Mseleku
- Moses Molelekwa
- Zim Ngqawana
- Hugh Masekela
- Abdullah Ibrahim
Jazz Photographs:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/rashid-lombard
https://africasacountry.com/2014/04/an-important-recording-of-jazz
Top 10 SA jazz albums - Tony McGregor
https://spinditty.com/genres/Top-10-albums-of-the-South-African-jazz-diaspora-Tonys-picks
Why we need a South African jazz photography archive by Rafs Mayet
https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-30-why-we-need-a-south-african-jazz-photography-archive/