As we journey towards the 16th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival at the end of March, it’s a fitting time to learn – or relearn – a unique language. Immerse yourself in the musical vernacular of the Cape.
The Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), the largest music event in sub-Saharan Africa, comes to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on 27 and 28 March. The lineup, a 50-50 split between local and international musicians, includes Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter Amel Larrieux and Bänz Oester & the Rainmakers, a Swiss-South African jazz collaboration.
And as a thank you to the music-loving people of Cape Town for hosting one of the world’s grandest festivals, the organisers are staging a free community concert featuring some of its performers in the heart of the Central City, Greenmarket Square.
Though the spotlight will shine brightly on the foreign acts, local ambassadors will, as always, also proudly take centre stage to remind us of Cape Town’s rich musical heritage, which tourists flock here to experience.
Greater than the sum of its recorded parts
Cape Town has had many sounds and musical influences wash up on its shores. But Cape creole jazz has roots in local soil, with the Khoekhoe having laid down the basic rhythm track with their goema drums. South-migrating Africans later locked in with their bass sounds, and the Dutch and British settlers then brought their folk tunes and marching military bands. Strong influences also came from the colonies where the Dutch sourced slaves – Mozambique, western India and the Indonesian islands, to name a few – and the Moravian missionaries prior to British colonial rule, whose brass instruments remain, along with banjos, the Kaapse Klopse’s loudest call to action at Tweede Nuwe Jaar. In fact, it’s perhaps New Orleans minstrel music, with its colourful costumes and face makeup, and American jazz standards, blasted on radios and turntables throughout District Six in the mid-20th century, that informed the local vernacular the most.
Legend has it that as a young man in District Six, Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Adolphus Brand) always had a dollar in his pocket to buy a jazz record from sailors at the Port of Cape Town. He was nicknamed Dollar Brand and his record collection inspired a wealth of out-of-this-world sounds. Today he is among many celebrated Capetonian jazz pioneers: Tete Mbambisa, Hotep Galeta, Mark Fransman, Chris McGregor and Hilton Schilder, who also made their mark on piano; Winston Mankunku, Robbie Jansen and Basil Coetzee, who rocked the sax; and Errol Dyers, Jonathan Butler, Mac McKenzie, Jimmy Dludlu and Selaelo Selota, who became leading local exponents of the dissonant guitar chord phrasings associated with the genre.
Inevitably, jazz turned darker during the later days of apartheid, when social dissonance made songs political statements – think Hugh Masekela’s “Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)”, a track from his seminal Grazing in the Grass album that Madiba used as his calling card when he was released from prison.
Today, Cape jazz is alive, screaming and blazing new trails throughout the country and overseas: just listen to the influence of the Cape dialect in the likes of Hot Water and Mi Casa. To understand the sounds, take a tour through the Central City, where a few musical institutions are still speaking this language of the Mother City.
Kneeling at the altar of jazz
For a little live jazz, from sultry singers to 19-piece big bands, book at The Crypt under St George’s Cathedral. They frequently host Cape acts. Their February gig guide is available on their website. Founded by renowned SA jazz artists and aficionados Derk Blaisse, Mike Rossi, Wesley Rustin, Spencer Mbadu and Diane Rossi – and endorsed by the cathedral’s dean, Michael Weeder – himself a jazz lover, this is a meeting place for cats of all creeds. Derk says opening in the Cape Town CBD was a no-brainer as it’s the centre of a vibrant, musical city where people are “almost born musicians”.
1 Wale St | www.thecryptjazz.com, 079 683 4658
The Slave Church Museum, in association with the Cape Culture Collective, puts on gigs on the last Friday of every month – though not always jazz. Keep an eye on www.zajazz.net for upcoming shows.
40 Long St
Record collecting
The African Music Store invites you in from the pavement with African rhythms. The store stocks the greats such as Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonathan Butler, but also self-produced albums by unknown artists. “If you make it, I’ll try to sell it,” says owner Mark Charnas, proudly proclaiming that you will find music in his shop that you’ll find nowhere else in the world. Before you skip to the next track, ask Mark for a musical recommendation and listen in store. If you fancy yourself the next David Kramer, you can even buy an oil-can guitar.
134 Long St | 021 426 0857
Special thanks to Derk Blaisse and Diane Rossi of The Crypt for their input in this article, which first appeared in the February/March 2015 issue of City Views. Read it online.
Words: Brent Smith
Photo: Diane Rossi