Young South Africans who are used to hearing their parents and grandparents mention the names of their favourite jazz musicians with reverence may conclude that “jazz is for old people”.
But the rebellious genius of Hugh Masekela, Kippie Moeketsi, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Jonas Gwangwa would suggest otherwise – and a new generation of youthful maestros has come to the fore, showing that the love of jazz is for everyone.
One could add many other names to the list above, each of the iconic figures in South African and global jazz history. What makes them especially remarkable is that these musicians came to prominence against the odds.
Our country would have produced even more jazz greats were it not for the political, social, and economic constraints of apartheid.
We know that the legacy of this oppression has stunted the dreams of all kinds of artists in the post-apartheid period. But South African jazz has thrived over the past three decades.
It is not simply that subsequent generations of musos have been able to draw inspiration from their forebears – standing on the shoulders of jazz giants – although this is certainly a factor.
The key has been the development of a jazz talent pipeline that ensures young artists are supported as they launch their professional careers.
Arguably the central and most consistent feature here is Standard Bank’s sponsorship of jazz. There is the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown). There is a jazz category in the Standard Bank Young Artists Award program.
Since 1992, there has been the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival. This platform for young musicians is an annual rite of passage, including workshops and auditions that lead to the selection of the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band (SBNYJB).
From Kesivan Naidoo to Siya Makuzeni, and from Tutu Pouane to Kyle Shepherd, the contemporary South African jazz scene is full of artists whose early careers were shaped by their experiences as members of the SBNYJB.
The “class of 2021”, which was chosen via online auditions, comprised musicians from Gauteng and the Western Cape: Dane Paris (drums), Brathew van Schalkwyk (piano), Ofentse Moses Sebula (tenor Sax), Jed Petersen (tenor Sax), Michael Lefa (trumpet), Lezaam Beets (trombone) and Rorisang Sechele (voice).
These rising stars had the good fortune to be mentored by Nduduzo Makhathini, the 2021 SBNYJB conductor, himself a trailblazer as a former Standard Bank Young Artist. The band has selected a name change for themselves: instead of being a six-letter acronym, they will be known as Shuri.
This new name borrows the Japanese word for village, alluding to the African idiom, “It takes a village to raise a child”.
Makhathini was adamant that Shuri should make an album, and Standard Bank agreed to support the initiative and make this dream a reality. And so it was that in March 2022, the band went into the recording studio to create Koma: A Songbook Through the Years. Soon to be released, the album includes music written, composed, and arranged by Makhathini, as “reimagined” and performed by Shuri.
It also features sensational singer-songwriter Simphiwe Nhlangulela, AKA Simmy. The future looks bright for the young jazz virtuosos of Shuri. Makhathini believes that this album will help to give them and their fellow musicians a stronger “belief in tomorrow”, but he also lives by the credo “Don’t wait for tomorrow , How about now!” And it looks like Koma will prove that there’s no better time than now to be an aspiring South African jazz great.