The cultural resilience of a creole city
On this month’s AIAC Radio we head to Cape Town to understand how this creole city's musical culture resisted containment throughout history. Listen on Worldwide FM and follow us on Mixcloud.
Abdullah Ibrahim
The hands played by themselves
Basil Breakey's photographs serves as an important recording of South Africa jazz music in the 1960s and 1970s.
South African Jazz for Nelson Mandela
A playlist of jazz tunes dedicated to South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela.
Remembering Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima had the unique ability to strike first at your heart, not unlike the experience of hearing Billie Holiday for the first time.
Kyle Shepherd X
The pianist, Kyle Shepherd, loathes labels, especially of him as the architect or savior of Cape Jazz, the music associated with Cape Town.
A voice that is incessantly in exile
South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's life complicates jazz history and shows how Africans reshaped American jazz in the 20th century.
What joy sounds like in German
Bonus music break: Abdullah Ibrahim, John Tchicai, Gato Barbieri, Barre Phillips and Makaya Ntshoko performing live on German public television in 1968.
Steve Bloom photographs 1970s Cape Town
The London Festival of Photography has opened, and one of its most appealing features is an
Louis Moholo’s drum
On a recent trip to London I was hoping to catch a performance by Cape Town
Nicolas Jaar covers Abdullah Ibrahim
From May this year: “… an unrehearsed, first-take cut” of Nicolas Jaar‘s remix (recorded in London)
When Thelonious Monk first met Dollar Brand
By 1964, Dollar Brand (later Abdullah Ibrahim) had already made 3 LP's as a bandleader. He was living in Switzerland and had just gotten a boost from Duke Ellington.
South African music is more than Graceland
What often gets lost within the narratives of oppression and exile is that the 1960s and 1970s also proved to be an exceptionally vibrant and creative period.
Let Robeson Sing
Manic Street Preachers pay homage to the greatest American of the first half of the twentieth century, Paul Robeson. The music video by Nigerian Andrew Dosunmu is a tribute too.
The Cape Doctor
Robbie Jansen is a key figure in what is referred to as South African, especially Cape Town, jazz.