Disclaimer This timeline covers a sampling of major political, social, and cultural events in South Africa, with special emphasis on apartheid and South African jazz. It does not purport to provide a ...

It’s always fascinating to hear how musicians from other countries have taken “America’s music” — Jazz — and adapted it to suit their ethnic and cultural heritage. This is especially true when one ...

Mohamed was born on December 10, 1949 in the working-class gold-mining town of Benoni in South Africa. By his mid-teens, the ...

Duke Ellington rejected it, Charles Mingus was ambivalent about it, and Wynton Marsalis is okay with it. For many African American musicians the word “jazz” is a double-edged term, sometimes ...

While there are those who place flowers upon graves to honour the dead, others dust off the archives to reissue the music of an artist lost to time. Pianist Gideon Nxumalo, who died in 1970, was ...

On June 13 the sad news arrived that legendary South African drummer and composer Louis Moholo-Moholo had passed away at 85 after a long illness. Louis, “Tebogo,” Bra Louis, as he was variously and ...

As the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) builds toward its 23rd edition in 2026, the globally recognised event is extending its footprint beyond the main stage with one of its ...

South African musical icon Pops Mohamed, a master multi-instrumentalist, died on 4 December 2025. His passing leaves a void ...

Genre-defying musical prodigy Jacob Collier will headline the 23rd Cape Town International Jazz Festival in March 2026, ...

On stage, South African pianist/vocalist Nduduzo Makhathini is less interested in playing music than in repairing the world, performing sonic rituals that nurture, heal and transform audiences and ...