Cape Jazz

2 profiles tagged Cape Jazz, A-Z.

Cape jazz emerged in Cape Town, South Africa, beginning in the late 1950s, most notably with the formation of the short-lived group the Jazz Epistles, as musicians combined American jazz idioms with local South African styles such as marabi, mbaqanga, and the Cape's own langarm dance-band tradition. It is marked by lyrical, often hymn-like melodies, cyclical vamping grooves, and a blending of jazz harmony with indigenous Cape musical influences drawn from the region's mixed cultural heritage. Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand), whose composition Mannenberg became an anti-apartheid anthem, is the genre's central and most internationally recognized figure, alongside saxophonists Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen.