Brian Thusi (trumpet, flugel horn, harmonica, voice) from Umlazi, outside Durban, has a doctorate in Music from the University of Zululand and has been a stalwart in South African jazz for decades. He is known for his poignant performances in ...

Trumpeter Brian Thusi has played with most of the greats in South African jazz, including the African Jazz Pioneers, Sipho Gumede, Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Darius Brubeck and Caiphas Semenya, and he is thus perfectly placed to present a tribute to ...

For the first time we hear two of Cape Town's premier guitarists - Alvin Dyers and David Ledbetter - in concert together. Alvin Dyers makes a welcome return to Grahamstown after an absence of nearly a decade, bringing his fluid ...

Acclaimed Parisian pianist Carine Bonnefoy makes her first South African appearance with a stellar collection of musicians. While Bonnefoy's ancestry lies in Tahiti, she embraces a range of musical trends and has worked with African, European and Caribbean musicians. It ...

Vocalist Deborah Tanguy, based in Paris, is a leading young jazz and improvising music artist in contemporary France. She is an accomplished and award-winning performer in a variety of musical styles, including mainstream and contemporary jazz, funk, big band and ...

Don Laka (piano) needs no introduction to South African audiences, and he has been a performer, composer and producer for nearly four decades, in that time building the Kwaai-Jazz brand - an eclectic musical fusion of classical, traditional, modern and ...

Don Laka (piano) needs no introduction to South African audiences, and he has been a performer, composer and producer for nearly four decades, in that time building the Kwaai-Jazz brand - an eclectic musical fusion of classical, traditional, modern and ...

We open this year’s Festival with a suitably powerful collaboration between an unorthodox Norwegian trio and two of South Africa’s jazz stars. Excess Luggage showcases the uncommon line-up of Hammond B3 organ, piano and drums and combines the groovy feel ...

Gavin Minter has been performing professionally for nearly three decades and his warm voice has graced the nation's airwaves regularly during that time, singing all types of music. His first big break came with the pop band Wired to the ...

The career of tenor saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu is a brief lesson in the history of South African jazz. From an early start on trumpet in Soweto he moved onto sax as a teenager and joined the Afro-pop band Harari that ...

The career of tenor saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu is a brief lesson in the history of South African jazz. From an early start on trumpet in Soweto he moved onto sax as a teenager and joined the Afro-pop band Harari that ...

For decades there has been musical interaction between South Africa and Norway and trumpeter Arne Hiorth's North Sea Big Band - an innovative combination of professionals and students from both countries, drawing on compositions and arrangements from the respective music ...

Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz 2010, vocalist Melanie Scholtz, teams up with violinist Samson Diamond, Standard Bank Young Artist for Music 2010, in an exploration of light classical and jazz repertoire. Both musicians have excelled in their formal Classical ...

The piano trio is the quintessential vehicle for expression in jazz and pianist Bokani Dyer, Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz 2011, is a master in this format. The simplicity of the ensemble allows him the space to show his ...

Guitarist, composer and producer Selaelo Selota grew up in a rural village near Polokwane, and in 1997 he graduated from UCT with a Jazz Degree, majoring in Jazz Composition and Improvisation. In 2001 he collected two South African Music Awards ...

Selaelo Selota (guitar) returns, featuring one of South Africa's leading vibraphone and marimba players - Ngwako Manamela - who boasts a career of over three decades of performance and recordings with musicians including Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Zim Ngqawana and ...

British saxophonist and MC/rapper Soweto Kinch is one of the most exciting and versatile young musicians to hit the British music scene in recent years and he is one of only a few artists whose appeal traverses underground and mainstream ...

Britain’s most cutting-edge MC and saxophonist, Soweto Kinch, struts his stuff in front of a killer line-up of serious South African jazz players - Bokani Dyer (piano), David Ledbetter (guitar), Shane Cooper (bass) and Kesivan Naidoo (drums) – for a ...

The Standard Bank National Schools' Big Band will show you the strides being made in the jazz education programmes in high schools around South Africa. The band brings together the best young school players in the country under the guidance ...

The Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band is this year led by one of South Africa's leading jazz musicians and educators - McCoy Mrubata - who will put a small elite combo of the nation's very best young players under ...

Pianist Bokani Dyer, Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz 2011, is a very impressive young musician, technically skilled beyond his years and artistically creative in a wide array of jazz genres. He grew up in Botswana, went to school in ...

Guitarist David Ledbetter made his first mark on the Jazz Festival in Grahamstown nearly two decades ago as leader of the very funky young group of UCT Jazz School graduates The Truly Fully Hey Shoo Wow Band, who stole the ...

The Ploctones is the vehicle for Anton Goudsmit, a highly innovative Dutch guitarist whose playing spans all conceivable guitar styles and whose infectious stage presence will stay with you long after the gig. In the past year he won the ...

Vocalist Tutu Puoane has a long history in Grahamstown: as a UCT Jazz student she was selected for the National Youth Big Band in 1999 that toured to New York, and she returned to the Festival in 2004 as the ...

Vocalist Tutu Puoane has a long history in Grahamstown: as a UCT Jazz student she was selected for the National Youth Big Band in 1999 that toured to New York, and she returned to the Festival in 2004 as the ...

Get ready for some serious fun! Danish sestet Wonderbrazz will definitely get your feet tapping and your head bopping with their hip mix of soul, funk and jazz from three powerful horns and a super-tight rhythm section. They have performed ...