Detail from the album cover of Group Theory: Black Music featuring a photograph by Andrew Tshabangu.
Mushroom Half Hour and New Soil Music
Group Theory: Black Music is the name of the new album from the composer, drummer and scholar. On it jazz meets political theory.
Nduduzo Makhathini’s new offering is called In the Spirit of Ntu.
Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The jazz star says he wants his piano to speak in his isiZulu language, and that his music is born from spiritual concerns.
Photo courtesy Simphiwe Dana
Moya is a show that seeks a spiritual awakening, especially after the trauma and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dolly Rathebe (centre) in detail of the album cover for Dolly Rathebe & Elite Swingsters.
Gallo Music Publishing
Her celebration of black life, black beauty and black humanity through her films and music was subversive.
Barney Rachabane on stage.
© Courtesy Rafs Mayet
The saxophone legend played much more than jazz - he delighted in layering styles and genres.
Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse has his photo taken by fellow musician Nhlanhla Mafu, in 2021.
Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Jazz star Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse has turned 70. In 50 years, his music career has come to help define South African politics and popular culture.
Tsepo Tshola during the memorial service of Hugh Masekela in 2018.
Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images
Schooled in music through church, he was driven by a fierce sense of belonging to Lesotho where he was born, and neighbouring South Africa.
Tsepo Tshola performs at A Night With Legends Live in Johannesburg in 2020.
Screengrab/Slice Events
For over 50 years Tshola was loved by audiences around the world for his rich baritone voice, which he used to inspire and to speak political truths.
Professor James Steven Mzilikazi Khumalo (1932-2021).
Courtesy Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro)
South Africa’s greatest composer was uniquely shaped by his early years of singing at traditional Zulu weddings and working in jazz bands and church choirs.
Steve Kekana in 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images
We should remember him as just another ordinary human being who did extraordinary things.
The late, legendary percussionist Mabi Thobejane pictured in 2018.
MELT 2000/Forest Jam Southern Africa
He did not so much play the drums, as become the drum. His influence was felt through his trailblazing percussive work and his many collaborations.
Zim Ngqawana (1959-2011) on saxophone leading his Zimology Quartet in New York, 2008.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
Despite devastating setbacks like his studio being vandalised, the saxophonist and teacher believed that music can heal - part of a vision that shaped a future generation of jazz artists.
Sibongile Khumalo performing in London in 2009.
Brigitte Engl/Redferns
She was the glue that bound younger artists together, helping them navigate the volatile terrain of the music industry.
Sibongile Khumalo performing in New York, 2007.
Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images
Both choirs and classical music were childhood influences on a stellar career that would leave behind major new recordings in these areas.
Sibongile Khumalo in New York in 2014, alongside McCoy Mrubata on tenor saxophone.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
She was a vocalist who sang in every style – from Carmen to UShaka – with equal mastery, popularising classical forms and epitomising ‘the new South Africa’.
Drummer Jason Moser records a live-streamed performance in a South African theatre during lockdown.
Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The plight of live music mapped in the new survey should concern anyone looking to the return of the country’s diverse live music scene.
A group of colleagues taking up the viral #JerusalemaDanceChallenge in Cape Town.
NIC BOTHMA/EPA-EFE
Like Pata-Pata, Homeless and Mbube, the song Jerusalema is elevated by a historical moment in time and has the power to cross over to different audiences.
Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba.
Courtesy Adilson Maiza for Fenómenos do Semba
During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.
Alon Skuy/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The artist’s body of work, through its very public focus on queer masculinity, offers alternative ways of thinking about what being a man is.
Sho Madjozi, who performed in a live stream benefit concert during lockdown.
Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The live streaming of music events online is full of potential – but right now few artists or hosting venues are earning much from it.