The late Sathima Bea Benjamin, jazz singer and composer, has a track on As-Shams Archive Volume 1.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
The legendary As-Shams jazz label has released the first of several compilation albums recovered from its archive.
Detail from the cover of Isambulo by saxophonist and composer Linda Sikhakhane.
Tseliso Monaheng/Linda Sikhakhane
Zulu spirituality and the legacy of the ancestors, personal and musical, are the concerns of the saxophonist and composer.
Shane Cooper (striped shirt) with his Mabuta band members.
Photo by Aidan Tobias courtesy Shane Cooper
The album Follow the Sun shows how South African jazz draws from diversity to speak fluidly across borders.
Gilbert Matthews during an interview a few years before his death.
Aryan Kaganof
His talent took him across the world - he was Ray Charles’ regular drummer - and the music he was exposed to sparked innovation when he returned home.
Dorothy Masuku composed and recorded close to 30 singles, several of which achieved major hit status.
Madelene Cronje/ Mail & Guardian
Songstress Dorothy Masuku once told South Africa’s public broadcaster that music was like breathing for her.
Jonas Gwangwa performing in Germany in 2010.
EPA
South African jazz veteran Jonas Gwangwa has been getting recognition for the pivotal role he played in ‘singing down apartheid.’
Hugh Masekela performing during the 16th Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
Esa Alexander/The Times
South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela made an impact across the world during his decades-long musical career.
Sathima Bea Benjamin was seldom recognised during her lifetime as a performer.
Ian Bruce Huntley
It took ages for one of African jazz’s hidden masterpieces to be reissued. Still today, four decades later, 1976’s ‘African Songbird’ tells volumes about the politics of the time.