NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Cape Jazz

Cape Jazz is a genre of Jazz, similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character, which is performed in the southern part of Africa. Where marabi is a piano jazz style, this music depends (though not exclusively) on instruments that can be carried in a street parade, such as brass instruments, banjos, guitars and percussion instruments. Marabi is an indigenous music that evolved in South Africa over the last century. ...

The Cape part of the name, refers to Cape Town, South Africa. The leading exponents of this style are pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and saxophonists Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen. These three, together with bassist Paul Michaels, drummer Monty Weber and sax man Morris Goldberg, recorded the seminal Cape Jazz song, "Mannenberg" in the early 1970s. Nickname: Motto: Spes Bona (Latin for Good Hope) Location of the City of Cape Town in Western Cape Province Coordinates: , Country Province Municipality City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality Founded 1652 Government [1] - Type City council - Mayor Helen Zille - City manager Achmat Ebrahim Area - City 2,499 kmÂ² (964. ... Abdullah Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand, formally known as Dollar Brand (from a popular brand of matches), is a South African pianist and composer who was born in Cape Town in 1934. ... Basil Manenberg Coetzee (2 February 1944 _ 11 March 1998) was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Morris Goldberg. ...

One of the main inspirations behind Cape Jazz comes from the folk songs sung by people descended from the former slave communities living in the Western Cape, known loosely as the Cape Coloured or Cape Malay people. A street carnival parade or Mardi Gras (also called the Coon Carnival) is held each year peaking on the 2nd of January. This event is the culmination of months of musical and dance rehearsal and community-based competitions, by various mostly mix race folk, and was known as Tweede Nuwe Jaar (Afrikaans). The performers known as Klopse, borrowed the painted faces and bright consumes of the minstrel show style of New Orleans (now USA) and combined this with African and European music which was to be heard in the taverns and night clubs of the port city. The Cape Coloureds are modern-day descendants of slaves imported into South Africa by Dutch settlers. ... The Cape Malays are an ethnic group who can claim descent from slaves brought to South Africa from Indonesia starting from 1667. ... For other uses, see Mardi Gras (disambiguation). ... The Coon Carnival is a yearly minstrel festival in Cape Town, South Africa. ... Klopse may refer to: KÃ¶ck-Sucker Klopse, Quite an extroidinary being when it comes to sucking KÃ¶ck. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ...

Some of this music is also more recently known as Goema, or Ghoema Jazz, referring to a particular wooden barrel shaped Asian style drum (also known in the Cape as a Ghomma) played by the revelers in the troupes in the aforementioned parade. Goema, also written Ghomma and Gomma, is a type of hand drum used in the Coon Carnival and in Cape Jazz in Cape Town. ...

There is a new generation of Cape Jazz musicians of which the band called The Goema Captains are a good example. The group features Mac McKenzie and Hilton Schilder who have brought greater improvisational elements to this music. They have literally re-arranged Cape Traditional songs and jazzed them up. Another example is The Cape Jazz Band, an all star ensemble drawing its players from different groups performing in Cape Town. Other leading names in the genre are, pianist, Tony Schilder, guitarist, Errol Dyers and saxophonist, Winston Mankunku.

The first commercial record reference to Cape Jazz is on the label compilation of Mountain Records artists released in 1993. The album collects the work of several of the label’s acts over a 12-year period beginning in 1981. The thematic similarity in the compositions, all of which are original, very clearly illustrates this genre. Mountain Records is a record label started in Cape Town, South Africa in 1980 by Patrick Lee-Thorp. ...

In September 2006 a project was launched with a concert promoted by the Arts and Culture department of the South African Government, entitled The Cape Town Jazz Orchestra. This event brought together 16 musicians from all over South Africa to perform arrangements of works by different jazz composers including the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, who also performed at the concert, and a piece dedicated to and inspired by the late Basil Coetzee. Abdullah Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand, formally known as Dollar Brand (from a popular brand of matches), is a South African pianist and composer who was born in Cape Town in 1934. ...

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