Ethiopian jazz musician Mulatu Astatke smiled as he held his arms aloft to acknowledge his audience for the last time. Last ...

In the roaring twenties, the world buzzed with jazz rhythms and a spirit of liberation. It was an era when African American artists found their creative voices and sought new horizons beyond the ...

At 64, McCoy Mrubata is a commanding presence on the South African jazz scene. A Cape Town native who now resides in Johannesburg along with his wife and four children, Mrubata has won many awards and ...

The history of jazz in South Africa is inextricably linked to the legacy of the struggle against apartheid. The first wave of jazz musicians who gained renown outside of the nation were forced into ...

On June 13 the sad news arrived that legendary South African drummer and composer Louis Moholo-Moholo had passed away at 85 after a long illness. Louis, “Tebogo,” Bra Louis, as he was variously and ...

All the heavy cats in mainstream jazz found themselves reeling. The debut of Malombo had a devastating effect, and was the forerunner of a musical awakening among black South African musicians. It was ...

Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria As a researcher who documents historical and current South African jazz and popular music, I believe Mdunyelwa merits ...

Roughly a month ago, Jazz at Lincoln Center launched its 2025-26 season with a new work by a major American composer and musician conceived in the agreed-upon general style of African music. This past ...

Mohamed was born on December 10, 1949 in the working-class gold-mining town of Benoni in South Africa. By his mid-teens, the ...

The Center for Advanced Study and the University of Illinois Press hosted panelists Darius and Catherine Brubeck, who pioneered the first jazz education program in apartheid South Africa. The Brubecks ...