Cape Town Data

The South African Music Graph

See who taught whom, who played what and where, on one map of South African music.

See how South African musicians, songs and places are connected. Every connection below is sourced, and every node leads to what we know about it.

The network

4 nodes on the map.

Errol Dyers
Self-taught Cape Town guitarist, born in 1952, who put the goema beat of the carnival into jazz guitar. He played with Abdullah Ibrahim, Basil Coetzee, Robbie Jansen and Winston Mankunku, and Mason quotes him on how musicians turned "Mannenberg" into a protest anthem. He died of emphysema in Cape Town in 2017.

1950sCape Town1 connection
Hilton Schilder
Cape Town pianist from the Schilder family of musicians, son of Tony Schilder and nephew of Chris Schilder. He supplied the jazz side of the Genuines in the 1980s and played in Robbie Jansen's bands. Mason quotes him remembering Jansen talking to crowds about rising up while "Mannenberg" played.

Cape Town2 connections
Mac McKenzie
Bassist and composer, born Gerald McKenzie in Bridgetown, Cape Town, in 1951, the son of a banjo player and carnival leader known as Mr Mac. He led the Genuines, the band that took the carnival's goema rhythm into rock and jazz and then called the result goema. He died in 2024.

1950sCape Town1 connection
Robbie Jansen
Alto saxophonist and flautist, born in 1949, who came up through the Cape Town rock and soul circuit and the band Oswietie before playing on the 1974 "Mannenberg" session. Known as the Cape Doctor, he spent the 1980s playing the tune at anti-apartheid concerts and talking to the crowds between choruses. He died in Cape Town in 2010.

1940sCape Town2 connections

Play the South African music quizTen new questions every day, most of them short clips from more than 90 South African recordings, from kwela and Cape jazz to amapiano. Answer to read the story behind each song.