The South African Music Graph

Everyone and everything on the map

Artist

• Abdullah Ibrahim

  Born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934, he grew up in Kensington and learned marabi, langarm and American jazz before helping found the Jazz Epistles in 1959. He left South Africa in the early 1960s, recorded in Paris at Duke Ellington's urging, and came home to cut "Mannenberg" in 1974. He died in June 2026 at the age of 91.

  1930sCape Town10 connections

• Basil Coetzee

  Tenor saxophonist born in District Six in 1944, whose family was moved to Manenberg under the Group Areas Act. He took the first solo on "Mannenberg" in 1974 and carried the nickname of the township for the rest of his life. Through the 1980s he played the tune at rally after rally, which is how it became an anthem. He died in 1998.

  1940sCape Town3 connections

• Bheki Mseleku

  Self-taught pianist, saxophonist and singer from Lamontville in Durban, born in 1955, who made his London debut at Ronnie Scott's in 1987 and recorded with Abbey Lincoln, Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson. He taught young South African players when he came home. He died in London in 2008 after years of diabetes.

  1950s1 connection

• Black Coffee

  Nkosinathi Maphumulo, born in Umlazi near Durban in 1976, who lost the use of his left arm in a car accident during the celebrations of Nelson Mandela's release in 1990. He studied jazz in Durban, came through the Red Bull Music Academy in 2003 and turned South African house into a global export. Subconsciously won a Grammy in 2022.

  1970s

• Bokani Dyer

  Pianist and composer born in Gaborone in 1986, the child of a South African exile family, who moved to South Africa as a child and studied jazz at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 2008. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist award for jazz in 2011 and plays in Shane Cooper's band Mabuta. His music runs from trio jazz to electronics.

  1980sCape Town1 connection

• Brenda Fassie

  Singer born in Langa in Cape Town in 1964, who moved to Soweto at sixteen and became the biggest pop voice in the country. "Weekend Special" made her name in 1983 and Memeza was the best selling South African album of 1998. Time called her the Madonna of the townships in 2001. She died in Johannesburg in 2004, aged 39.

  1960sCape Town

• Chris McGregor

  Pianist born in Somerset West in 1936, who studied at the University of Cape Town and built the Blue Notes out of the city's mixed jazz scene. Playing across the colour line was illegal, so in 1964 the band left for the Antibes festival and stayed away. In London he built the big band Brotherhood of Breath. He died in France in 1990.

  1930sCape Town2 connections

• Dudu Pukwana

  Alto saxophonist born in Port Elizabeth in 1938 who left with the Blue Notes in 1964 and never came back. In London he played in the Brotherhood of Breath and led his own bands, Assagai, Spear and Zila, bringing township melody into the free jazz of the city. He played at the Mandela tribute concert at Wembley in 1989 and died the next year.

  1930s2 connections

• 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 Town4 connections

• 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

• Hotep Idris Galeta

  Cape Town pianist, born Cecil Galeta in 1941 and known as Cecil Barnard before he left. He went into exile in 1961, worked in the United States with Hugh Masekela and Jackie McLean, and taught at the University of Hartford. He came home in 1991 and spent the rest of his life teaching young musicians. He died in 2010.

  1940sCape Town3 connections

• Hugh Masekela

  Trumpeter born in Witbank in 1939, who got his first horn through the anti-apartheid priest Trevor Huddleston and played in the Jazz Epistles before leaving South Africa after Sharpeville. "Grazing in the Grass" made him a number one hit in America in 1968, and "Bring Him Back Home" became an anthem for Nelson Mandela's release. He died in 2018.

  1930s3 connections

• Johnny Dyani

  Double bassist from the Eastern Cape who joined the Blue Notes as a teenager and left South Africa with them in 1964. He settled in Scandinavia and played with Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and Abdullah Ibrahim, taking the music deep into free jazz. He collapsed after a concert in Berlin in 1986 and died there, and the surviving Blue Notes recorded a memorial for him.

  1 connection

• Jonas Gwangwa

  Trombonist and composer from Orlando East in Soweto who played in the Jazz Epistles, went into exile, and for ten years led Amandla, the ANC's cultural ensemble, at Oliver Tambo's request. He wrote the score for Cry Freedom and was nominated at the 1988 Academy Awards. He came home in 1991 and died in 2021.

  1930s2 connections

• Kesivan Naidoo

  Drummer born in East London in 1979, who studied jazz at the University of Cape Town's South African College of Music and won the Standard Bank Young Artist award for jazz in 2009. Bheki Mseleku shaped his playing, and he worked with Hotep Idris Galeta, Winston Mankunku Ngozi and Miriam Makeba. He leads Kesivan and the Lights.

  1970sCape Town4 connections

• Kippie Moeketsi

  Alto saxophonist, born in 1925, who started on clarinet in a band called the Band in Blue and became the leading saxophone voice of the bebop generation. He called the Jazz Epistles the best band he ever played in. Wikipedia records the epithet South Africa's Charlie Parker without saying who coined it. He died in 1983.

  1920s2 connections

• Kyle Shepherd

  Cape Town pianist and film composer born in 1987, who started on violin and moved to piano at fifteen. He was mentored by Zim Ngqawana and trained partly around Abdullah Ibrahim's M7 school, where his mother taught, and he leads a trio with Shane Cooper and Jonno Sweetman. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist award for jazz in 2014 and scored Noem My Skollie.

  1980sCape Town4 connections

• Louis Moholo-Moholo

  Drummer born in Langa in Cape Town in 1940, who left with the Blue Notes in 1964 and became a central figure in European free jazz. He was the last of the six left alive, and the only one who lived to play in a South Africa without apartheid. He moved back to Cape Town in 2005 and died there in June 2025, aged 85.

  1940sCape Town

• 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

• Miriam Makeba

  Singer born in Johannesburg in 1932, who came up through the Manhattan Brothers and the Skylarks and took the female lead in the jazz opera King Kong. South Africa cancelled her passport in 1960 while she was abroad, and she spent thirty years in exile, testifying against apartheid at the United Nations. She returned in 1990 and died in Italy in 2008.

  1930s1 connection

• Mongezi Feza

  Trumpeter from Queenstown, born in 1945, who was already playing at Cape Town jazz festivals as a teenager and left with the Blue Notes in 1964. In London he worked with the Brotherhood of Breath and with the rock musician Robert Wyatt. He died of untreated pneumonia in December 1975, aged 30, and his friends recorded a memorial for him nine days later.

  1940s1 connection

• Morris Goldberg

  Cape Town saxophonist, white and classically literate, who was brought into the 1974 "Mannenberg" session because he could read music and could teach Ibrahim's scores to players who could not. His remark about going to visit Gladys Williams in Manenberg gave the tune its name. He was left off the first credits.

  Cape Town1 connection

• Reza Khota

  Guitarist born in Johannesburg and now based in Cape Town, classically trained at Wits, who won the national classical guitar competition in 1998. He leads his own quartet and plays in Mabuta and in Kesivan and the Lights, and has worked with the artists William Kentridge and Nicholas Hlobo.

  Cape 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 Town4 connections

• Sathima Bea Benjamin

  Cape Town singer, born in Claremont in 1936, who left South Africa with Abdullah Ibrahim and spent most of her life in New York. It was Benjamin who persuaded Duke Ellington to come and hear the trio in Switzerland in 1963, the audition that opened Europe to them. She returned to Cape Town in 2011 and died there in 2013.

  1930sCape Town1 connection

• Shane Cooper

  Bassist, composer and producer born in 1985, who moved to Cape Town to study jazz at UCT and now works between jazz and electronic music. He plays in the Kyle Shepherd Trio, leads the band Mabuta and records dance music as Card On Spokes. He was the Standard Bank Young Artist for jazz in 2013.

  1980sCape Town4 connections

• Taliep Petersen

  Singer, composer and director who grew up in District Six and sang with the klopse from the age of six in his father's troupe, the Dark Town Strutters. With David Kramer he wrote the musicals that put Cape Town's own music on the stage, from District Six the Musical in 1987 to Ghoema in 2005. He was shot dead in his house in 2006.

  1950sCape Town

• Winston Mankunku Ngozi

  Tenor saxophonist from Retreat in Cape Town, born in 1943, who stayed in South Africa when others went into exile. His 1968 album "Yakhal' Inkomo" became one of the country's best selling records and a landmark of South African jazz. He played with Chris McGregor and Dudu Pukwana before they left. He died in Cape Town in 2009.

  1940sCape Town3 connections

• Zim Ngqawana

  Saxophonist and flautist born in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, in 1959, who studied at Rhodes, at the University of Natal and in Massachusetts alongside Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef. He directed the hundred-piece orchestra that played at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 and later built the Zimology Institute to teach outside the formal system. He died in 2011.

  1950s3 connections