By Struan Douglas and Iain Harris

Jazz is about surprise. About freedom, about expression, and identity. But most importantly, jazz is about stories of intensity, passion, love and perserverance.

The variety and scope of contemporary South Africa jazz promises a colourful and vibrant future regardless of headwear, as Struan Douglas and Iain Harris discover.

If jazz is about hats, what is the hat of the future? Since its beginning, jazz has worn the panamas of big-band swing, the stetsons and afro-berets of bebop, the inverted-Andy-caps of fusion, the colour-blaze brim of African, and the bandanas of smooth. But what’s the hat of the moment? And more importantly, what’s the headwear of the future for South African jazz?

Look at the artists themselves: Winston Mankunku is never seen without his Nike peak; Moses Molelekwa often sports a funky black leather fez; Mcoy Mrubata, a floppy brim number of sorts; Robbie Jansen and Pops Mohamed do the African fez thing, and Paul Hanmer is inevitably hatless.

What does that prove? Different hats, different rhythms? Look at jazz as an idiom. Like any art form, jazz is a dynamic entity, evolving with culture, adapting to society’s needs, always acknowledging and building upon the innovations of the past. The hats might change, but the jazz from the museums of music will last more than a lifetime. The sound musical principles it employs, coupled with its ability to absorb different influences, make it a strong musical base. A base where the principles of exploration, expression, improvisation and spontaneity can only continue. And the young cats of today are indeed keeping the memories and music of these traditions alive.

Across the generations, musos are gathering at the jazz table, the old teaching the young, the young inspiring the old.Witness the work of Jack von Poll and Mike Campbell at the UCT College of Music, Merton Barrow at the Jazz Workshop, and Abdullah Ibrahim, who’s setting up his own school in the Cape.

There’s a conscious return to the past, an exploration of traditional forms, and “a climate of musicians embracing their roots with pride”, according to Paul Hanmer. For the past 10 years he’s been trying to look at our past, and incorporate that in his music. Pops Mohamed is working particularly with traditional African instruments like the kora, mbira and African mouth bow.Mcoy Mrubata features strong traditional rhythms and styles while Winston Mankunku’s Molo Africa toys with bebop, mbaqanga and choral melodies. This freeway of exploration paves the roads of the present, and the flyways of the future: Molelekwa is playing with drum ’n bass and dub rhythms. Similarly, Pops Mohamed’s soon-to-be-released album fuses jazz and his traditional African instrumentation with cutting-edge beats. Jimmy Dludlu is doing easy listening in the mould of George Benson, with an African touch. Zim Ngqawana is doing wild free-form avante garde stuff, very European, very Coltrane. And Hugh Masekela’s latest release, Black to the Future, is a hybrid of jazz, kwaito, rap and African rhythms.

“I don’t see a jazz movement happening. It’s not a jazz movement. It’s about recording songs,” comments jazz academic Colin Miller. Certainly no one direction is being followed, but there is an obvious trend toward both acknowledging the past and experimenting with cutting-edge sounds. And it is this dynamic and eclectic vision that is continually pushing jazz into new headspaces.

And new headwear.The hat of the future is many hats, but are they jazz hats? Purists might well cover their eyes in disdain with their Stetsons, dismissing ‘African jazz’ and ‘acid jazz’, for example, as ridiculous. However such forms draw together old, new, traditional and experimental sounds, building bridges between jazz and other genres. And perhaps this dynamic embrace may move our understanding of jazz from a traditional notion to one that’s more holistic. “Music is coming into one, the world is getting smaller. Musicians speak on an international level, in a global language,” says Robbie Jansen.

So, back to the hats: Different hats and different rhythms indicate diversity all the way.

This article copyright (c) 1999 by Big Issue Magazine.