The Bassline, Johannesburg’s well-loved jazz club, will close its doors at the end of September. Nine years and one month after opening, the venue will bid goodbye to the students, aficionados and big boozers who made its reputation as a late-night haunt for the ultra-discerning.
Opened by Brad Holmes in 1994, the Bassline has existed according to the motto, “in music we trust”. With this commitment the place has provided a headquarters for the Jo’burg jazz set, and a humble home-away-from-home for many of the world’s most famous names in music.
The venue will celebrate its nine years of achievement with a month-long festival in September featuring, according to Holmes, “all the greatest artists who have played at the Bassline over the years.
“It’s the end of an era but the start of a new era,” Holmes says. He is moving his operation on to greater heights, negotiating the rights to a new venue with more potential than the last. It appears that Holmes will retain his trust in music to the last.