/ 25 April 2018

A Sophiatown musical to Sunday Jazz Sundowners, don’t miss this

Cape Town Jazz Festival's Baseline Stage.
Cape Town Jazz Festival's Baseline Stage.

Standard Bank National Youth 
Jazz Band: To catch the soothing sounds of live jazz, head to the Bartel Arts Trust (BAT) Centre in Durban for its Sunday Jazz Sundowners. The Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band, made up of eight of South Africa’s fine young musicians from Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, will be playing. Before and after the live performance, the audience will be entertained by DJ Ndosi during the Chill Session. Last year, the national band headlined the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, performing original music. They have since played at The Orbit in Johannesburg and are now due to tour nationally and internationally. Details: The BAT Centre, 45 Maritime Place, Victoria Embankment, Durban, on April 29 from 3pm. Admission is free. For more information call 0313320451.

Black Chronicles IV: April 2018 marks the arrival of the fourth iteration of Black Chronicles, a highly acclaimed photographic and multimedia exhibition, on African soil. The exquisitely rendered images are relevant to contemporary black representational politics and cultural history, revealing alternative perspectives to the modes of colonial ethnographic display prevalent at the time. Visitors will encounter a diverse range of black presences through the prism of 19th-century studio photography in Europe and the United States. The exhibition foregrounds the stories of performers, dignitaries, politicians, servicemen and women, missionaries, students, businesspeople and international royalty. The exhibition includes portraits of key black South Africans such as political activist, academic and founder of the Bantu Women’s League, Charlotte Maxeke, her sister Katie Makanya and Paul Xiniwe, photographed in London at the turn of the century as part of the African Choir. Details: The exhibition will run until May 31 at the University of Johannesburg’s Fada Gallery on the corner of Bunting and Annet roads in Auckland Park.

Sophiatown: The lively and memorable musical has been revived with a new cast under the eye of director Aubrey Sekhabi. Sophiatown came to be known as the “Chicago of South Africa” and a place where shebeen queens, gangsters, politicians and black and white bohemians rubbed shoulders and traded drinks in a heady atmosphere fizzing with music, style and rebellion. This vibrant community produced some of South Africa’s most famous musicians, artists, writers, journalists and politicians as urban African culture fomented there during the repressive 1940s and 1950s. The play is an imaginative reconstruction of an extraordinary story of journalists who set up a house together and advertised for another housemate to come and live with them. Details: The musical will run at the State Theatre, 320 Pretorius Street, in central Pretoria, until May 13. Tickets range from R55 to R110 a person. For more information visit statetheatre.co.za

Feel Good Series: The laid-back daytime groove stretches into an evening that will feature artists such as the newest Sió’, Maria McCloy, House of Rhythm SA and resident DJs Amazon and Score. The series’ musical landscape is an agile blend of funk, soul, R&B, house, hip-hop, reggae and world music mixed with an equal share 
of classic jams, rare gems and 
modern-day bangers. Details: The series takes place at the Dorkay Rooftop Bar at 1 Eloff Street, Johannesburg. Tickets go for R100 a person at the door or online from quicket.co.za. For more information visit the Feelgoodseries Facebook page.