Blowing them away: Cape Town-born, and educated at UCT and The Juilliard School in New York, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz winner, trombonist Siya Charles, will perform at the Joy of Jazz Festival in Joburg later this month. Photo: Mark Wessels and Daniel Song
At the age of 13, trombonist, composer and arranger Siyasanga “Siya” Charles fell in love with a mighty brass instrument — the trombone. This love affair has not only taken her around the world but earned her the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist Award (SBYA) for Jazz.
Charles smiles broadly at this achievement from her home in New York during our virtual meeting.
It was in the early hours, while she was on tour, that she got the call announcing the great news.
“It was two in the morning. That’s one thing I remember, when I got a text from the director of the National Youth Jazz Festival, Alan Webster. He told me the news that I had been chosen as the SBYA for Jazz,” she says, beaming.
Part of the reason she was surprised was the world-class standard of musicianship of her peers in South Africa.
“But there’s just something, I guess, the National Arts Festival Committee, Alan Webster and the National Youth Jazz Festival saw in me.
“I’m very grateful for the acknowledgement because these are people who understand the calibre of the arts in South Africa — and it is just a badge of honour,” says the Cape Town-born musician.
Brass beginnings
For those who have followed her work closely, the accolade is an affirmation of the work Charles has put into her music career.
A self-taught pianist, who first found the trombone a “weird instrument”, her ear was tuned from a young age.
“I would say, maybe around three or four years old, I looked at the trombone in those little music books — I didn’t like the instrument at all.
“Fast forward to my first year of high school; our wind orchestra director was looking for brass players. He had a whole bunch of flute, clarinet and saxophone players, so they were looking for more trumpet, trombone and euphonium players in the low-brass section.”
It is during that time Charles decided to play the trombone, to which she felt an immediate connection and joy upon hearing its sound, with her mother’s encouragement solidifying her passion.
This deep connection propelled her to study this brass instrument formally for years.
Charles enrolled for a bachelor of music degree in jazz trombone performance at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which she completed in 2012. The following year, she got an honours degree in jazz trombone performance — cum laude — at the university.
In 2022, she was given the opportunity of a lifetime to study at The Juilliard School in New York, one of the most prestigious music schools in the world.
Juilliard alumni have collectively won more than 105 Grammy Awards, 62 Tony Awards, 47 Emmy Awards, 24 Academy Awards, 16 Pulitzer Prizes, as well as 12 National Medals for the Arts.
Charles earned her jazz master’s in music from the institution last year, graduating magna cum laude.
Going from studying at a South African university to a renowned music school in the US was a pleasant transition that grew her understanding and love for jazz, Charles says.
She commends the South African College of Music at UCT for doing a great job in teaching her jazz harmony and language.
“They really taught us the foundation of how jazz was built. We first started with the nuts and bolts of jazz, which is an American art form.”
Having grown up to the sounds of saxophonist Charlie Parker and jazz trombonist JJ Johnson, Charles’s ear was mostly attuned to American classical jazz, which made studying at UCT and Juilliard a natural progression.
At Juilliard, she adds, they encouraged students to expound on their South African-influenced music, rather than changing their style.
“I was able to add to it and also learn about the art of being an intentional and confident improviser because, what they do at Juilliard, is they take what you have and they build on it.”
Charles expressed a desire for South African universities to incorporate more South African jazz into their curricula, as she learned much of this music through jam sessions, rather than formal education.
“I only heard about the likes of Winston Mankunku’s Yakhal’ inkomo in jam sessions, you know.
“So, I definitely believe that we need to have a contemporary curriculum within jazz education that includes so much more of the South African jazz canon.
“There are organisations such as the National Youth Jazz Festival that are doing a great job of teaching students more of South African jazz. But more could be done.”
Beyond the formal training, Charles views jazz as a spiritual experience. She tells me that her creative process for composing music is a combination of her dreams and daily activities, like washing dishes, often experiencing spiritual connections to her faith in her writing.
“I am more still when I am asleep. A lot of the music I’ve heard was in a dream. I would hear maybe two or three bars of a song while I’m asleep.
“In the past, I didn’t have the discipline to wake up and notate the music. But now what I do is, as soon as I wake up, I open Sebelius [notation software] and I just start writing down things.”
She mentions how playing the piano also helps her creative process. She plays a few changes, hears the harmony first and then derives a melody that complements the harmony.
“Writing or playing on the piano definitely helps to stimulate ideas. And I have to say that, when I go to sleep, I hear some pretty cool things. So, I have to thank the higher power that’s got my back.”
She noted that her composing skills have developed over the years to allow her to hear three-part harmonies and rhythm sections.
This is a skill she applies as the band leader for her collective The Siya Charles Sextet.
I ask Charles which frequency she tunes into to catch compositions, not only for herself but the whole collective.
“That’s a very good question because sometimes I would hear, like, a quintet setting as two horns for the rhythm section, drums, bass and piano.
“Some songs I hear as four harmonies — soprano, alto, tenor, bass — or just maybe, like, four chords, you know — closed position voicings on the piano. A song such as Ascension I initially wrote for four horns, but I condensed it to three. As well as Skyscrapers and Lights, that was a tune that I heard with four horns. And I tried to condense it to three.
“But now we have an additional member. So, I’m actually able to write it the way that I initially heard it, which is really cool.”
The seventh member, who completed Charles’s musical visions, is Cape Town, jazz saxophonist Justin Bellairs, who joined as the band prepares to makes their debut at this year’s Joy of Jazz Festival.
Taking place later this month at Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, the festival is one of many that has opened up for Charles after her SBYA accolade.
As someone who’s introverted and comfortable being in the background, Charles says leading a band has been a big responsibility, filled with growth.
“I don’t like to attract attention to myself. So, it’s not easy being in the spotlight and having cats in the rehearsal asking, ‘How do you want this notated?’
“It’s important to have an idea of the concept of the sound, how to bring that sound to life and how to explain it in a way that is clear and concise. I’ve learned how to be more responsible and to have more faith in myself. That my ideas are valid and worthy of being shared with the world.”
The joy of jazz
For their performance at the Joy of Jazz festival, the seven-member band will include Sakhile Simani on trumpet/flugelhorn; Zeke Le Grange on tenor saxophone; Blake Hellaby on piano; Shaun Johannes on double/electric bass; Jerome Jennings on drums and Bellairs on alto sax.
The performance will celebrate their South African jazz heritage, incorporating influences from marabi music and Afro-Brazilian music alongside modern American jazz.
“We will also play a song I wrote for my late mom — Dr Sylvia Charles. So, there will be a variety of music that we’ll be playing, but you’ll definitely want to dance, snap your fingers and clap your hands as the audience.”
Besides her live performances online, I’ve only heard of a few songs, such as Kwa Langa, on music streaming platforms.
As we conclude our discussion, Charles shares that her debut album will be recorded in May in Cape Town, with Jerome Jennings producing, and is set to be released under Africa Rise Records.
Charles has found joy in an instrument predominantly played by men. She commands her band with humility, backed by formal training and experience, to delightedly blow audiences off their seats.
Having worked with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Ulysses Owens, and now basking in the glow of an important turning point in her career, Charles’s musicianship keeps progressing, note by note.