Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Gwen Ansell

Creator

Gwen Ansell

Gwen Ansell is a freelance writer, writing teacher, media consultant and creative industries researcher. She is the author of various books, including the cultural history ‘Soweto Blues: Jazz, Politics and Popular Music in South Africa’ and the writers’ guide, ‘Introduction to Journalism’.

Key figure: Musicians Basil Coetzee, Pat Matshikiza, Selby Ntuli, Sipho Mabuse, Alec Khaoli and Kippie Moketsi with producer Rashid Vally in 1975. (As-Shams Archive)
ABDULLAH IBRAHIM

Rashid Vally: A visionary whose record labels shaped the jazz scene

Rashid Vally gave a voice to the new black jazz of the Seventies — and on a shoestring

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Thembi Dunjana’s econd album God Bless Ikapa, God Bless Mzantsi is about to come out.
AFRICARISE

Winter heats up with new South African Jazz releases

Three South African jazz musicians have second albums about to hit the shelves

  • Gwen Ansell
5 min read
Saxophone player and traditional healer blows away listeners with the re-release of her album
CONVERGENCE BEKEZELA SIYEZA

A debut jazz album amidst a pandemic: Linda Tshabalala’s journey

Saxophone player and traditional healer blows away listeners with the re-release of her album

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
McCoy Mrubata has a launch album out for the US initiative Africarise, which showcases the continent’s music and art. (Siphiwe Mhlambi)
AFRICARISE

Africarise: SA jazz to the globe

Two saxophonists have released albums under a fresh initiative driven by a New York label

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Senior executives of the dysfunctional King Sabata Dalindyebo local municipality — with the assistance of the deputy minister of agriculture, rural development and land reform, Nokuzola Capa — spent R183  997.82 to attend the ANC’s February elections manifesto launch. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
ARTS POLICIES

Manifestos: EFF is tops — but what trumps how

Although they are full of promises, parties lack concrete, informed policies for the arts

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Open arms: Jazz artist Tutu Puoane’s latest project Wrapped in Rhythm is the first of a two-album series – the second promises big-band arrangements from trumpeter Bert Joris.
FRIDAY

Puoane: A woman of her word

Tutu’s new album, which was 10 years in the making, uses the poetry of Lebo Mashile

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Texture: Ziza Muftic’s new album Singing in Tongues explores the range of what the human voice can do. Photo: Siphiwe Mhlambi
AMANANULE

Ziza Muftic: Album trips off the tongue

Jazz out of the box and plenty more on her new album, which is sung by a trio

  • Gwen Ansell
5 min read
In full flight: Light Cycle, the new album from jazz outfit Skyjack, who have been together for a decade, is due out this month. Photo: Lindsay Appolis
LIGHT CYCLE

Skyjack: When ideation meets instinct

The third album from South African-Swiss jazz band Skyjack delights and surprises

  • Gwen Ansell
5 min read
Eastern Cape bassist, composer and teacher Mlungisi Gegana has taken a decade to put out his third album My Time, My Space. Photo: Eddie Adams
ANDILE YENANA

Mlungisi Gegana: A page-turner of a career

The bassist and composer reflects on 40 years in music and his newly released album

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Nobuhle Ashanti
BAIT FOR STEPS FORWARD

The ones that got away…

Musicians out of Cape Town are making fabulous sounds that have been passed over by reviewers and which AI couldn’t churn out

  • Gwen Ansell
7 min read
Overarchingly personal: The 10-track ‘Rainbow Revisited’ put out by Thandi Ntuli draws inspiration from the track Rainbow, from her album Exile. Photo: Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images
LEVY GODLIB NTULI

Thandi Ntuli recycles rainbows

South African jazz musician Thandi Ntuli draws on her roots in a deep new offering

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Shabaka Hutchings from the UK recently toured here with his South African outfit Shabaka and the Ancestors. Photo: supplied
FRIDAY

SA jazz musos still lighting fires in London

It was in the 1970s and the decades that followed that the influence of South Africans on the London scene consolidated to create a shared musical language

  • Gwen Ansell
5 min read
On the beat: The late Julian Sebothane Bahula pioneered malombo
ABBEY CINDI

A vital moment for SA jazz

Malombo shows how musos used their cultural roots to make stunning new sounds

  • Gwen Ansell
4 min read
Blowing change: Saxophonist Alexander Beets is the driving force behind the World Jazz Network that is building networks worldwide to bolster resilience.
ALEXANDER BEETS

Build music festivals on solid ground

Given the effect of global warming, the future of concerts isn’t speed dating but rather long-term relationships

  • Gwen Ansell
6 min read
Not-so-mellow: Among the issues Rebecca F Kuang tackles in her novel Yellowface is power play in the modern publishing world. Photo: John Packman
BABEL

Kuang’s novel ‘Yellowface’ is knowing, funny satire

Rebecca F Kuang explores appropriation, identity and the ownership of stories

  • Gwen Ansell
7 min read