JAZZ GEGEN APARTHEID / Deutschland

In the organizer's words:

Jazz against apartheid
Returning home from exile

Our project attempts to revive South Africa's lost cultural memory from the European side. For decades, South African musicians in exile in Europe and Germany - alongside Johnny Dyani, Louis Moholo and Chris McGregor - have left their deep mark on European improvised jazz - always in connection with the struggle against the apartheid regime. In their home country, however, their life's work has hardly been recognized.
However, in 2022 and 2023, invitations from South Africa and the first workshops and concert series in Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape took place with "Jazz against Apartheid - Homecoming from Exile" to draw attention to these "unsung heroes" of exile - and to emphasize how enriching this cultural treasure has been and must continue to be on both continents. The project has made such an impact in South Africa that the government of the Eastern Cape Province has decided to invite the workshops and concerts again in 2024 and to anchor the theme permanently.

Against the backdrop of the "30 years of democracy in South Africa" celebrations, 2024 is set to be the highlight of the "Jazz against Apartheid" homecoming project. Workshops and concerts will then also take place again in Frankfurt and Darmstadt. Six concerts will take place in October in Frankfurt - Haus am Dom, Gallustheater, Brotfabrik, Wartburgkirche, main_forum - and Darmstadt - Bessunger Knabenschule.
The music of the composer, bandleader and bassist Johnny Dyani, who died 38 years ago, is grandiose art, a testimony to the passionate struggle against apartheid, a biography of a life in exile and a complete documentation of 25 years of exile history - we continued the project after Dyani's early death and later, after the fall of communism in the Cape, the work was continued. Since then, we have organized around 100 concerts and workshops.

The ensemble:

Claude Deppa (tp), Allen Jacobson (tb),
Tobias Delius (ts, cl), Daniel Guggenheim (ts, ss),
Jonas Westergaard (b), Christopher Dell (vib),
Christian Lillinger (dr), Bülent Ates (dr)

In cooperation with Kultur im Ghetto