Kofifi comes alive as audiences gear up for the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz

A compact but action-packed fusion of music and dance is what audiences can expect when they “Follow The Blue Note” all the way to the Market Theatre for the Jazz, Theatre and the Spirit of Sophiatown show on September 16th. A prelude to the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, which runs in Sandton from 26 – 28 September 2025, this show is directed and choreographed by the 2002 Standard Bank Young Artist for dance, Gregory Maqoma.

This year’s Follow the Blue Note series echoes the soundtrack of each city: in Durban, audiences celebrated the coastal rhythms and spiritual genius of Bheki Mseleku (September 4), while in Cape Town, jazz lovers relived the township pulse and resistance spirit of Abdullah Ibrahim’s evergreen anthem Mannenberg (September 10).

Billed as an immersive jazz-dance experience in which dance becomes a language of resistance, style, and sensuality, the show is set in a shebeen, which was not only a place of revelry but one of subversive intellectualism. Appropriately, the set will be augmented with film and photography stills from the Drum magazine archive, creating an intertextual experience for the viewer that allows them to soak in the motifs of this era while appreciating a wide spectrum of historic South African sounds. “It’s the patrons that bring the shebeen alive,” says Maqoma, emphasizing that musical director Viwe Mkizwana (a double bassist by profession), will aim for a balance between the anchoring, sobering effect of the double bass and the lively ebullience of horns. 

Broadly, the show will unfold in three segments; the first looking at Sophiatown as a place of cultural sophistication, the second emphasizing the shebeen as a sanctuary of music, story and sound, and the third, emphasizing the afterlife of Sophiatown as its residents are dispersed into townships. Gluing these segments together will be the multi-talented veteran actress Lerato Mvelase, holding court in the manner of Miriam Makeba in Lionel Rogosin’s Come Back, Africa. Maqoma imagines Mvelase as part chanteuse, part historian and the locus around which the choreography will unfold. 

Born in Soweto in 1973, the spectre of Sophiatown looms large over Maqoma’s oeuvre. In 2017 he returned to the subject with King Kong, staged at the Fugard Theatre in 2017. Based on the historical musical of the same name which served as a launching pad for Miriam Makeba’s international career, Maqoma’s approach is to find ways in which depictions of Sophiatown can live in the present-day context. Towards this end, a five-piece band will use music as a marker of memory and the passage of time, tracing the kwela stylings of Spokes Mashiane and the culture that emerges after the forced removals of the 1950s and 60s. A song like Meadowlands, composed by Strike Vilakazi and popularized by the likes of Dorothy Masuka, is a fine example of music keeping memory and time while exhorting audiences to join in the fun. 

So what exactly can Sophiatown, which runs the risk of overexposure, offer the present moment? “For one,” says Maqoma, “it can teach us something about gathering without fear, creating a space for all cultures to emerge and live with each other – a sophisticated way of living but also rooted in culture.”

At the very least, Jazz, Theatre and the Spirit of Sophiatown allows us to take in just how far the heritage of South African jazz stretches and how traces of Sophiatown remain visible in the music we hear today. 

As Bonga Sebesho, Standard Bank group head of sponsorship says, “Jazz, Theatre and the Spirit of Sophiatown – particularly in the way that it reinterprets such a cornerstone of South African culture – is central not only in the lead up to the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz but in the way that it reminds us of the role played by jazz in liberating our country. Also, it showcases the wide range of styles that fall under the umbrella of jazz, a diversity mirrored by the programming of this year’s festival.” 

The idea of a confluence of cultures represents a refusal to succumb to the world as it is today.” As a long-time supporter of the festival, Sebesho says, the group is very pleased to contribute to new ways of thinking about the continued impact of cultural enclaves such as Sophiatown, and the cities that locate them.” 

The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz takes place from 26 – 28 September at the Sandton International Convention Centre. Tickets are available through TICKETMASTER: www.ticketmaster.co.za. Standard Bank cardholders qualify for a discount of up to 15%*. The offer is limited to two tickets per person, and only on usage of a valid Standard Bank debit, cheque or credit card and is subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply.