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Exile Heritage : The Dialogue Sessions
24 November @ 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Jazz Fought the struggle and won: the inspiring story of the jazz freedom fighters in exile lead by the magician of the ostinato – Johnny Mbizo Dyani.
One of the great proponents of South African Jazz is the late Johnny “Mbizo” Dyani. This bass player, composer and original member of the Blue Notes died in exile in Germany. He was performing at the inaugural “Jazz Against Apartheid” event, an initiative he had founded when he called it to the audience, “Think” and then collapsed on stage. The visionary impact of Johnny Dyani is a contemporary inspiration and a compositional backbone to the extraordinary Jazz Against Apartheid (JAA) story. This is an annual event that takes place in Germany and brings in the cream of the South African Jazz musicians living abroad to collaborate with their European contemporaries.
The JAA event showcases the history of exile music in Germany, its impact on civil rights and contemporary and educational knowledge. Similarities between South Africa and Germany exist both in the struggle against fascism and the solidarity that arises through such struggle. This Jazz Against Apartheid Homecoming Tour is profound initiative for co-operation, liberation and musical collaboration between Germany and South Africa. In the struggle against apartheid, it was arts and music that supported it, moved people together and it accelerated the necessary transformation. Like jazz musicians are the narrators of our current issues and our current times, they were the narrators of those times too.
To continue and expand this cultural bridge Jazz Against Apartheid has nurtured and to celebrate the friendships forged in exile and solidarity, a MENTOR & DIALOGUE SERIES provides a zoom link-up meetings for the JAA musicians in Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Berlin, East London. Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay.
- Providing valuable documentation and sharing of the richness of the artistic heritage that has been cultivated over decades in Europe and especially in Germany.
- Making an essential aspect of the buried cultural heritage accessible to a young generation of professional jazz musicians who have grown up in the post-apartheid society.