Blend of an era: South Africa’s jazz age

by Daniel Brown

Article published on the 2009-11-20 Latest update 2009-11-20 18:07 TU

The photographic work by Jurgen Schadeberg on South African jazz artists has marked an entire era of the country’s history. The 78-year-old German photographer shot the emerging talents in the age of apartheid, and he’s brought them together in a book called Jazz, Blues and Swing.

Schadeberg is arrested by apartheid police while in Johannesburg

This week’s World Tracks has a photographic lens at the heart of our music show. That lens, a Leica, has been held for six decades by a German sometimes dubbed the father of South African photography.

Seventy-eight-year-old Jurgen Schadeberg has spent three-quarters of his life documenting South Africa’s music scene. One result is the powerful book Jazz,

Blues and Swing. Its front cover features the impassioned singing of Judith Sephuma. Much of ts 166 pages take us back to Johannesburg’s swinging fifties and the jazz clubs of Sophiatown.  

Jurgen and Claudia Schadeberg

As art director for Drum Magazine, Schadeberg was at the heart of South African culture in the fifties. He has been one of the few to capture the raw energy of the jazz scene at the ti

me, offering us a unique collection of images of the nation’s leading musicians.

For the last four decades, Schadeberg has been living in Europe. Currently, he is exhibiting pictures he took of the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The exhibition, called "A wall between two worlds”, is set to run until February.

Quiz of the week What was surname of one of South Africa’s most celebrated saxophonists, who usually goes by the name Kippie? The answer is in the programme. You are invited to listen to it and send your answers to [e-mail].