Hilton Schilder (born 1959) is a South African musician (piano, also guitar, vocals, mbira and other instruments), well known in the genre of Cape jazz. [1]
Schilder was born in Lotus River, Cape Town, and grew up in a musical family (his father is the jazz pianist and band leader Tony Schilder). [2] He began playing early in bands in the Kaapse Klopse. In the 1980s he founded The Genuines [3] with Mac McKenzie, who specialized in the Goema music of the Western Cape province. Goema is a Cape Jazz style, though more inspired by the Coon troops that march annually on Tweede Newe Jaar. He led African Dream and Iconoclast (with Victor Ntoni and Vusi Khumalo). Robbie Jansen invited him to join the band Sons of Table Mountain. He also led his own groups, with whom he also performed at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, and toured with Johannes Enders. His first album, No Turning Back (2003), was nominated in the "best contemporary jazz album" category for at the South African Music Awards (SAMA). He co-founded the duo RockArt with Alex van Heerden, which moved in the direction of acoustic and electronic minimal jazz. He has worked with Mac McKenzie, Namakwa, The District Six Band, and The Goema Captains of Cape Town. In 2008 he was artist in residence at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel. [4]
Abdullah Ibrahim is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and Ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre of Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He is known especially for "Mannenberg", a jazz piece that became a notable anti-apartheid anthem.
Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most-successful musicals were Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). MacDermot also composed music for film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music, and his music has been sampled in hit hip-hop songs and albums. He is best known for his work on Hair, which produced three number-one singles in 1969: "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", "Good Morning Starshine", and the title song "Hair".
Christopher McGregor was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.
The South African College of Music, abbreviated as SACM, is a department of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. It is located on the university's Lower Campus in Rondebosch, Cape Town.
Wynberg Boys' High School is a public English medium boys high school situated in the suburb of Wynberg of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Founded in 1841, it is one of the best academic schools in Cape Town, it is believed by scholars and old boys to be the second oldest school in South Africa, however, there are several schools that were established at earlier dates as far back as 1738.
Cape jazz is a genre of jazz that is performed in the very southern part of Africa, the name being a reference to Cape Town, South Africa. Some writers say that Cape jazz began to emerge in 1959 with the formation of The Jazz Epistles, many of whom were from Cape Town, including Abdullah Ibrahim, then known as Dollar Brand. Cape jazz is similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character. Where marabi is a piano jazz style, Cape jazz in the beginning featured instruments that can be carried in a street parade, such as brass instruments, banjos, guitars and percussion instruments.
South Africa has a notable jazz scene.
Moses Taiwa Molelekwa was a South African jazz pianist.
Goema, also written Ghomma and Gomma, is a type of hand drum used in the Cape Minstrel Carnival and in Cape Jazz in Cape Town. The word has also come to describe a hybrid musical genre which itself is one of the influences on Cape Jazz music. Notable goema musicians include Mac McKenzie, Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers and Alex van Heerden.
Beatrice "Sathima Bea" Benjamin was a South African vocalist and composer based in New York City for nearly 45 years.
Darryl Andrews is a South African jazz guitarist, composer, arranger and conductor. He has a BMus (Hon) degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT). He worked as a musical director/conductor at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for four years, and has composed a body of jazz works that were later performed by the acclaimed concert group MJ9. Since 1977, he has directed the Darryl Andrews Big Band which is a 13-piece Latin ensemble of South African young and established jazz musicians. He has arranged and conducted music for many singers, musicals and concerts at venues such as the Baxter Theatre and the Nico in Cape Town.
van Heerden is a common Afrikaans surname. Although most van Heerdens are South African nationals, a number are also resident in Australia, Namibia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Sons of Table Mountain was a South African jazz band formed by Robbie Jansen. In addition to Jansen, the band included pianist Hilton Schilder, Steven Erasmus, Jack Momplé and Alex van Heerden. In the 1990s, the band regularly performed for audiences from all socioeconomic backgrounds – from impoverished communities in Cape Flats to political dignitaries in post-apartheid South Africa.
Alex van Heerden was a jazz musician from Cape Town, South Africa.
"Mannenberg" is a Cape jazz song by South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim, first recorded in 1974. Driven into exile by the apartheid government, Ibrahim had been living in Europe and the United States during the 1960s and '70s, making brief visits to South Africa to record music. After a successful 1974 collaboration with producer Rashid Vally and a band that included Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen, Ibrahim began to record another album with these three collaborators and a backing band assembled by Coetzee. The song was recorded during a session of improvisation, and includes a saxophone solo by Coetzee, which led to him receiving the sobriquet "Manenberg".
The Pacific Express was a jazz-rock band based on the Cape Flats of Cape Town in the 1970s. The band were from the coloured community and were ground breakers in both musical and political fields.
Victor Mhleli Ntoni was a South African musician, Among his notable achievements, Ntoni co-founded the Afro Cool Concept band in 1989 and received a nomination for the 2004 South African Music Awards SAMA and scored as well as arranged the music in The South African Songbook -- SA Folklore Music. His best known song is the hit “Wa thula nje”. At the time of his death Ntoni had become a legend in the jazz community.
Errol Dyers was a South African musician, composer and guitarist and pioneer of Cape jazz/goema.
The South African Musicians' Alliance (SAMA) is a union, artist collective, and resistance movement formed by musicians in South Africa who opposed the censorship and suppression of the apartheid regime. The alliance was formed sometime before 1983. SAMA musicians flouted the government's imposed racial segregation and restrictions on music content. Three of SAMA's priorities were freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of association.
Rashid Vally was a South African music producer and record shop owner. He ran a record shop in downtown Johannesburg, and produced langarm and jazz music. He had a successful collaboration with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, including the production of "Mannenberg" (1974), a piece which became associated with the movement against apartheid. Scholar Gwen Ansell described his As Shams label as giving "a voice to modern jazz" in 1980s South Africa.