Reinventing the Cape Town International Jazz Festival without losing the jazz

From curious newcomers to lifelong devotees, the Cape Town International Conference Centre hummed with a multigenerational crowd united by a single objective: experiencing the boldest instalment of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) to date.

The year’s festival successfully bridged continents, pairing global icons like Fatoumata Diawara and Jacob Collier with local heavyweights such as Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, Nduduzo Makhathini and 91-year-old legendary pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, who commands the stage with grace and genius. 

It was a line-up that celebrated the world while remaining rooted in a distinctly African identity. The addition of Amapiano pioneers Scorpion Kings, consisting of Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa, sparked a wave of conversation on whether the festival should maintain its “strictly jazz” roots or evolve with the country’s pulse.

The Mail & Guardian spoke to Georgia Jones, the co-festival director, for some insight. 

What was the thinking behind the curation and what story were you trying to tell through it?

With the festival of this legacy, also remaining a South African and African festival, I arrived at this incredible honour of being in this, first in the artist curation role and then now this role. 

I said we have to focus on championing African artists. We have to shine the light on our own before we acknowledge others. As South Africans, we tend not to shine the light on our own some of the time. We need to do that more. 

The idea was: How do we also speak to the fans of the international artists? Who are those fans? Who is the audience and what is the audience that we want to bring in? How do we make this a younger festival to continue this festival for another 20 years? Because the people who were around when the festival started 26 years ago, might have been 30 and now they’re 56 and now we want to bring 30-year-olds back in. How do we do that? 

How do we introduce an energy that then speaks to different people?  

And that’s why we picked very selectively — Sipho Hotstix, the Yellowjackets, Sheila E. —  that speaks to the slightly older, more mature demographic but also inspires the younger demographic. Then looking at someone like Fatoumata Diawara and how inspiring she is in the way that she moves. That also deserves more acknowledgement.

Then going further abroad and bringing someone like Jacob Collier here was super important for our people. What he’s done gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. He’s reinstalled a hope and the desire to be imaginative. That’s what we limit ourselves to do. 

While the line-up is very distinct and it has all these different sorts of pockets of different things going on, the key focus was how, as a festival attendee, would you move through the programme if you were an R&B lover, if you were a pure jazz lover? Just thinking from an attendee’s perspective, but then also thinking beyond that — How can we be intentional with impact?

We pulled in different incredible artists from Brazil to India to Russia to Mali to the US. Everywhere that has really shown us the importance of celebrating everyone and then reflecting that back to us as South Africans and saying: How do we unify and how do we create more joy and hope and instil courage again? And that’s the power of a really beautiful, diverse line-up.

Last night, I was moved. It was beautiful from start to finish. I wasn’t familiar with some of the artists but now I’m downloading every song because, my goodness, I was so moved. And that’s part of what you guys want to do.

There is an element of intrigue. How do we create intrigue? Because you can’t come to a festival and know every single one. That would be boring. Some people have arrived and don’t know Fatomata Diawara, I must say that. I really want to place the light on our talent coordinator, Mariana [del Carmen] because she’s done a phenomenal job.  I started the curation and she’s carried it alongside with me. And it’s been such a pleasure to honour musicians that aren’t generally commercially recognised and to create a platform for our local artists that they can use as a springboard.

The festival is often described as more than just a music event. What role do you believe it plays in shaping South Africa’s cultural identity today?

A big question is South Africans. Our identity is so fluid and what this festival has often meant for people is a secure space of belonging. From a soft side, I would say that this … allows people to show up as they are. That’s why what’s so beautiful is looking at the demographic last night. In particular, I was in the wings of Jacob Collier’s show, right in the front and there’s probably about a 10-year-old standing next to an almost 70-year-old. 

Yesterday I heard of an 80-year-old who was bringing her older sister. If we are speaking to such a diverse audience, ultimately it means we’re speaking to the people as a whole. What that then means for people in terms of how they operate and move and feel is that they can have a sense of belonging and identity within Cape Town, which often people don’t feel. 

This then … creates some sort of bridge of sorts. How do we create a bridge to finding this consistency within the cultural side of things? How do we create a system that really implements fairer conditions for creative people but also allows creative people to be creative? 

Often we conform to a box with “commercially, this is how you have to package it and this is how it’s supposed to look”. In that, you often lose the creative spirit. This festival has been an anchor. It’s been beyond the social economic impact that it has on the city; it has an energetic community impact. 

For me, that’s the main goal. How do we move the people and how do we create a sense of belonging? The festival plays a big role in that.

As one of the continent’s biggest jazz events, what are the biggest challenges in sustaining and growing the festival in the current economic and cultural climate?

There are most certainly challenges. When we’re looking at such a large-scale event, say for example, I think last night we had about 12 000 people — 12 000 bodies to look after and a massive workforce to support that. 

But behind that workforce is the collaboration of a team that has worked year in and year out with creating and maintaining and nurturing relationships. Because we do rely on partnership. 

How are we trying to envisage it now? Myself and co-director Carolyn Savage, how we are trying to place it is how do we create meaningful relationships that will serve our vision and serve the client or the partner’s vision too?  

The key thing that we champion is partnering with incredible people to maintain meaningful relationships that serve the creative economy. Without that, it’s not possible. Funding will always be a challenge but we are lucky that the Survé family, who own and have run the festival for more than 20 years, have taken it upon themselves as it’s quite an endeavour to make sure that this festival will continue regardless of funding. That in itself keeps a spirit alive within the city, that maybe if it weren’t there, people would feel the void.

On access and inclusion, there’s often a conversation about who gets access to spaces like these. How is the festival working to be more inclusive, both for audiences and emerging artists?

That’s an important question: How do we integrate more and what is accessibility? And that’s something that’s challenging. Cape Town in itself, geographically, lots of people struggle to imagine that. It’s also a struggle to feel that it’s accessible and it’s limiting.  

Also, the cost of living is one thing that is a great barrier of entry into Cape Town. How do we fix that? We partner again with meaningful people who are doing great work. For example, I’d love to shine a light right now on “Bridges for music” in Langa [township] because we’re working quite a bit with them … And that’s what we will be doing more of, because this music isn’t an elitist white genre. 

This is a genre that belongs to everyone. And this is a genre that wasn’t started by white people. How do we take this to all communities? Very excitingly, in the future we can expect a few activations in and around, not just the centre of Cape Town.

This year’s festival included Amapiano DJs Scorpion Kings alongside traditional jazz acts, which sparked conversation. What informed that programming choice and how do you see Amapiano fitting into the broader vision of the festival?

What informed that decision is giving the people what they want. While we know that is jazz-adjacent, we also know that it’s a current genre that is also largely celebrated by our audience and then South Africa and African countries at large. 

It’s important for us to remain inclusive while having our core focus on jazz. It most certainly was an intentional choice but in saying that, we understand that it looks and feels a little bit jazz, too jazz-adjacent but in our view and in mine in particular, it’s still something that needs to be celebrated. 

The broader vision is most certainly to keep it jazz focused, to have the centre and the core of the festival to always be jazz but to then recognise and celebrate other genres that are deeply loved and celebrated by our audience.

On legacy and future direction, how do you see the Cape Town International Jazz Festival evolving over the next five to 10 years? What would success look like to you?

If we could become and maintain a household name throughout the year, if we could continue to inspire and provide opportunities and if we could be more than just the weekend every year, that is what success will look like. 

This project will grow, and I believe that with the right people, it will continue to grow internally with our incredible team that have really started this new chapter. We can expect to see further takeover in terms of building the community nationally.  

We [M&G] ran a FRIDAY cover saying “the Battle of the Jazz festivals” and asking if the Montreux Jazz Festival choosing the same days to host their festival as CTIJF was sabotage or friendly competition. What did you think? 

Speaking of the overlap of many festivals this weekend, both Montreux Jazz Festival and K Day, which wasn’t a worry because I believe that we serve different markets. 

[With the] Montreux Jazz Festival, I believe that there’s space for both of us. I believe that our local landscape needs it. And I believe that we need to remain communicative. 

In allowing space for both of us, we not only will uplift local artists, we will support more vendors, suppliers. We won’t have to force vendors, suppliers, sponsors or attendees to choose. That’s the main thing here. 

How do we create space for not just the Montreux Jazz Festival but also for the people who create these moments? Without them, none of this is possible. I want to reinstate this space for both festivals. But how do we communicate better so that this doesn’t only serve one party?