Legendary Beninese musician Angélique Kidjo shall be among the many headliners of the twenty seventh Customary Financial institution Pleasure of Jazz music competition. Photograph: File
The Customary Financial institution Pleasure of Jazz has introduced the complete line-up for its 2026 version, returning to the Sandton Conference Centre from September 25 to 26. Now in its twenty seventh yr, the competition continues to place itself as a gathering level between generations, geographies and evolving concepts of what jazz could be.
This yr’s programme brings collectively a mixture of worldwide heavyweights and South African mainstays throughout 4 levels, with a curatorial focus that leans closely on tribute, collaboration and reinterpretation. It’s a acquainted construction for Pleasure of Jazz but additionally one which feels newly weighted by the historic markers shaping this version.
On the high of the worldwide invoice is Angélique Kidjo, an artist whose profession has lengthy been outlined by motion throughout borders, genres and generations. 4 a long time into her recording life, Kidjo stays in a state of artistic growth, constructing tasks that join completely different corners of the world with out ever dropping a way of function. Her newest album HOPE!! carries the spirit of each private reflection and world collaboration, reinforcing a list that has persistently handled music as a shared language.
She is joined by Kamasi Washington, who will make his Pleasure of Jazz debut. Washington’s arrival indicators a continuation of the competition’s engagement with modern jazz at its most expansive, the place orchestration, spirituality and hip-hop lineage intersect.
If the worldwide names present scale, the native line-up anchors the competition in one thing deeper. Thandiswa Mazwai, Judith Sephuma, McCoy Mrubata, Khaya Mahlangu and Ndabo Zulu kind a part of a programme that reads much less like a line-up and extra like a residing archive of South African jazz.
Mazwai’s presence, specifically, carries a way of continuity that extends past efficiency. Throughout her profession, she has positioned herself as a part of an extended cultural thread, an artist working inside a lineage that stretches again generations whereas consciously shaping what comes subsequent. The orientation makes her tribute to Hugh Masekela really feel much less like homage and extra like continuation, an act of reinterpreting a physique of labor that helped outline the nation’s musical and political id.
An analogous logic underpins Sephuma’s inclusion. Greater than twenty years into her profession, she stays some of the enduring voices in South African jazz, shifting between Afro-soul, gospel and orchestral work with a consistency that has carried her throughout continents. Her method to efficiency has all the time prioritised connection, creating areas the place audiences are invited not simply to hear however to take a seat with the music, to soak up it. In a competition context, that sensibility turns into a part of the broader ambiance Pleasure of Jazz has spent years cultivating.
The programme additionally foregrounds the subsequent layer of the lineage by means of the inclusion of 2026 Customary Financial institution Younger Artist Award winners Gabi Motuba and Manana, artists who symbolize the shifting edges of the style.
Past particular person performances, the construction of the competition reinforces its long-standing emphasis on collaboration. A challenge titled “4 Bass Strains” will deliver collectively AusTebza, Rochelle Rautenbach, Chantal Willie-Petersen and Orlanda Da Conceição in a uncommon configuration that centres girls instrumentalists as main architects of sound. It’s a delicate however vital recalibration of area inside a style that has traditionally sidelined such contributions.
Throughout the levels, the sense of intentionality continues. The Dinaledi Stage hosts a mixture of worldwide and native acts together with Ibrahim Maalouf and Ola Onabule, whereas the Diphala Stage locations a definite deal with women-led performances with artists like Nubya Garcia and Lorraine Klaasen.
The Conga Stage shifts the emphasis towards rhythm, with appearances from Tank and the Bangas, Madala Kunene and Sibusile Xaba, whereas the Mbira Stage continues to blur style boundaries, incorporating neo-soul and spoken phrase by means of acts like Floetry and Nomfusi.
Working alongside the performances is a layered programme of tributes. Along with the deal with Masekela, Khaya Mahlangu will lead a tribute to Kippie Moeketsi, whereas the Mbira Stage features a celebration of Busi Mhlongo. These moments prolong the competition’s long-standing position as each a web site of efficiency and an area of remembrance.
This yr’s version unfolds towards a broader historic backdrop, marking 50 years because the Soweto Rebellion and 70 years since the1956 Ladies’s March. The anniversaries are woven into the programming, shaping its thematic course in deliberate methods.
