Book review - Playing the Changes: Jazz at an African University and On The Road (Darius Brubeck and Catherine Brubeck)

At first glance this book recounts Darius and Catherine Brubeck’s experience in 1983, founding a jazz course at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, which became the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music. Darius taught there, with Catherine using her management skills to complement his teaching and playing, until 2004, and there have been a number of return visits since.

But the book is so much more than that. It is a history of South African jazz in the period before and after the repeal of apartheid in June 1991. It’s told from two personal standpoints, of course, but with real involvement in the place, the people and the music.

In an article for the Jazz Educators’ Journal in 1988, Darius wrote of his perception that jazz “represents the living hope of a non-racial society and creative participation in an international culture”. It is to his and Cathy’s credit that they did much to fulfill that hope for many musicians who, despite educational and financial setbacks that would have discouraged most people, went on to play, compose and arrange at the highest level.

I remember being blown away by the recording of the Darius Brubeck/Victor Ntoni quartet with saxophonist Barney Rachabane and drummer Lulu Gontsana made at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1990. One of the great virtues of this book is the incisive, affectionately-written pen-portraits of these fine musicians, along with similar accounts of many of their contemporaries, such as Johnny Mekoa and Allen Kwela.

The book sits alongside Gwen Ansell’s history of the country’s jazz, Soweto Blues, but whereas hers is a journalist’s view, Darius and Cathy’s comes from deep personal involvement with the players, the venues and the bureaucracy.

It is amazing to discover how much interracial playing, and concerts for mixed audiences went on, when both were strictly illegal. Darius’s matter-of-fact account of raids by police with rifles and flak jackets suggests that these interventions were relatively rare events, allowing a considerable degree more integration than was apparent.

Add to all this rare documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs and the book’s essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Africa’s jazz renaissance. 

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Whether you want to enjoy Jazzwise online, explore our Reviews Database or our huge archive of issues, or simply receive the magazine through your door every month, we've got the perfect subscription for you. Find out more at magsubscriptions.com