The Jazz Standard
The adventure of rich storytelling about the world of Jazz continues with Brenda Sisane on Kaya 959's The Jazz Standard.
Saul Madiope on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Saul Madiope, affectionately known as The Digital Jazz Man. Saul is a South African saxophonist, producer, and sound engineer celebrated for fusing traditional African jazz with contemporary digital soundscapes. His work has earned international recognition, including features on Generations and placements on HBO’s In Treatment and Netflix’s Savage Beauty. His…
Marcus Wyatt on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Marcus Wyatt, a prolific South African trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, has led various ensembles, and the ZAR Jazz Orchestra is one of his notable projects but today he is here to tell us about, Church of the Rolling Tongue, a new ensemble he has just formed. This project is both…
Andreas Tschopp on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
For over twenty years, he has been one of Switzerland's busiest and most versatile voices on the trombone. Whether he is performing in the brass-percussion fire of Le Rex, the avant-garde precision of the Vertigo Trombone Quartet, or the celebrated South African-Swiss collective Skyjack, his music has always been about…
Rico Jones on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Tenor saxophonist Rico Jones is a musician who found his voice at age thirteen in a Denver gospel band, and that sacred foundation has informed every note since. After earning two degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and being mentored by the likes of Sonny Rollins and George Coleman,…
Thandi Ntuli on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
When we speak about the defining voices of South African jazz today, the name Thandi Ntuli is central to the conversation. She is an artist who approaches the piano, and her own voice, with a rare combination of fearlessness and generosity. Her work is a bridge where African musical heritage…
Grant Gee on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Grant Gee, an acclaimed British director known for his profound and often introspective explorations of art, music, and landscape. His latest work, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, delves into the life of one of jazz's most enigmatic and influential pianists, Bill Evans. What drew a filmmaker of Gee's caliber to the…
Tshepiso Chikapa-Phiri on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Tshepiso has played a significant role in international productions filmed in South Africa, serving as South African Production Executive on Universal Studios’ Beast, starring Idris Elba and Sharlto Copley, and on Sony Pictures’ The Woman King, starring Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu. In 2018, she co-founded Known Associates Entertainment, later…
Bokang Ramatlapeng on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Bokang is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, and storyteller whose journey is deeply personal. Having lost her mother young, she was raised by her elder sisters, whose sacrifices became the subject of her most celebrated work. Her 2022 single, "Bana Ba Nthabiseng," won Best Jazz Song at the 7th Mzantsi Jazz…
Lungile Zaphi on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
In Jabavu, Soweto, there is a centre where a child can walk through the door with nothing but curiosity—and walk out, years later, with a scholarship to one of the world's great music institutions. It is called the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music. The centre is closely tied to the…
Sonya Mazumdar on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Sonya Mazumdar is the co-founder of JazzRenyon — a platform launched in 2023 with Alain Courbis and Mustapha Terki, and together they are on a mission to support, promote and network the jazz scene of Reunion Island and the entire Indian Ocean basin. Mauritius. Seychelles. Comoros. Madagascar. And Reunion itself…
Ralph Louis Smit on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
Ralph is a multi-instrumentalist and film student whose work is rooted deeply in the soil of Southern Africa. He was an apprentice to the late Smiles Makama, the Eswatini master of the musical bow. Ralph uses the trumpet and electronic looping to expand what he refers to as "forgotten archives.
Ciko Thomas of Nedbank Group on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
We are chatting to Ciko Thomas, Group Managing Executive of Personal and Private Banking at Nedbank Group about Nedbank being a Presenting Partner for the Montreux Jazz Festival South Africa and how Nedbank is positioning itself as a cultural enabler in private wealth banking.
Eddie Henderson on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
Trumpeter and flugelhorn player Eddie Henderson came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi band, one of the most adventurous ensembles of the electric jazz era. Over the decades he has moved seamlessly between acoustic and electric traditions, recording landmark albums and collaborating…
Marquis Hill on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
Chicago-born trumpeter and composer Marquis Hill joins us as we preview his latest project Beautifulism — a work that sits at the intersection of jazz, hip-hop, and spiritual inquiry. A former winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, Hill’s music continues a lineage shaped by figures like Roy…
Stacey Kent on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane
We sit with Stacey Kent, one of the defining vocalists of our time. She is a singer whose work moves between literature and jazz, and whose collaborations with Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro have redefined the relationship between storytelling and song. With over a billion streams, a Grammy nomination, and…
Vimbs Mavimbs on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
Today we shine a spotlight on Vimbs Mavimbs — a musician whose path has taken him from South Africa to Hamburg, where he is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the Frankfurt University of Music & Performing Arts. His debut album Late Bloomer, set for release in 2026, is a…
Lerato Tshabalala-Mini on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
Archives do not only live in books or institutional collections. Sometimes they live in places — in neighbourhoods, community halls and cultural centres where history continues to be spoken, performed and remembered. One such place is Eyethu Heritage Hall. It is here that a fascinating storytelling platform titled Jazz In…
Kwanti Leeh! on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
Tribute, remembrance, lineage — these are not only international conversations. Here at home, musicians are also returning to the work of South African elders whose compositions continue to shape the sound of the present. The collective known as Kwanti Leeh! brings together Ayanda Sikade, Sisonke Xonti, Andile Yenana and Herbie…
Nono Nkoane on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
With Nono, we move past the façade — past the filtered Instagram squares and glossy festival brochures — and into the engine room of the Western Cape’s live music machinery. How is it really functioning? Is it sustainable? Is it inclusive? Is it evolving or merely repeating what has worked…
Darren English on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane
More than the accolades, Darren English is a storyteller. His music holds memory, migration, improvisation, and a deep sense of purpose. And in this episode we get to sit down and listen closely to Darren guiding us through the inspirations, the experiments, and the moments behind He Said, She Said…