News24 | #JazzReignited: How Joy of Jazz made room for elders, young voices, and everything in between

• The 27th Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival was held on 25-26 September 2026 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
• Themed “Jazz Reignited,” the festival featured Angélique Kidjo, Kamasi Washington, Judith Sephuma, Madala Kunene and Sibusile Xaba Ensemble, Tank and the Bangas, Floetry, and more across four stages.
• A Busi Mhlongo tribute by Buhlebendalo Mda, Zawadi YaMungu and Xolisa Dlamini closed the Mbira stage on Saturday with goosebumps across the room.

Sandton for two nights, four rooms breathing at once, and every corner of the Convention Centre in harmony for this year’s theme, #JazzReignited. Twenty-seven years deep, and the festival still swings like it’s got something to prove, which, honestly, is the only way it should ever feel.

Dinaledi – Where the festival goes big

This was the main artery, the stage built for the names that need room to stretch. Ibrahim Maalouf opened the horn up like a door between two languages, Arabic maqam sliding straight into swing without asking permission, the trumpet doing the work of a translator.

South African songstress Judith Sephuma reminded the room why command doesn’t require volume. Sephuma exudes a particular kind of grace that permeates a room, and speaking to News24 ahead of her Friday performance, she hailed the festival for its consistent growth and said the gathering gives participants a rare opportunity to see how far they’re growing as artists.

Judith Sephuma performing at this year's Standard Bank Joy of Jazz

Gallo Images/ Oupa Bopape

Khaya Mahlangu’s tribute to Kippie Moeketsi landed here too, reminding the room that just a year ago, the Market Theatre held centenary celebrations for Moeketsi, the father of South African jazz, born 27 July 1925, who mentored Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonas Gwangwa and Hugh Masekela before his death in 1983.

Mahlangu served as music director for that centenary gathering at the Market Theatre Precinct in September 2025, where about a hundred jazz musicians assembled for a historic photoshoot and jam session around Kippie’s statue. Bringing the tribute to the Dinaledi stage felt like a continuation of that homage, the saxophonist carrying the legacy from Newtown to Sandton.

In the corridors, navigating the different floors between stages, festival attendees were more than impressed with Ola Onabule and Dumza Maswana, who closed the stage out with his 20-piece Umngqungqo Orchestral Experience.

Angélique Kidjo and Kamasi Washington’s big-room energy fit squarely in this lane too. Kidjo turned her corner into full communion.

It was hard for the chairs to stay occupied. The French-Beninese musician, actor and activist brought the fire on stage, accompanied by visuals on the screen, and when she sang the fan favourite Agolo, everyone was up on their feet, proving again why she’s world-renowned, with Grammy Awards under her belt. In true cross-continental fashion, she performed her symphonic rendition of Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode’s Jerusalema, a version she released in December 2024, reimagined with conductor Derrick Hodge and his Colour of Noize Orchestra.

The original, released in 2019, became a global phenomenon during the Covid-19 pandemic; Kidjo’s version transformed the dancefloor hit into a symphonic experience, and hearing it live in Sandton felt like the song coming home to the continent that birthed it.

Kamasi Washington’s first-ever Joy of Jazz appearance built those long gospel vamps until the room simply gave in.

Mbira – soulfully intimate

Smaller room, bigger risk. Floetry shared this stage with Nomfusi and French singer-guitarist Anaïs Rosso, three very different vocal languages trading the same intimacy.

Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie “The Floacist” Stewart came fully prepared for South Africa. They sound exactly like their record, which is quite rare sometimes.

The duo, who have been on and off for a year, made a very welcome announcement when they said they’ll be touring on their Say Yes tour, which I think was much to their fans’ delight. This reunion was really worth the wait. Their performance was for the books.

Floetry at this year's Standard Bank Joy Jazz

Gallo Images/ Oupa Bopape

Rosso, widely celebrated for her warm, expressive and deeply resonant vocal texture, carried the room beautifully, the kind of performance that intrinsically sucked you in.

Her lower, rich tenor range draws heavily from the raw emotional power of old-school blues invocations, so though we were technically in Sandton, we had travelled through time to wherever her voice was taking us.

Critics often describe her unique instrument as a warm, soulful tenor that seamlessly bridges the gaps between deep blues, operatic drama and atmospheric jazz, and her voice balances moving through these different depths without strain.

Anaïs Rosso at this year's Standard Bank Joy of Jazz

Gallo Images/ Oupa Bopape

Buhlebendalo Mda, Zawadi YaMungu and Xolisa Dlamini stitched together a tribute to legendary singer, dancer and composer Busi Mhlongo that reminded everyone how much the South African vocal soul runs through the music she left behind.

The trio closed the Mbira stage on Saturday, and this is a combination we never knew we needed.

The goosebumps were felt across the room, truly embodying the spirit of Busi Mhlongo, whose stage presence, fire and spirit you’d witness on stage and even hear in her records.

The room got younger and rawer on both nights, too. Internet Athi shared a bill here with artists he’s called direct inspirations. Manana brought the newer energy of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. Soweto crew Gurulogic pushed the whole thing toward something looser, more street-built.

For those who caught Internet Athi on Friday, words would probably fail to describe the performance. His ability to hold the room, interact with the audience, and make it feel like an “our performance” vibe made his slot amazing. Beyond the fact that he is beloved, the full venue was a demonstration of that love. If he ever doubted whether South Africans love him, that night proved it.

Internet Athi performing at this year's Standard Bank Joy of Jazz

Gallo Images/ Oupa Bopape

This is what I appreciate about the Joy of Jazz movement: everyone belongs. Jazz doesn’t belong only to older audiences, as previously described.

More and more young people are waking up to the beauty, life and spirit that lives in the genre.

Conga, where the jazz gets louder

Genre-crossing by design. Tank and the Bangas brought their usual controlled chaos, all theatre and groove colliding. I must admit I didn’t know who Tank and the Bangas were ahead of this festival, and here’s a little did-you-know: they are an American musical group based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The band won the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and in November 2019, were nominated in the Best New Artist category for the 2020 Grammy Awards. They have released three studio albums: Thinktank, Green Balloon and Red Balloon. As I was leaving the venue after the Busi Mhlongo tribute, they were on stage, and I made a mental note to put them on my list of artists to see on Saturday night, no regrets. The group is out of this world.

Madala Kunene and the Sibusile Xaba Ensemble worked the more exploratory, guitar-forward end of African sound, the kind of playing that rewards standing still and actually listening. Hailed as the African Bluesman, Kunene delivered an intimate, reflective show.

Sydney Mavundla dug into material from Dirge for Our Fathers, trumpet lines heavy with intention. He told News24 the album was an ode to the elders and musicians who paved the way for him and many others.

Tumi Mogorosi’s Thank You For Your Service Quartet, joined by UK saxophonist Soweto Kinch and bassist Neil Charles, turned into exactly what you’d hope three jazz traditions arguing productively over the same rhythm section would sound like, nobody backing down, everybody better for it.

In May, Mogorosi told News24 that South African jazz has never been just music, it’s a conversation about freedom, race, ethics and cultural identity. He and Kinch had been billed as a tribute to black radical freedom, and on the Conga stage, that conversation played out in real time, the kind of set that reminds you a good disagreement can swing just as hard as a good agreement.

The stage closed on award-winning jazz trumpeter Ndabo Zulu and the Umgidi Ensemble with Nduduzo Makhathini, Salisu Ndlanzi, Sphelelo Mazibuko, Gontse Makhene, Linda Sikhakhane, Simon Manana, Muneyi and Paras “Sibalukhulu” Dlamini, sending the room out on something communal and unhurried.

I appreciate the last performances on stages that pull the evening together, giving it a meaningful end. This performance gave this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz a well-deserving close, and I know that former president Thabo Mbeki and former first lady Zanele Mbeki would nod in agreement.

We were all together, communing and watching stories being told to us by Ndabo Zulu and the ensemble until their last bow officially sealed this year’s festival.

Diphala – new discoveries, women shaping the future

It was the stage curated with the clearest sense of purpose. The room you gravitated to when you wanted to understand where contemporary jazz is truly heading, and, in particular, which women are charting that course.

Nubya Garcia pulled listeners into the gravitational pull of UK jazz, weaving broken beat and Caribbean colour into something richly textured and never rushed. Gabi Motuba, the current Standard Bank Young Artist Award recipient, filled the room with her soulful sounds. Lorraine Klaasen delivered a performance steeped in years of songcraft.

This was the stage for anyone who sees discovery as half the point of showing up at all, the one where you leave with a name you never walked in knowing.

Also appearing on the Diphala stage on Saturday were Melanie Scholtz, Carmen Souza, the Sebastian Studnitzky Euphoria quintet, and Ziza Muftic Singing in Tongues.

The pocket, the people, the pulse

Four rooms running at once, four different arguments about what the music should be doing at any given hour, and the real festival happens in the walk between them, ducking a 20-piece orchestra to stumble into a quartet arguing something out in real time.

Twenty-five thousand strong now, up from under two thousand at the start, and it still felt like a room, not an arena. Bra Hugh, Kippie, and Busi Mhlongo got their flowers. Kamasi got his welcome.

The Young Artist winners got a real turn at the mic next to the elders who made the platform possible. One long conversation across two nights and four stages, which, for a jazz head, is the whole point of showing up.

READ| ‘Priceless’: Judith Sephuma returns to ‘first love’ at 2026 Standard Bank Joy of Jazz