Shifting fortunes: Jazz in (post)apartheid South Africa

TY - JOUR

T1 - Shifting fortunes: Jazz in (post)apartheid South Africa

AU - Ramanna, Nishlyn

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This article investigates the increasing prestige accorded to jazz in post-apartheidSouth Africa. My discussion consists of two parts. First, drawing on RobinBernstein’s (2009) work, I characterise the discourses of Apartheid, the RainbowNation and the African Renaissance as “scripts”. In my discussion I explore howthese scripts have significantly determined jazz’s shifting fortunes during SouthAfrica’s transition period, and the first decade of the post-apartheid era. Thereafter, Iuse Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) work on social and cultural capital to show how jazz canfunction as a form of capital. I argue that thinking about jazz in this way makesvisible the political agendas that enable and constrain its production and reception.In my analysis I make particular reference to an ethnographic history of theinstitutionalization of jazz at the University of Natal. I also refer to ethnographicinterviews I conducted with jazz musicians, critics, and audience-members present onthe jazz scenes of Durban in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, and Johannesburg in theearly 2000s (Ramanna 2005).

AB - This article investigates the increasing prestige accorded to jazz in post-apartheidSouth Africa. My discussion consists of two parts. First, drawing on RobinBernstein’s (2009) work, I characterise the discourses of Apartheid, the RainbowNation and the African Renaissance as “scripts”. In my discussion I explore howthese scripts have significantly determined jazz’s shifting fortunes during SouthAfrica’s transition period, and the first decade of the post-apartheid era. Thereafter, Iuse Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) work on social and cultural capital to show how jazz canfunction as a form of capital. I argue that thinking about jazz in this way makesvisible the political agendas that enable and constrain its production and reception.In my analysis I make particular reference to an ethnographic history of theinstitutionalization of jazz at the University of Natal. I also refer to ethnographicinterviews I conducted with jazz musicians, critics, and audience-members present onthe jazz scenes of Durban in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, and Johannesburg in theearly 2000s (Ramanna 2005).

M3 - Article

SN - 2223-635X

VL - 33

SP - 153

EP - 165

JO - South African Music Studies

JF - South African Music Studies

IS - 2223-635X

ER -