John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

Like Going Home: The Swingers Jam Sessions, Cape Town, South Africa

I've sung the praises of the Monday night jam sessions at Swingers many times in the past (for instance, here), and I'm not going to miss the chance to do it again. By now, the sessions are a venerable institution. When I first visited, about ten years ago, they were... Read more →

Swingers Jam Sesssion: SAJE Edition

The Monday night jam sessions at Swingers are a Cape Town institution. The club, which is located among factories and warehouses in the Cape Town suburb of Ottery, attracts a crowd that's made up mostly of locals. But the jams also draw foreigners and South Africans from elsewhere in the... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 14, More Jamming @ Swingers

Cape Town is the best city in Africa for jazz. Swingers is the best place to hear it. I've said the same thing many times, in many different ways. Cape Town's mix of musicians -- mainstream and experimental, African jazz and Cape jazz, smooth jazz and jazz-rock fusion -- is... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 12, Swingers Jam Sesssion, World Cup Edition

A few days ago, it was back to Swingers Restaurant and Pub (in the Cape Town suburb of Ottery) for the soon-to-be legendary Monday night jam session. I've written about these jam sessions several times (here, here, and here) and usually end up saying something along the lines of "you... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 8, the Monday Night Jam Sessions at Swingers

The last time that I wrote about the Monday night jam session at Swingers, I called it my musical home-away-from-home. It still is. So, last Monday evening -- my first Monday evening on this trip to Cape Town -- there I was, in the front row, soaking up the sounds... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 5, the Swingers Jam Session

This is the last in my current series of posts on jazz in Cape Town, South Africa. (To see them all, click on the links over on the right.) Appropriately, it's about the Monday night jam session at Swingers, which has, over the last few years, become my musical home-away-from-home.... Read more →

Jazz in Africa: Cape Town, Part 2

The first time I walked into Swingers, the first words that came into my mind were Detroit, Philly, Harlem... Everything about this Cape Town joint--the people, the music, the decor--reminded me of the clubs I've visited in African-American neighborhoods all over the US. As I mentioned in my last post,... Read more →