Hanepoot Brass Band album "Tokkellaan" launch

Hanepoot Brass Band album "Tokkellaan" launch Hanepoot Brass Band will be performing at Toneelhuis, 61 Loop Street, Cape Town at 19h30 on Thursday 1 October in the first of a series of events to launch their debut CD "Tokkellaan". In July 1986, Sophiatown jazz legend Ntemi Piliso asked young upstart Jannie “Hanepoot” van Tonder to join his African Jazz Pioneers. Hanepoot had already been listening to indigenous musicians like Dollar Brand but through the two years spent on the road with African Jazz Pioneers his awareness of our rich South African musical heritage matured into a belief that our unique local jazz was not getting the mainstream attention it deserved. He made it his life's work to learn and be involved, and through spending time with musicians like Bra Ntemi, James Phillips, Winston Nyaunda, Mac MacKenzie, Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers and George Werner, with whom he published The South African Jazz Real Book in 2002, this evolved into what has become the Hanepoot Brass Band. Now, 40 years later, Hanepoot Brass Band, an 8-piece line-up which resembles both the great brass bands of New Orleans and the street bands of our own Kaapse Klopse, celebrates this heritage with the release of their debut album Tokkellaan - combining great musicianship with our indigenous jazz grooves in an unique acoustic 5-horn format, driven by a rhythm section of sousaphone, banjo and percussion. The band features some of Cape Town's finest, including Carlton Adams, Siraaj Allen and Zhaun Gorridon, all of whom grew up playing music in the Kaapse Klopse and various of Cape Town’s Christmas bands. Add Carlo Fabe and Duncan Johnson, alumni of George Werner's community-based projects (e.g. Little Giants), University of Cape Town jazz graduate Simon Bates, acclaimed singer-songwriter Nick Turner, and of course Jannie Hanepoot himself, and you have a cultural melting pot capable of great energy and creativity. A thoughtful blend of original compositions combined with new arrangements of works by our great Cape composers like Tete Mbambisa, Errol Dyers and David Leadbetter turns Tokkellaan into an important and joyous dedication to South African Jazz, old and new. Hanepoot Brass Band was fortunate to enlist producer Jonny Blundell of Rootspring Music who recorded Tokkellaan ‘live’ on the stage of the Blik Theatre in Epping over a weekend in March 2026, together with engineer Dave Langemann who also mixed and mastered the album. The expertise and dedication these stalwarts brought to the project shines through in every note. CD’s and USB’s will be on sale, the venue has a full bar and popcorn on sale. Only 80 seats are available at Toneelhuis, a beautiful venue in the CBD, so book yours soon!