"Playing our pan in Soweto"

Click on the title above to read this piece written by Keith Smith for the Trinidad Express. Keith is a writer whom I have great respect for. He writes a daily column in the Trinidad Express, and speaks eloquently on just about anything and everything. If you want to read more of his writing, go to the Trinidad Express web site link here.

andy narell jazz club of soweto

The first time I had any idea that there was a growing interest in my music in South Africa was during a European tour I was doing with the Caribbean Jazz Project about 1995 or so. We were playing at a club in Copenhagen and a guy named Stan Bodibe came backstage and starting telling me how a lot of people back home were getting into it, and there was even a club named after me, an idea I couldn’t wrap my mind around at all. So when I finally went to South Africa in 1999 to play at the Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, and these guys were waiting for me at the airport with their Andy Narell Jazz Club tee shirts and hats on, I still had no idea what was going on. When more than 60,000 people turned out for the concert, and they started cheering at the beginning of tunes and singing along, I realized something was up.

Like a message in a bottle, the records I was making had found their way to South Africa and found the audience I’d dreamed of having, and I was more than curious about this jazz club thing. I mean, here were these guys following me around to every record store signing and coming to the shows, and treating me like some kind of star. So we started hanging out, and I went out to Soweto to visit with them, and I tried to understand how this came about.

Apparently the listening clubs of South Africa have their roots in the community groups that were created to pay for funeral arrangements. In economically poor societies it’s often a tremendous hardship for families to pay for a funeral when someone dies, so people pool their money to cover the costs. This is common to many places but South Africa appears to be unique in transforming this concept into clubs where people pool their money to be able to buy cds and listen to music. Clubs often bear the name of the town or district they come from, and some are named after a musician whom the members like. Unbeknownst to me, I was chosen to represent one of these clubs. Hence the Andy Narell Jazz Club of Soweto, a group of people that I have come to know and love and can call my friends, and a club of which I am proud to be a member. And they introduced me to pap and chakalaka. At right is a statement from the club.