Kaya 959 The Jazz Standard

Nasheet Waits

Loading player...
On January 2024, revolutionary jazz drummer Max Roach would have turned 100 years and in honor of his centennial, a celebration concert has been commissioned by the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre (NJPAC). This will feature the re-imagining of the 1960 'Freedom Now Suite' which Max co-wrote with Oscar Brown as commentary on whether African-Americans are really free and the issues of apartheid in South Africa . On The Jazz Standard we speak to the show's musical director,drummer Nasheet Waits who was given his first international spotlight by the mentorship of Max Roach calling him up to join Roach's percussion group M'Boom.This commemoration will include heavy weights such as pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, bassist Eric Revis and poets Sonia Sanchez and Saul Williams. Nasheet Waits joins us on The Blueprint to reflect and share what this celebration truly means to him.
14 Jan 2024 English South Africa Music History · Music Commentary

Other recent episodes

Asher Gamedze on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane

We turn toward drummer, composer, thinker Asher Gamedze as he opens up his new project, A Semblance. A title that already resists certainty. A likeness. A trace. A suggestion of something once known — or perhaps something still becoming. With Asher, return is never simple. It is layered, political, spiritual…
22 Feb 29 min

Mr Ron Carter on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane

Ron Carter is not simply one of the most recorded bassists in jazz history; he is a custodian of time, a sculptor of resonance and a musician whose tone is deliberate, weighted and inevitable. From the disciplined corridors of the Eastman School to the restless laboratories of 1960s New York;…
22 Feb 40 min

Ralph Louis Smit on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane

Ralph is a multi-instrumentalist and film student whose work is rooted deeply in the soil of Southern Africa. He was an apprentice to the late Smiles Makama, the Eswatini master of the musical bow. Ralph uses the trumpet and electronic looping to expand what he refers to as "forgotten archives.
29 Mar 37 min

Ciko Thomas of Nedbank Group on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane

We are chatting to Ciko Thomas, Group Managing Executive of Personal and Private Banking at Nedbank Group about Nedbank being a Presenting Partner for the Montreux Jazz Festival South Africa and how Nedbank is positioning itself as a cultural enabler in private wealth banking.
29 Mar 14 min

Nono Nkoane on The Jazz Standard With Brenda Sisane

With Nono, we move past the façade — past the filtered Instagram squares and glossy festival brochures — and into the engine room of the Western Cape’s live music machinery. How is it really functioning? Is it sustainable? Is it inclusive? Is it evolving or merely repeating what has worked…
1 Mar 29 min
All episodes