ORAL HISTORIAN OR VULTURE? DOCUMENTING SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ LEGENDS AFTER THEY’VE LEFT US
Nigel Vermaas, broadcaster, playwright, director, documentary maker
Thursday 22 January 3.00 pm COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58
Nigel Vermaas has made many radio documentaries and features for SAfm and Bush Radio which pay tribute to South African jazz musicians. This lecture will advocate for the essential need for a properly curated sound archive, while revealing Nigel’s approach to documentary-making, as well as some of the challenges.
Sadly, three luminaries in the jazz world passed away in 2025 – Rashid Lombard, Louis Moholo-Moholo and Feya Faku. Nigel will share priceless clips from documentaries he made paying tribute to these musicians and others, such as Robbie Jansen, Basil Moses, Zim Ngqawana, Miriam Makeba, the Ngcukana Brothers (Ezra and Duke), Erika Lundi, Hotep Idris Galeta, Mac McKenzie, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Nico Carstens and Dave Leadbetter. You are invited to celebrate the lives of these South African jazz legends.
TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575250663
NIGEL VERMAAS is a radio drama director, writer, arts and jazz presenter and documentary maker. He has won numerous awards for radio, as both drama director and writer, and also as documentary maker. Aside from his original writing, he has adapted many masterworks for radio including HAMLET, DEATH OF A SALESMAN and works by Athol Fugard. From 1997 he specialised in jazz features and documentaries on South African music for SAfm. He has reviewed theatre for radio for over two decades.
In 2005 he project-managed Bush Radio’s 12-week African Radio Drama seasonfunded by ProHelvetia and the Lotto (2005). For SAfm he adapted and directed Niq Mhlongo’s novel, AFTER TEARS. In 2007 he dramatised a serialised radio version of Zoë Wicomb’s novel, PLAYING IN THE LIGHT for SAfm. He has also serialised a major Andrè Brink novel, IMAGININGS OF SAND