"Jazz against Apartheid": An Interview with Jürgen Leinhos

“Jazz gegen Apartheid” – “Jazz against apartheid” – was a project launched in Frankfurt in 1986 by Jürgen Leinhos1 and the South African bassist Johnny Dyani, shortly before the latter’s death. Thirty years later, on 27 October 2016, the project made a guest appearance at the Bird’s Eye jazz club in Basel with a concert entitled “Celebrating the music of Johnny Dyani” that featured Makaya Ntshoko on drums – a South African who had long before made his home in the city. The club’s programme states that “Jazz against apartheid” had dedicated an annual series of concerts to the memory of Johnny Dyani ever since his death. Leinhos managed the project from its very beginnings – which was reason enough to meet him in his home city of Frankfurt am Main on 24 May 2024 to ask him about both the project and Ntshoko.