Musician Siya Charles is breaking brass ceilings

Blowing them away: Cape Town-born, and educated at UCT and The Juilliard School in New York, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz winner, trombonist Siya Charles, will perform at the Joy of Jazz Festival in Joburg later this month. Photo: Mark Wessels and Daniel Song

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Charles earned her jazz master’s in music from the institution last year, graduating magna cum laude.

Going from studying at a South African university to a renowned music school in the US was a pleasant transition that grew her understanding and love for jazz, Charles says.

She commends the South African College of Music at UCT for doing a great job in teaching her jazz harmony and language.

“They really taught us the foundation of how jazz was built. We first started with the nuts and bolts of jazz, which is an American art form.”

Having grown up to the sounds of saxophonist Charlie Parker and jazz trombonist JJ Johnson, Charles’s ear was mostly attuned to American classical jazz, which made studying at UCT and Juilliard a natural progression.

At Juilliard, she adds, they encouraged students to expound on their South African-influenced music, rather than changing their style.

“I was able to add to it and also learn about the art of being an intentional and confident improviser because, what they do at Juilliard, is they take what you have and they build on it.”

Charles expressed a desire for South African universities to incorporate more South African jazz into their curricula, as she learned much of this music through jam sessions, rather than formal education.

“I only heard about the likes of Winston Mankunku’s Yakhal' inkomo in jam sessions, you know.

“So, I definitely believe that we need to have a contemporary curriculum within jazz education that includes so much more of the South African jazz canon.

“There are organisations such as the National Youth Jazz Festival that are doing a great job of teaching students more of South African jazz. But more could be done.”