How DJ Bob wants to use his Swiss gig to create opportunities for young SA artists

After being initially booked for the Swiss music festival Jazzwerkstatt, DJ Bob saw it right to use this as an opportunity to birth more opportunities for young artists in Mzansi.

“I also thought, [that] let me use this time to check out the live scene, the festival scene, and see what I could learn that can be applied here,” shared the DJ.

Real name Rob Allan but fondly and popularly known as DJ Bob, the seasoned disc jock decided to approach the funding body Pro Helvetia, which is a public foundation of Switzerland that supports artists and promotes Swiss culture and art abroad.

When he sat down to jot the proposal for Pro Helvetia, the DJ pondered the issues faced by young artists in South Africa and the issues surrounding live music.

“Something that’s close to my heart, that I’d like to do while I’m over there, is looking at the possibilities of travel and performance, specifically for young artists,” he said.

Jazzwerkstatt is a musician’s festival and networking point in Switzerland and Europe. During the five days of the festival, he will meet promoters from a range of venues and festivals as well as musicians who are invited.

Among the objectives of his trip is to examine how live music venues and festivals can be made sustainable in South Africa.  

Bob is a respected DJ behind Johannesburg’s live music venue 206 in the 1990s. He has played at the OppiKoppi festival for more than two decades and is a renowned music curator.

His research trip is supported by Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, the Swiss Arts Council.

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An unalive music scene

It’s hard to find work as a young jazz musician in South Africa today, with few live spaces, too much posing, and where much music is consumed on digital platforms.

DJ Bob aims to find new ways of empowering and promoting young SA artists who do not always have access to managers and infrastructure to access opportunities for travel, funding, and learning. 

He says that since 2020 the live music scene in the country has taken a knock.

“There are like two jazz venues in Joburg, and another problem I’ve found is that, especially jazz gigs, it has become inaccessible to a younger crowd because it’s R300, R400 to go. Kids don’t have that money,” said Bob.

The active jazz venues in Joburg are Untitled Basement in Braamfontein and the longstanding Niki’s Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar in Newtown.

“A night out is a thousand rand, so how are we supposed to do that? Let’s say we can’t afford the night out; that’s fine, but where are the young kids going to get their cultural fix and their live music?,” asked the DJ.

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Unsustainability

The last decade has seen a paucity of an underground music scene in Joburg, with only Siyabonga Mthembu’s Tuesday Funk Jam session being one spot artists can jam in recent years.

“You know those small venues with those small gigs, that’s the breeding ground for new artists and fresh bands! You look at the jazz scene now; you’ve got the same cats doing the rounds,” he says.

He mentions the sort of new guys like Kujenga and iPhupho L’Ka Biko.

“I love what those guys are doing, but even they’re not that young anymore. They’re not making money; they’re not surviving.”

A place like Pretoria has a handful of pop-up events that maintain the vibrancy of the city’s live music scene.

A platform like Black Labone, which takes place every Thursday at the State Theatre, is a perfect example of a platform that is accessible, both physically and financially, as it’s in the centre of the city and there is no entrance fee.

The whole point of Bob’s research is how to empower young artists, as there are few or no opportunities for them to master their craft.

“You know when somebody wins the Standard Bank Young Jazz award, they’re like 35 years old,” exclaims Bob.

“These are my friends I’m talking about. By that time, they’re 35, they’ve worked in the studio, and they’re good players. Why aren’t we putting that effort and money into younger artists we can nature?,” he shared.

“Now it’s hard for young bands to get into the scene or even perform somewhere to find gigs.”

Bob’s point rings true when you look at big-scale festivals such as the Joy of Jazz and Delicious Festival, whose line-ups don’t sincerely create platforms for young bands because of their prioritisation of ‘big name’ artists with the objective of selling tickets.

“They [festival organisers] are so responsible for that because they’re in a position. It’s like, ‘Why must we do it?’ because you can.”

These are some of the issues that Bob is planning on presenting and finding solutions to in the European country.

“There’s a lot of support from government and art organisations in Switzerland, but then in South Africa there is money, and money does come from government for the arts. But I don’t think it’s been applied in a correct manner,” he said.

Bob will play as a DJ and also co-host a live panel interviewing visiting musicians at the festival.

“I will travel to Zurich, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Lausanne, Bern and Basel. The records I will play will be mostly South African music,” he said.

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