Cape jazz

Cape jazz (more often written Cape Jazz) is a genre of jazz that is performed in the very southern part of Africa, the name being a reference to Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Jazz is similar to the popular music style known as marabi, though more improvisational in character. Where marabi is a piano jazz style, Cape Jazz in the beginning featured (though not exclusively) instruments that can be carried in a street parade, such as brass instruments, banjos, guitars and percussion instruments.

Although there are strong influences from the US American Jazz art form, the development of Cape Jazz ran parallel to the course of American jazz in the early 20th century. Being born in a similar political climate to that in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the end of the 19th century, the blues songs that inspired this genre told of local occurrences in Cape Town. An example is the inspiration of the visits of the southern confederate raider The Alabama to the Cape in 1863 and 1864, resulting in the folk song "Daar kom die Alibama".