As Lewis Nkosi observed in the 1960s, a nexus of creative urban social life in South Africa was at its climax, resulting in the production of some of the most pivotal works of South African art, writing, photography and music. At the centre of this creative moment was South African jazz and its growing, culturally specific forms.Many of the photographers who worked for the magazines Zonk! and Drum were swept up in the fecundity of this ‘fabulous decade’, as Nkosi termed it. They captured this fugitive creative movement that the apartheid regime attempted to destroy.– Matthew Blackman

In the early sixties, after we’d moved from Eersterust to Mamelodi, I got involved with two musicians, Philip Tabane and Abbey Cindi, and I became a musician. The three of us became the Malombo Jazz Men, Philip on guitar, Abbey on flute and myself, Julian, on drums. We became South Africa’s top jazz group. Ernest was always with us and he became a close friend of all three of us, and he took lots of photographs of us during our rehearsals.– Julian Bahula in an interview with researcher Gunilla Knape.

I sold liquor, only for those who were interested in jazz; jazz lovers only. The rest, I didn’t serve them. At that time Julian was playing jazz with the Malombo Jazz Men, so after they had finished playing they usually came to me for refreshments. Even the reporters, like Alf Kumalo, usually came here.– Louie Bapelo on Mamelodi, a township outside of Pretoria, in the mid-1960s.