Hanepoot Brass Band

In July 1986 the Sophiatown jazz legend Ntemi Piliso asked a young Jannie "Hanepoot" van Tonder to join his African Jazz Pioneers. Two years on the road turned Van Tonder's interest in South African music into a conviction that local jazz was not getting the attention it deserved, and the years since — alongside James Phillips, Mac MacKenzie, Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers and George Werner, with whom he published The South African Jazz Real Book in 2002 — became the Hanepoot Brass Band. The eight-piece resembles both the brass bands of New Orleans and the Kaapse Klopse street bands, with five horns over sousaphone, banjo and percussion. Their debut album Tokkellaan was recorded live at the Blik Theatre in Epping in March 2026.