Testing the musical knowledge of world class artists with a series of classic recordings, getting their in-the-moment impressions and insights into their tastes and influences.

For this video version of Drop the Needle, South African vocalist Melanie Scholtz and Kenyan-born pianist Aaron Rimbui share their insightful impressions on multiple generations of South African jazz greats, discussing their impact on the music as well as their personal experiences with them.

A Cape Town native, Melanie Scholtz has been a major artist on the South African scene since the early 2000s, releasing five acclaimed albums, working with jazz legend and Miriam Makeba’s one-time husband Hugh Masekela, and touring the world with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2019. Her celebrated 2013 collaboration with the iconic poet and anti-apartheid activist James Mathews, Freedom’s Child, featured former SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Soweto Kinch.

Dubbed “the greatest pianist in East Africa” by the major African newspaper Daily Nation, Kenyan multi-instrumentalist and composer Aaron Rimbui is a rising force on the international scene, having collaborated with a global roster of major artists including Deitrick Haddon, Bobby Ricketts, Emmanuel Jal, Suzanna Owiyo, and Eric Wainaina. He’s released five superb albums and was music director of the wildly popular East African reality competition show Tusker Project Fame.

Video Listings:
Hugh Masekela & Larry Willis: “Grazing in the Grass” (filmed at SFJAZZ, 2015)
Abdullah Ibrahim: “Water from an Ancient Well” (filmed at SFJAZZ, 2016)
Miriam Makeba: “Pata Pata” (from the Ed Sullivan Show, 1969)
Nduduzo Makhathini: “Amanxusa Asemkhathini” (from the Louis Armstrong Museum, 2024)
Bokani Dyer & Radio Sechaba: “Ke Nako” (from Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, 2023)