Kaya 959 The Jazz Standard

Rico Jones on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

Loading player...
Tenor saxophonist Rico Jones is a musician who found his voice at age thirteen in a Denver gospel band, and that sacred foundation has informed every note since. After earning two degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and being mentored by the likes of Sonny Rollins and George Coleman, Rico did something truly remarkable during the pandemic. He brought jazz to the people, organizing over 200 free outdoor concerts at Sloan Lake, reminding us that music is a necessity, not a luxury.

His debut album, BloodLines, released in 2025 on Giant Step Arts, has already been hailed as a landmark recording, earning a four-star review from DownBeat. Critics are already placing him in the lineage of Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, noting his deep roots in the Black church.
12 Jul English South Africa Music History · Music Commentary

Other recent episodes

Kgauhelo Dube on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

Kgauhelo Dube has spent two decades driving impact across arts, media, and literacy. Through The Artist's Helpdesk — a South Africa-based nonprofit she founded during the 2020 lockdown — she is taking on a systemic overhaul: disrupting cycles of precarity, advocating for fair pay, and centering African women.
14 Jun 13 min

Dr Nduduzo Makhathini on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

What does it mean to continuously workshop ideas? Or to finally be at peace with neither arriving nor resolving, and to embrace music as an ever-shifting constellation of extensions of the self and the communities from which we emanate? In this special on-the-fly encounter, we lay our curiosities on the…
26 Jul 35 min

Saul Madiope on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

Saul Madiope, affectionately known as The Digital Jazz Man. Saul is a South African saxophonist, producer, and sound engineer celebrated for fusing traditional African jazz with contemporary digital soundscapes. His work has earned international recognition, including features on Generations and placements on HBO’s In Treatment and Netflix’s Savage Beauty. His…
19 Jul 7 min

Marcus Wyatt on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

Marcus Wyatt, a prolific South African trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, has led various ensembles, and the ZAR Jazz Orchestra is one of his notable projects but today he is here to tell us about, Church of the Rolling Tongue, a new ensemble he has just formed. This project is both…
19 Jul 23 min

Andreas Tschopp on The Jazz Standard with Brenda Sisane

For over twenty years, he has been one of Switzerland's busiest and most versatile voices on the trombone. Whether he is performing in the brass-percussion fire of Le Rex, the avant-garde precision of the Vertigo Trombone Quartet, or the celebrated South African-Swiss collective Skyjack, his music has always been about…
19 Jul 24 min
All episodes