Cultural hub uses jazz and soul to bring us back together

“In 1988 I ran away from being conscripted into the apartheid army and fled to London,” says Bassline founder Brad Holmes. “There I worked as a waiter, six days a week, 10 hours a day, for several years in a fancy restaurant that played jazz all the time, which turned me onto the genre. I flew home within days of Nelson Mandela being released from jail and started to see opportunity. There was a massive desire among people back then to break down the barriers of apartheid, and an intimate jazz spot was a perfect way to fuel that.”

It took 27 rejection letters from banks and potential sponsors before an American banker put up some money to start a venue. Holmes bought all the tables, chairs and kitchen equipment at auctions, and on 3 September 1994 Bassline opened its doors on 7th Avenue in Melville.

It became the city’s premier liberated cultural hub for South Africa’s postapartheid music revolution. Bassline quickly established its brand with the slogan “In music we trust”. Many musicians played on the tiny stage there, including Sankomota, Abdullah Ibrahim, Louis Mhlanga, Vusi Mahlasela, Tananas, Jimmy Dludlu, Moses Molelekwa, Zim Ngqawana, Paul Hanmer and McCoy Mrubata.

It was also here that Holmes met his wife, Paige Dawtrey, an acclaimed ballet dancer, who has been a vital part of Bassline.

Singing in the city

After 10 years in Melville, Bassline was ready to expand, and Holmes moved the company to Newtown in 2004. “Back then the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), [headed by] Graeme Reid, had a grand vision to turn the historic suburb of Newtown into a cultural precinct and within a few years the vision came to fruition,” says Holmes.

Newtown became home to more than 20 cultural organisations ranging from the Market Theatre and the Dance Corner to Bassline, Sci Bono and SA Breweries World of Beer. “We expanded and diversified, and that’s also when we started celebrating Africa Day (25 May), and we became a home for performers and music lovers from the African diaspora.”

Over the years, however, Newtown began to decline because of infrastructural neglect. The JDA changed leadership, and despite 26 cultural organisations in Newtown opposing the plan, Remade Recycling was granted a licence in 2015 to move its depot from Carr Street to Henry Nxumalo Street across the road from Bassline, which made it impossible for the venue to remain open.

Bassline hung on there for another four years. “We had our last show there on 30 November 2016, and then we moved on,” says Holmes.

Working in concert

In 2017 the venue rebranded as Bassline Fest, a mobile concert and festival company. “We were just starting to get onto our festival feet when the Covid pandemic happened.”

Like most live music companies and cultural organisations, Bassline was hard hit, but it survived. “We continued to collaborate with artists across the continent,” says Holmes, “and had a fantastic Africa Day concert in 2022 at Constitution Hill, our first postpandemic gig, which has since become part of the annual music calendar.

“It’s a great venue; it stands for everything the Bassline believes in. Inclusivity, creativity and Pan-Africanism.”

With the theme “Say Africa”, this year’s festival, supported by Jozi My Jozi, brings together some of South Africa’s most compelling voices in a daytime concert with a kick-ass city backdrop. The line-up includes Vusi “The Voice” Mahlasela, modern Afro-soul sensation Ami Faku, the queen of Sotho soul Maleh, rising artist Brandon Aura and acclaimed hip-hop storyteller Yugen Blakrok. DM

Bassline Fest 2026 is on 23 May at the People’s Park at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg from 1pm to 8pm. Tickets can be bought on Webtickets.

Bridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.