• 01. Thandi Vilakazi

    01.
    Thandi Vilakazi, backing vocalist and dancer with Sipho Hotstix Mabuse

  • 02.Simba Morri

    02.
    Drummer with Kenyan guitarist Simba Morri

  • 03.Gerard O’Brien

    03.
    Guitarist Gerard O’Brien of The Genuines

  • 04. Jannie Van Tonder and Winston Nyunda

    04.
    Jannie Van Tonder and Winston Nyunda of Winston’s Jive Mixup

  • 05.Sipho Duma

    05.
    Keyboardist Sipho Duma of Winston’s Jive Mixup

  • 06. Sipho Duma

    06.
    Keyboardist Sipho Duma of Winston’s Jive Mixup

  • 07. Max Mtambo

    07.
    Vocalist Max Mtambo (with sunglasses) and keyboardist Mthandeni Mthembu of the band Jama

  • 08. Phillip Tabane

    08.
    Phillip Tabane of Malombo

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Bass Culture

Bass Culture Michael Wyeth

Located at 88 Shortmarket Street, The Base was a popular mixed-race nightclub and live music venue right in the heart of apartheid-era Cape Town. No wonder the cops didn’t like it.

About Michael Wyeth: Born in Cape Town (1952), Wyeth studied graphic design at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, majoring in photography. He has exhibited mostly in Cape Town, notably on SA Photo Statements, at Iziko South African National Gallery (1988), and most recently on the Month of Photography, October 2008. Owner of Imago Visual, a graphic design and photography business, he is currently working towards his first solo photographic exhibition of recent works, scheduled for 2009. This portfolio of The Base/Jazz Den documents the establishment of the club and musicians/performers that appeared there over a period of two years in the late 1980s. Apart from sporadic appearances in newspapers at the time they were made, this body of work has not been shown before.