Cape Jazz Guide - Jazz culture in Cape Town

CAPE JAZZ GUIDE

• musicians
  • Mac McKenzie
  • Robbie Jansen
  • Hilton Schilder
  • Jonathan Rubain
  • Kyle Sheperd
• articles
  • Jazzing the 7 seas
  • One Jazz riff after another...
  • Cape Town Jazz Safari
• venues
  • option 1
  • option 2
• Discography

Meet Jonathan Rubain personally on the Cape Town Jazz Safari.

Jonathan Rubain

Jonathan Rubain is a young musician who combines a winning mix of youthful exuberance, raw talent, charm and integrity. Rubain started playing the drums at the age of seven and by the age of nine, he was playing guitar in the Shiloh Pentecostal Church band in Hanover Park where he grew up.

"We are church people, my dad is pastor and music was always around. My dad had records in the house, LPs and cassettes, mainly of gospel music, such as the Winan Brothers," he said. Instruments would rotate in the church band and everybody played more than one instrument. It is by chance that Rubain ended up discovering his instrument, the bass: "They called me on a Sunday morning and told me the bass player won’t make it and asked if I could stand in and from that day, it was just bass guitar for me. I found my instrument!"

In ‘98, when Rubain was 13, his band started to discover and then play tracks by Jimmy Dludlu and Errol Dyers during practise. In his Matric year, bad weather lead to a class trip to Robben Island to be rerouted to the District Six Museum, where local Goema great Mac McKenzie was playing. "When Mac went to the kitchen, I grabbed his guitar and played. He stormed out and you know Mac, he went crazy and he said you must come again and play with me!"

The following week the two played together and at the end of that year, McKenzie invited the young musician to perform at a New Year’s Eve gig in Johannesburg. "I was more excited about flying than the gig! It was a nice gig though and Mac paid me R1500 and that was huge to me. Huge! From then on, I was in the jazz scene," Rubain recalls.

Besides playing with the Goema Captain McKenzie, Rubain subsequently also played with "the local jazz cats": Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers and Robbie "Cape Doc" Jansen. Among Rubain’s main influences are Gospel music and Goema. "I love playing with Mac and I learnt a lot from him. I generally love playing with the older guys, Errol and Robbie. They are more chilled, are able to bring out subtle sounds, allow everyone to come out."

Since 2005, Rubain has been part of an exchange to Norway, travelled to Reunion Island with the Goema Captains and twice to France. In 2007, Rubain started the Jonathan Rubain Band, which has up to six members and has according to its bandleader, enough material for a decent album. "I firmly believe it will happen this year. I’ve got a lot of faith," Rubain said.