Standard Bank Joy of Jazz enthrals music fans at Sandton Convention Centre

Dancing. Singing along. Generally, excited to watch her do the thing that the Benin-born, Paris based artist is best known for, creating a beautiful stage craft.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

Pictures: Courtesy of Standard Bank

Without a doubt the one big event that music lovers spoke about prior and leading to the past weekend was Standard Bank Joy of Jazz concert, which took place at the Sandton Convention Centre on Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26, 2026.

How could it not have become the centre of the weekend conversation,  when in fact this jazz concert series, which  for close to 30 years now, has steadily of wormed its way into Johannesburg’s DNA with the first iteration having taken place at State Theatre  in Pretoria, before moving to Newtown, and now its current home, the Sandton Convention Centre.

Those of us, who have been attending this concert series for years, knew that it was a big thing not to miss. Even as there were murmurs by some in the background that the line-up this year, as compared to the previous years, fell short of the standard the concert has set with regards to the quality of the musicians it has featured on its various stages.

And so, I missed the Friday event as I had to attend the National Heritage Council’s Golden Shield Award ceremony in Mbombela as a finalist for the Heritage Journalism category, which I won. However I knew tired or not, come Saturday, I was going to attend the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz once back in Johannesburg. Indeed, I was exhausted, but that did not deter me from being there. I even enjoyed, alongside hordes of other fans of hers, Angelique Kidjo’s performance. She is energetic, and South Africans simply love her.  They responded to her music by cramming the Conga venue. Dancing. Singing along. Generally, excited to watch her do the thing that the Benin-born, Paris based artist is best known for, creating a beautiful stage craft.

Here, CITYLIFE/ARTs has sampled photographs from the concert, that will give those that could not make it an idea of what they have missed, while at the same time, taking those who were fortunate to attend, back to those special moments of the Joy of Jazz this year.