Blue Hour Standards

Jazz, one standard at a time, no gatekeeping

Sizwe Ndlovu2 episodes1 min of audio45 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Jan 29, 20260:3925 plays Preview

A South African standard the world never learned

Sizwe introduces a township standard that every Johannesburg musician knows and almost nobody abroad does, tracing it through exile recordings and a new version made last year.

S1 · E1Dec 22, 20250:4520 plays Members

One ballad, six decades, six very different versions

Sizwe plays a famous ballad plainly on the piano, then follows it through six recordings from the 1940s to today, explaining what each musician changed and why it still works.

About the show

Blue Hour Standards is a weekly jazz show built around one song per episode. Sizwe Ndlovu, a pianist who has played Johannesburg clubs for twenty years, takes a standard, plays the melody plainly on the piano so you know what the tune is, and then follows it through five or six recordings across the decades: who changed the tempo, who rewrote the chords, who sang it as a ballad, who turned it into a riot. There is no quiz and no assumption that you know the names. It is for new listeners who find jazz intimidating, for musicians who want to hear how a tune evolves, and for anyone who likes the idea of hearing one song argued over for 60 years. Episodes run about 40 minutes and close with a short piano demonstration of one idea from the show. New episodes every Thursday evening, which is the blue hour in Johannesburg.

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