Hot Club Bio
Hot Club d’Afrique is an all-acoustic Gypsy Jazz quartet originally from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Their music pays tribute to the original “Quintette du Hot Club de France”, founded in 1934
by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.
The Hot Club name refers to the Swing jazz of the 1930s, known at the time as ‘hot jazz’, or in France, as ‘le jazz hot’.
Hot Club d’Afrique was founded in Johannesburg in 2008
by husband-and-wife duo Kevin Drummond on guitar,and Theodora Drummond on the piano accordion.
Sharing a mutual love for the music of Django Reinhardt, they formed the first South African Gypsy Jazz band
with other local musicians.
The band’s current formation has been performing together
since 2012, with Katharina Alexandra van der Walt on double bass and vocals, singing
French and English romantic songs of the 1930s and beyond, and Frances van der Walt on
violin and rhythm guitar.
The band stays true to the sound of the original Hot Club Quintette of the 1930s – foregoing
drums, brass, or electric instruments, and emphasising the acoustic, string-based sound
typical of Gypsy Jazz. The style is romantic and old-fashioned, and transports the listener to
the bygone era of pre-war Paris.
Hot Club d’Afrique has had numerous private and public performances all across South
Africa over the past decade. They have additionally put on many of their own concerts and
theatre-hall music productions. Notable performances include their shows at the Brooklyn
Theatre in Pretoria as part of the Gauteng International Arts Festival, as well as shows at
Glenshiel and The Sandton Theatre on the Square in Johannesburg.