The Songbook Sessions is ostensibly a Monday night jam session, in two halves. The first half is a curated set featuring tunes selected by an invited band leader. The tunes are made available in advance for whoever would like to participate, with links to charts and audio, and are ranked from beginner, easy, intermediate, to advanced. The second half is an open jam session.

We welcome back bandleader Zoe the seed, a Swazi born South African jazz vocalist and music educator based in Durban. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Music. Zoe has shared the stage with prolific artists like Sibusiso Mashiloane Nduduzo Makhathini, Salim Washington and Ernest Dawkins, among others.

She prides herself in composing and writing songs in her native Swati language. She also runs her Mobile Vocal studio, The Seed Vocal Studio.

These sessions intend to bring together musicians from all walks, other performance practitioners, students and teachers, and audiences that appreciate musical conversation and live music. It seeks to unearth new repertoires, to interrogate the notion of ‘standards’, to acknowledge our histories, the multi-cultural society that we live in, and to be more inclusive of mastery that exists on the periphery of our communal practice.

The Songbook Sessions are on Mondays from 6-8pm at the UKZN Centre for Jazz and Popular Music. Entrance is free for participating musicians and artists.

The Songbook Sessions Monday night jam session is made possible with the funding support of Concerts SA, Festival Enterprise Catalyst , SAMRO and the National Treasury Jobs Fund

Event: Date: Monday 23 February 2026

Doors open at: 17h30

Venue: Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, UKZN (Durban)

University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Campus, Dennis Shepstone Building, Level 2

Tickets:  R130, R100 for pensioners and R70 for students with a valid student card

Tickets at Webtickets: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1587340270

For more info contact zamat1@ukzn.ac.za