Eric Alan Wannenburg, known better to jazz lovers and jazz radio listeners simply as Eric Alan, founder and station manager of All Jazz Radio(AJR), died at St Luke’s Hospice in Cape Town on Tuesday June 28. Eric had undergone gall bladder surgery some time back, and not regained his health.
I didn’t know Eric well – we met and talked perhaps twice a year, at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and Joy of Jazz. Beyond a distinguished broadcasting career that also included Fine Music Radio, and Radio 2000, I don’t know the details of his biography. I hope a longer and more widely published obituary will appear soon that can lay those out.
But I do know this: the ecosystem that nurtures South African jazz has suffered a tragic loss.
Eric’s interests stretched beyond jazz. He described himself on social media as “Founder-Producer-Presenter-CEO-President-Chairman-Chief Grub Maker-Pot Plant Babysitter-Serious Pinotage, Coffee & Beer Quaffer-Utterly Passionate Jazz, Blues, Latin & World Jazz Head-Good Food Lover of Note-General Dogs Body-Dog & Cat Junkie…” and shared recipes, reviews and reflections on Cape Town life. But his main love was jazz, and especially its South African incarnation.
To those who encountered him at festivals, Eric was also an all-round nice guy. As a broadcaster, he had built up his extensive music library and knowledge by creating an international network of contacts among label bosses and others in the biz. If those luminaries turned up at CTIJF, they’d barely caught their breath before he was networking them with some young South African music-maker they might not have encountered, in the hopes that a deal might develop. Sometimes, it did.
As the main presence running CTIJF’s artist press conferences, he was unfailingly courteous even to the most apprentice arts journalist in the room, encouraging questions and generous with praise when an original one was posed. The students on my arts journalism programmes at that time often told me how his kindly, humorous presence gave them the courage to speak up and question more.
That was because – and this is an aspect more personal tributes might not dwell on – Eric was a supremely skilled journalist and broadcaster.
He loved jazz, but never let that love blind him to the need for solid research on everybody he talked to and everything he talked about. He treated all the new albums he encountered with respect and an open mind. As a broadcaster, he really could make an interview feel like a conversation. Playing music, he understood what to segue into what, so there were no jarring dissonances or awkward stylistic leaps. If he could play only a track excerpt, it was unfailingly the right excerpt: the one that told you who the players were.
It all came together for him in 2012 when he was able to launch his dream project, All Jazz Radio, an online station broadcasting live daily from 10am to 6pm with repeats through a 24-hour cycle. Mostly, it was recorded music, but with interviews and commentary too. It offered an eclectic mix of overseas and South African jazz, heavy on the aspects Eric loved most (classic, Capetonian and Afro-Latin) but never neglecting anything new and interesting from the African continent he could track down. AJR struggled from the day it was born: too few cared to put money into a niche music project despite the massive energy Eric expended on fundraising. But whatever pennies he could locate went into keeping AJR going for as long as he had strength.
All those activities together made up the jazz ecosystem you never see. Eric wasn’t the only person doing what he did; we can all name other jazz broadcasters and organisers toiling on the same lonely path and all are due our massive respect.
But the formal and informal networking, the multiple friendships Eric brokered between different industry players, the showcasing for some album few others played, the knowledgeable conversations – those are things we don’t think about when we hear of somebody scoring a recording deal or a big gig, yet they form a precious part of what makes those deals and gigs happen.
As bassist and music director Victor Masondo notes: ‘One thing that jumps up is the gentleness and kindness and tenacity and passion for this art. I experienced him at the Cape Town Jazz Festival and from then on we had stayed in touch. His deep knowledge and wisdom will be sorely missed! I hope we keep his legacy alive!!”
Fellow broadcaster Nothemba Madumo, host of MetroFM’s The Urban Jazz Experience, calls Eric Alan’s passing “a seriously sad loss to the jazz community”. She writes:
“One minute we are praying and wishing for Eric Alan’s full recovery in hospital and the next we are shocked and devastated by his passing. The SA jazz world has lost a passionate and dedicated jazz radio host and broadcaster. We cannot be more grateful for his creation of the online All Jazz Radio platform that created a vehicle for South African jazz music, interesting conversations and much more. With jazz in this country relegated to a few hours on a Sunday, this channel helped and continues to keep the genre where it belongs accessible 247. I won’t forget the role he played every year facilitating the press conferences at the Cape Town international Jazz festival over the years. He owned that space with knowledge and professionalism. We’d often have light and humorous conversations about the attitudes and behaviour of some of the artists. A big jazz media void has opened with his passing. May he rest in jazz heaven and know his love and work was not in vain.”
Brenda Sisane, arts commentator and jazz organiser, who formerly presented Kaya FM’s The Art of Sunday, shares those sentiments: ” I am so sorry to see him leave this realm.
“It was Eric who introduced me – after numerous encounters in the dimly-lit CTIJF backstage area – to the album that became my go-to when I wanted to demonstrate the vibrancy of Cape Town artists and their unique sound. He actually called me up to tell me about it. Somehow, Eric had that insightful take on this music that kept him curious and engaged. We never spoke about his personal life, but mostly about the life of a jazzophile: somebody who can’t resist the allure of this music once the bug has bitten. When we found ourselves sharing [announcer duties] on the CTIF Rosie’s Stage, he would get so passionate that he’d direct what artists I could introduce and which ones he wanted – but still, we’d both have a blast because in the end it was all about the music.
“I was aware that Eric struggled with his health, but…his commitment as a jazz journalist and broadcaster was so all-consuming one barely noticed his waning health. There’s so much more I could say. We have lost an unapologetic champion and beacon for jazz in this region.”
It’s probable our so-called Department of Sport, Arts and Culture won’t notice Eric’s passing. (If it didn’t notice Gilbert Matthews, George Hallett and so many others, why would we even expect it to?) But the jazz community feels it deeply, and the tracks and traces of AJR online can still remind us of how much we’ve lost ( https://www.alljazzradio.co.za ) Eric, you are not forgotten. Hamba Kahle.
sisgwenjazz 
A moving tribute to a man who accepted his calling and moved mountains for others to enjoy his passion. The one year he offered me his ticket to go, as he put it ” get into the cape town jazz groove”. Indeed Hamba Kahle Eric …Salut
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I first met Alan when Neil Johnson and I set up Peace Radio in Cape Town at the time of the first democratic elections in South Africa. He set up and ran the music library and was the font of all music for the station. A more warm and friendly character you will never meet and he was the beating heart of our group. I am shocked by the news of his death and extend my condolences to all family and friends. Martin Bailie.
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