Well, it’s been an absolute age, the longest break from playing music that John and I have ever experienced. After an insanely busy year of performing, touring and teaching, we arrived in South Africa in late 2024, amid the global turmoil of endless armed conflict, censorship, civil unrest and major ideological divisions, to the peaceful Elands River Valley and its magnificent mountains and valleys.

My brother’s iconic Stone Circle Lodge & Museum had been suffering under some dubious management for a couple of years as he was occupied with sowing the seeds of One Small Town and the Ubuntu movement throughout many parts of the world, and so we hit the ground running, cleaning house and weeding out the bad seeds, so to speak. Everything was broken, or missing, and we have honestly never worked as hard as we have in the past three months. The rewards are significant, and we are now the caretakers of a glorious place where we enjoy working with a great crew of people and where we grow much of our own food, tend chickens, host guests and tours of the many historic sites in the area, and where we are about to start presenting monthly jazz weekends. We’re so damn excited about working with some of our favourite South African colleagues again, about introducing our sound to a whole new audience, about reconnecting with our friends and supporters, and even the possibility of collaborations with colleagues from abroad.

It’s a completely different life from what we’ve known. Yesterday was the first time since our arrival that we took some time and just played, it took a while to warm up, but quite a thrill. We’ve set the date and booked the band for our first jazz weekend, 5 April. Marc Duby has been a constant throughout my career, whether on stage or in academia, he introduced John and me to each other, and we cannot wait to play with him again. Godfrey Mgcina played on our last album and remains one of SA’s top drummers as well as being a great human. This is the dream quartet and a perfect way to start our jazz weekend series.

We have beautiful chalets, a country kitchen, a riverside bar, gorgeous grounds, a library, in depth tours of the stone circle ruins in the area, the Stone Circle Museum, the giant footprint, and the ancient Adam’s Calendar.

A quiet retirement? Not a chance.

www.stonecirclelodge.co.za