Renegades Of Jazz: From Rock Guitar to Afro-Jazz

Picture a bright red Volkswagen Beetle at the end of the nineties. On the back seat lies an electric guitar, gathering dust.

The driver is David Hanke, early twenties, in ripped jeans and a lumberjack shirt. His enthusiasm for rock has been fading for some time. Like many musical ambitions of that age, his seemed set to give way to ordinary life.

It didn't. That quiet crossroads is where Renegades Of Jazz begins. Hanke turned toward the grooves that rock had never offered: jazz harmony, funk momentum and, above all, the pulse of African music.

The results reward close listening. "Jazz Makossa" borrows the swing of Cameroonian dance-floor music. "Karibu Tena" and "Harambee" take their names from Swahili greetings and calls to unity, and they carry the same warmth. "Afro Cookie" has proved durable enough to invite reworkings, including Chris Read's Afro Concrete remix. The Bosq remix of "Moyo Wangu", with Hugo Kant, shows the project's range.

The newest piece in our rotation, "Beneath This African Blue" (2026), shows a project still moving forward. The guitar left on the back seat has long since been replaced by a different kind of rebellion.