Playing the Changes – the Film

A documentary film about Catherine and Darius Brubeck’s years in South Africa is currently showing at Film Festivals around the world.

The film charts the couple’s transformational impact on the South African contemporary music scene as they set up the first jazz degree course in the country at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. A multicultural band calling themselves The Jazzanians grew out of the course in spite of the restrictions on racial mixing imposed by apartheid.

View the trailer, above, or the longer promotional vimeo video.

See below for showings and dates.

Catherine Brubeck, a South African, has worked in events organization, publishing, and artist management (specializing in jazz) in America, South Africa, and the UK. She was the Project Manager at the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, initiating and organizing extra-curricular projects and events. 

Film dates for 2026

Film showings for 2026 with participation by Darius and Director, Michiel ten Kleij

History

Some stills from the film

Click to enlarge:

Reviews for Playing The Changes – Tracking Darius Brubeck, the film

A very personal review of the film can be found in CouleursJazz France (in English)

The review in Paris Move is in French but below is a translation into English:

“It is usually not easy to be the son of a legend, especially if you decide to try to follow in his footsteps in your career. Of the six children of legendary jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck (three of whom also pursued musical careers), Darius is the eldest. His first name was given to him by his father in homage to his own mentor and teacher, the French composer Darius Milhaud. Having graduated in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 1969, and having married a South African, he moved to Durban in 1983, to teach in the Music Department of the University of Natal, where he initiated the very first university course in jazz on the African continent. The double (triple?) merit of this film lies not only in the richly documented transcription of the rise of the Dave Brubeck Quartet during the fifties (which earned them the great honor of a tour in Poland – then in the middle of the Cold War between the American and Soviet blocs), in the continuation of the soft power radio programs “Voice Of America”, but also in the story, still too little known to the general public, of the artistic, cultural and militant commitment of Darius Brubeck against apartheid. Interspersed with numerous testimonies (including those of Darius and his wife Catherine in person), as well as archive images restoring the explosive climate of the country in the years preceding the abolition of the racist and fascist regime which oppressed it, here is a remarkable and moving documentary, testifying to the highly emancipatory power of music against all discrimination.”