All that jazz as Qwest TV makes its debut on DStv

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South Africans have a deep appreciation and respect for jazz and soul music, those much talked-about annual radio line-up changes always include a jazz show in commercial radio stations. Concerts such as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival continue to draw international audiences and artists alike, with one common goal, to celebrate jazz music. 

Our jazz musicians have performed all over the globe, expressing themselves through the music that has the richest history and is the foundation for all music — jazz! 

“At its roots, jazz was an improvised, artistic expression of emotions born from an environment of oppression and slavery. It is central to our cultural fabric, and we need to understand and respect its importance in that regard so we can keep building on that great cultural legacy,” said Quincy Jones, co-founder of Qwest TV. 

Abdullah Ibrahim, Jimmy Dludlu, Nduduzo Makhathini and Jonas Gwangwa are among the honourable list of South African artists with international presence. Yet, with all this love for the genre, South Africa has never had a television channel dedicated to jazz music. 

The DStv pay-per-view service has had multiple music television channels over the years. There was VH1 on channel 323 which played old school classics across genres but the channel was scrapped in 2019 and replaced by MTV24, which was also removed in 2022. 

Multichoice’s DStv offers a jazz channel on their audio bouquet, one of 40 audio channels that play international and local music but have not had a video music jazz channel. Music lovers can now access Qwest TV via DStv bouquet (channel 330) as well as Showmax. 

The channel will be included in all the DStv packages in 44 countries across the continent. It will offer exclusive access to high-end music, great concerts, documentaries and never-seen archived interviews, featuring jazz, soul, blues, hip-hop, R&B, afrobeats and dance. Qwest TV also has its own online streaming service dubbed Qwest TV+, charged at $4.99 per month. 

The origins of Qwest TV stem from a meeting between Reza Ackbaraly, jazz impresario and Qwest TV co-founder, and iconic music producer Quincy Jones at the Jazz à Vienne Festival in 2014. 

The name Qwest TV comes from Jones’ record label Qwest Records and media broadcasting company Qwest Broadcasting. The music and media hub was officially introduced at the 51st Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2017. 

In September that same year a pre-subscription campaign was launched at a tribute concert for Jones at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The pre-subscription campaign was conducted via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Jones and Ackbaraly came up with an innovative idea to recruit subscribers/co-founders by pre-selling subscriptions through Kickstarter. 

“The idea was to pre-sell subscriptions in order to try — like a test — the idea of a project like that. When you are dealing with something totally new, you never know what is going to happen. You never know if you will have people interested and ready to follow the project,” says Ackbaraly during an interview with TV Bizz Magazine. “It was a great opportunity to raise people’s attention, get feedback,” he said. 

The ground-breaking campaign by the duo was a huge success, over a thousand people pledged and Qwest TV nearly doubled their financial target — all without a formal marketing campaign. 

“This was the very target of Qwest TV, to create this community. Those pre-subscribers are co-founders from 47 countries. The main countries are France, the US, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, the UK and Switzerland.” 

The campaign also contributed to the launch of a beta version of Qwest TV in December 2017.

Qwest TV is a celebration of unique talents, traditions and rhythms. With more than a thousand music-related experiences on offer, the premium video hub strives to be the world’s home for jazz, soul, funk, classical and other genres from around the world. 

What makes Qwest TV different from other channels is that the music selection is carefully curated by well-known and emerging musicians and experts. The channel will be offering exclusive concerts from legendary artists as well as rising stars from across the globe; premium music documentaries, archived artist footage and unreleased interviews with music icons including Erykah Badu, Questlove, Salif Keita, Gregory Porter, Marcus Miller, Seun Kuti, Kamasi Washington and Fatoumata Diawara. 

“I’m so proud to announce that Qwest TV is now available on Multichoice, Africa’s leading entertainment network. This means that my friends in South Africa, and 43 more African territories, will have access to great, genre-defying music, 24/7. From African legends proudly proclaiming their heritage to jazz, classical, electronic and amazing deep-dive music documentaries, Africa is the source of music’s heartbeat and the cradle of modern music. I’m looking forward to celebrating diverse sounds with y’all,” said Jones.

Jones has long been involved in the music technology space, investing in the likes of Spotify in its early days, in addition to piano-learning software Playground Sessions, as well as Jammcard. He has also recently invested in AI music startup MusiMap. The company has developed what it describes as a “psycho-emotional profiling engine” called MusiMe that builds emotional profiles for listeners, detailing mood, feelings and values based on their listening history. 

His career spans over seven decades, with notable achievements including producing Michael Jackson’s record-breaking album, Thriller and becoming the first African-American vice president of a major record label, Mercury. 

The expert knowledge of Jones and Ackbaraly and their focus on world music will provide music lovers with quality entertainment in a way that has never been explored. 

Through this major expansion into the African market, Qwest TV is expected to make a substantial footprint around the world. 

Qwest TV will air on Dstv channel 330 from January 2023, for more information visit www.dstv.com