LIJF 2025: Playing the Changes - Tracking Darius Brubeck (Film Screening / Q&A)

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Playing the Changes - Tracking Darius Brubeck shows the eldest son of legendary pianist Dave Brubeck as not just a musician trying to step out of his father’s shadow, but as a gifted and dedicated artist and human being, who spent his life emphasising the social impact of jazz to the world. The film examines how jazz had such a transformative role in different societies like (post-)Soviet Poland and Nelson Mandela’s South Africa, where jazz was present, but disowned through apartheid. It is a testimony to the highly emancipatory power of music against all discrimination and the transformative role of jazz in Poland and South Africa.

The film tracks Darius Brubeck’s involvement in both those communities. Carrying his father’s legacy in his own social, educational, and musical way, Playing the Changes shows Darius Brubeck to be an idealist who embraced people regardless of their roots, founding the first-ever jazz university on the African continent in South Africa in 1983. This was revolutionary, as the institute was open to everyone, regardless of social class or skin color. The programme was a resounding success, and Darius and his South African wife, Cathy, founded the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, a venue where students could rehearse, perform, and gain exposure for their work.

International musicians would frequently visit to play and teach, mingling with students and staff, bringing people together to give them hope in extremely divisive times. Unfolding the meaning of the Brubeck legacy, this documentary shows how being “the son of...” shaped and influenced his career, his life, and that of many others.

Through archival footage and unique interviews, Darius Brubeck’s life at the forefront of cultural opposition to apartheid and discrimination is highlighted, and his academy is revealed to be a true flagship of its time, anticipating the ‘new’ South Africa. In war-torn Communist satellite state Poland, then, we follow Darius and Cathy during another anniversary tour, where Darius was put on stage for the first time by his dad when he was only 10 years old.

Dave Brubeck's Jazz Ambassador tour, sponsored by the State Department in 1958, resulted in the writing and recording of the first no.1 hit album in jazz ever: Time Out. Exposed to a politically segregated country at a very young age, in which jazz was perceived as a relief to social oppression and a sign of hope for a better future, his son Darius grew up believing that jazz can unite people of all colour and creed.

Playing The Changes is a film about what it is like to grow up as a jazz musician in a turbulent time of racial segregation in the US and political tension during the Cold War, and about applying these experiences to living and teaching in segregated South Africa. It depicts Darius Brubeck as an unlikely hero and reflects on Dave Brubeck’s true legacy, 100 years after his birth. Darius has inspired and taught countless talented musicians. With Playing The Changes, worldwide audiences are next.

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This event will include an introduction by director Michiel ten Kleij and a Q&A with Darius, his wife Cathy and director Michiel ten Kleij following the screening.