Event information
The Marabi Club is the home of superb food and drink accompanied by fine live jazz performances.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of the Doornfontein slum yards, created in the wake of one of the world’s richest gold rushes, gave rise to an urban culture known as ‘marabi’. As the foundation of this new culture, the music was energetic and improvisational. It was a lifestyle prompted by the need to escape the hardships of the working week – defined by illegal shebeens, where the fierce talk of politics was accompanied by the equally disruptive soundtrack of jazz.
Today the Marabi Club, tucked into the basement of Hallmark House, evokes this history through the many careful details of the club’s interior. Add excellent food, a long bar, and jauntily dressed waitrons offering friendly and slick service and live jazz, and visitors get why most people who visit this Maboneng landmark are captivated by the electric atmosphere.
