In April 1955, architect Paul Rebsamen submitted the following application to Building Section II on behalf of the new restaurant tenant Ludwig (Louis) Scheuble:

Establishment of a non-alcoholic self-service restaurant with 96 seats in the present lobby of the Hotel Scheuble, as well as a snack bar with 27 seats. The previous, old restaurant "Zähringerhof" was renamed "Zähringer Quick".

So, from the middle of 1958, the "Zähringer Quick" was transformed into the legendary jazz pub "Africana". Unfortunately, the plans of the "Africana" no longer exist. Beat Scheuble, the son of Louis Scheuble, assumes that the "Africana" had the same floor plan as the previous restaurant "Zähringer Quick". I compared these plans with my memory; it was the exact same floor plan, except that the interior was changed. Therefore, using old plans and photos, I redrew this seating plan and the location of the "stage":

Jam sessions before the Africana was realized:

During a visit, I once casually asked Hungarian alto saxophonist Victor Burghardt why I had never seen him at the Africana, and immediately got a cumulative load of stories, and then dropped the sentence "…then pianist Martin Scheidegger and I went to the "Zähringer-Quick" restaurant in 1958 and asked the server if they could have jam sessions in the pub. There was a piano there." These sessions were so well attended that the patron Scheuble perhaps soon had the idea of making more of them. His son Beat Scheuble told me during a conversation on Sept. 7, 2021, that his father had been musically gifted and had played the violin. In addition, the Scheuble's always had live music on the program in their various establishments. Louis Scheuble was for many years the operator of the famous "Bauschänzli" and also in the house "Metropol", the in the 50+60s well known "La Ferme" with its "Jekami-Nights" (everybody can join in) and various Varieté programs.

The sessions initiated by Martin Scheidegger and Victor Burghardt were thus the musical impetus that gave Louis Scheuble the idea of transforming his "Zähringer-Quick" into the legendary "Africana".

Bruno Spoerri and my cousin Hans Kennel also told me which modern jazz musicians had been there before the Africana. Here is a certainly incomplete list:

1959 - Our Africana jazz protagonists in Paris!

From the fall of 1962, when I was in the "Aff" all the time, all kinds of stories were floating around. We greenhorns knew that a couple of Africana musicians had jammed in Paris with famous jazzmen from overseas.  My cousin Hans Kennel told me in 2018 that he had played at the jazz club "Le chat qui peche" (Paris) in 1959 with the "Swiss All Star Combo" opening for Chet Baker. The two got to know each other a little better and when Chet found out that Hans was also into car racing, Chet suggested to my cousin Hans to race quickly to Le Mans.

This Swiss group was then joined by local musicians such as Henri Texier, Jean-Claude Petit, Jacky Samson and others.
Moreover, it was known that at that time Pierre Favre and Daniel Humair also went to Paris by car, especially to jam with famous Americans and local musicians.

Fredy Meier and Alex Bally were then in Paris again in 1960.You can see Fredy playing with Woody Shaw in "Le chat qui peche" on the Internet. According to Alex, the two still played with Donald Byrd, Eric Dolphy and Herbie Hancock. There was a story going around in Africana that Fredy had had a drug crash in Paris around that time and that his parents had him flown back to Eastern Switzerland by REGA. What exactly he had tried there, we did not know.  At that time, we only knew the collective term "narcotics". 

In any case, at the beginning of the 60s, we knew exactly which were the cool cats at the Africana: The ones with real jazz club experience in Paris!

In 1959, our cousin Hans Kennel from Zug, was chosen as the "absolute best soloist" at the Zurich Jazz Festival in the "Modern Jazz" style. For us Zurich Kennels, this was an event! Through my oldest brother Maurice (*1939) I had learned that Hans was going to play with Remo Rau at the Africana. That was at the very beginning of the sixties. When I saw the interior designed by Robert O. Schmid in the "Africana", it had already had a weird impression on me, because I grew up at home in an architecturally modern environment.

In the 50s there were quite a few places with daring and adventurous wanderlust names and interiors; Safari Bar, Kon-Tiki Bar, or «Café Maroc» («Maröggli») at Rämistrasse in Zürich.…

Still; as a 16 year old I was immediately "addicted" to the atmosphere and music and knew it wouldn't be my last visit. Hans later introduced me for the first time to Remo Rau, who was 18 years older than me. His friendly and humorous manner had impressed me from the beginning.

When I entered the School of Arts and Crafts in the fall of 1962, I went straight to the "Aff" after school to get a quick earful before dinner at home to check out who was playing what and how. 

Since the early 50's I and my four brothers had grown up with "American Entertainment-Jazz" (Satchmo, Glenn Miller, Ella, Basie, Garner, Sinatra, O.Peterson etc.).

In 1959 we received mail from New York from our oldest brother Maurice (*1939). He sent us this important LP sampler "Jazz of two Decades (Label: EmArcy)". 

I had assimilated this disc sound by sound and was thus musically well prepared for the modernists in the Africana as a listener.  So it was clear to me that I only wanted to hear this sound in the "Aff". The old jazz was not my thing at all. For us in the "Aff", there was a strict separation of styles between old and new jazz musicians from the very beginning.

The only concert I attended in the older style was a show performance by Charlie Antolini, who was a gifted swinger and delivered the best technical solos.

The experienced protagonists of modern jazz were in the beginning certainly the musicians around Remo Rau:

Hans Kennel, Bruno Spoerri, Alex Bally, Hans Foletti, Peter Candiotto, Johnny Burrows, Franco Ambrosetti Raphael Weber, Fredy Meier, Tutilo Odermatt, Mario Schneeberger, Hans Hartmann, Nick Bertschinger etc…

Of course, there were also many other bands that had performed constantly such as the Röbi Weber Trio, Red Bahnik Trio, Melch Däniker Trio etc.

Irene Schweizer came with Mani Neumeier and Uli Trepte joined a little later. Also Jürg Grau appeared at this time and he was the first then like Don Cherry to play on a pocket trumpet. I myself played with the Marcel Bernasconi Trio just from 1966 until its closure in the "Aff".

BK - Many were influenced by the most modern jazz of the 50s. However, Remo and his musicians were already playing newer hardbop tunes by Horace Silver, for example. A stylistic change slowly took place with Irene Schweizer, who was certainly influenced by McCoy Tyner and Coltrane on the one hand, and of course by Dollar Brand. My favorite was definitely her drummer Mani Neumeier, who played a kind of "jungle drums". Kind of new and exotic. House drummers Alex Bally and Johnny Burrows were more fond of familiar late fifties drummers.  At that time I had come up with an internal "style assignment", which musician was influenced by whom: Cousin Hans certainly by Lee Morgan, Miles or Booker Little (dry, cool approach), Franco Abrosetti = technically lively like Freddie Hubbard, Tutilo Odermatt by Winton Kelly (definitely his god, he had confessed to me once), Bruno Spoerri was rather cooljazzer (Mulligan - Westcoast), Peter Candiotto's "cry me baby alto sax" similar to Cannonball Adderley. Mario Schneeberger from Bird, Fredy Meier was the "Rollins" from the Aff and bassist Hans Hartmann had a strong sinewy grip on it like Mingus and Peter Frei was the first to break up the bass playing like bassist Scott LaFaro in the Bill Evans Trio. etc.

Remo Rau and Co:

At first, the experienced protagonists of modern jazz were certainly the musicians around Remo Rau:

Hans Kennel, Bruno Spoerri, Alex Bally, Hans Foletti, Peter Candiotto, Johnny Burrows, Franco Ambrosetti, Raphael Waeber, Fredy Meier, Tutilo Odermatt, Mario Schneeberger, Hans Hartmann, Nick Bertschinger and others…

And of course there were bands that had been performing all the time, like the Röbi Weber Trio, Red Bahnik Trio, Melch Däniker Trio, and so on.

Irene Schweizer joined with Mani Neumeier and Uli Trepte a bit delayed. Also Jürg Grau appeared at this time and he was then the first to play like Don Cherry on a pocket trumpet. I myself played with the Marcel Bernasconi Trio only from 1966 until the closing of the "Aff".

Mail from Hans Kennel on 02.01.2018:

"…Remo Rau was almost like a father to me musically. He "explained" a lot of what I needed to know for music history in an hour or so, with notes and time tables. I was so impressed. And just then, he hired Bruno and me to join his quintet…".

Bruno Spoerri remembers…

It began with a letter, a highly formal invitation from Remo Rau to a jam session at the recently opened Africana in December 1959. I was in the final exams of my psychology studies in Freiburg im Breisgau, but still went to Zurich, probably a few weeks later a second time. After that, however, I started my first job in Biel and was so busy there that I could hardly travel. Two years later, however, I was able to switch to an assistant position in Zurich. And no sooner had I arrived than another letter arrived, this time from the drummer Alex Bally. He told me that the group around Hans Kennel and Remo Rau was looking for a new saxophonist and would like me to join them. I jumped on the bandwagon, and out of that came the group that existed as the "Hans Kennel Quintet" until about 1970. The line-up remained fairly constant: Hans Kennel and I on winds, Remo Rau on piano, Hans Foletti on bass and Alex Bally on drums. We played mainly the repertoire of the Jazz Messengers and the first Ornette Coleman group, enriched by some compositions by Remo Rau, Hans and me.

Together we experienced five years of Swiss jazz history at the "Aff", then the gradual decline of the venue, the departure to other venues and towards the end of the decade the birth of the "Bazillus". Hans Kennel and I had had enough of the endless jam sessions on the same old themes and had sailed stylistically to new shores, away from the hard bop of the Africana era. But then the past caught up with us: We were asked to perform with the old lineup, and out of that came a revival as "Africana All Stars," which lasted from 1976 to 1980. Then the band finally broke up. Stop: There was still an aftermath! In 2019, Hans formed "Africana19" with young musicians - and what did we play? Moanin', Harry's last stand, Juicy Lucy, Hi-Fly - just like in the old days.

From the beginning, Dollar had demanded "undivided attention" from the audience. He waited each time until the audience sat there quietly. A loud person was immediately silenced with his infamous laser stare. One evening, in the middle of his tune, he stopped with a short, karate-like chord, stood up brusquely and slammed the wing flap shut with a bang, fixing someone in the buffet section. We sat there completely dumbfounded. The kitchen boy had been listening to a football match on a transistor radio in the very back of the room while he worked. Then Dollar shouted very loudly in his typical Africaans English, "toerrrn that rrrrradio!!!! There was a lot of Cape Town street power in there. Everyone was pretty respectful of Dollar.

Dollar had influenced some pianists with his novel playing; especially Irene Schweizer and our pianist Marcel Bernasconi. Starting in 1965, we had two tunes by Dollar in the trio's program: Dollar's Dance and Ubu Suku.

Dollar was certainly the most important "Influencer" in the Aff and when he became internationally known, we could proudly claim; He started his career with "us" in the Africana! 

When he started playing with Makaya Nshoko and Johnny Gertze in a trio, we were blown away. There was something we guys had never heard before. Especially because of Makaya, who we had learned was once a flyweight boxer. His single punched twirls on the tom were proof of that. 

When Duke Ellington gave a concert in town, Dollar's wife Bea Benjamin went to see Ellington after the concert and asked Him to stop in at the Africana to hear her husband. Such visits were frequent. Coltrane had come and also Roland Kirk (see photo by Art Ringger). As a result of the Ellington visit, the LP "Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio" was released on the Reprise Records label in Paris 1965.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

If the service people perceived you as a musician, they let you in at the buffet where it went down into the jam cellar at the back, where there was an old piano and various drum parts lying around open for us to use. Here an important exchange took place among musicians. Franco Ambrosetti raved about it again and again in later interviews. Yes, I had also jammed here several times with Makaya and many other musicians. No "Real Book" far and wide… everything by ear, played directly on it!

Dollar Brand had then suggested to Hugentobler his South African friends, the "Blue Notes", who were then stranded in Antibes after a festival gig, living in tents and without money. Once in Zurich, the band played for a month at a time at the Aff and then alternately at the Blue Note jazz club in Geneva. The book by Maxine McGregor - "Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath: My Life With a South African Jazz Pioneer " provides the best information about the time at the Africana.

The Blue Notes were also fantastic as a band and played this South African jazz in a sextet. In their themes you could really hear South Africa's own musical culture and jazzed over the instrumentation "ts-as-tp-p-b-dr" resulted in an exlposive mixture for our ears and it was another sign that the Blue Notes had opened a window here from which we all could only benefit.

They played like Dollar a first set from 17-19h, then came the "amateur jazzers" and then it went on from 21h until midnight. A young student at that time told me 40 years later that the Blue Notes had lived in their squatted house (the first in Zurich?) downstairs in the sous-sol of the laundry room, without heating. The student played drums at that time and was a frequent visitor at the Africana. Some in the band were really "homesick" and didn't get along so well with the everyday Swiss, if only because of the language. Especially the tenor sax player Nikele Moyake had depressions. Except for us musicians and students and friends from the audience, they didn't really have good access to the people of Zurich. Exception; to young women they did. Dudu fell in love with Barbara from Schaffhausen, who promptly became "Mrs. Pukwana".

Rosmarie Graf worked as a waitress at Africana in the sixties.  Her liaison with bassist Johnny Gertze (Dollar Brand Trio) resulted in the birth of her son Dany "Duke" Graf in was born in 1967. Gertze then lost his passport and had to leave Switzerland.
Dany Duke later became a trumpet player and played in the Bazillus and the B-Flat.  Dany then died in 1990, at the age of 23 for inexplicable reasons much too early.

See also Clubs > Africana
See also People > Daniel Graf (Dany Duke)

Longtime visitors could have smelled they were in the Aff even with a blindfold.  The interior with all the African masks, wall decorations and the dark stained wood, the cigarette smoke and the coffee scent had become imprinted. The long room was divided down the center left by a sort of open wooden hut construction where the musicians played at ground level. In front were those who wanted it more quiet. There was the grand piano and through a narrow passage, past the beverage counter, you got to the back part, where it was louder. The drums were positioned there. There you could sit down very close to the drummer.

When there was no band playing, it was relatively quiet, even if the alcohol-free Tea Room was well occupied. An almost contemplative silence. No loud laughter from buzzed guests. At the beginning of the sixties, there were many "studi's" (students) with men's jackets, some even with ties, who made the pilgrimage from the university directly to the Africana after lectures. Some, but rather rare, female students who protected themselves, for example, by reading a book, as many young women do today with their cell phones. Then towards the mid-sixties, more and more young people in cooler outfits, like turtlenecks, open shirts, T-shirts and Alain Delon hairstyles. I had rarely seen young women with toupeed hair. 

The "Hütten-Bühne" did not have an actual P.A. = public address. The pianist and the drummer actually played directly into the buffet. There was a Mike for the Piano. The rest was all accoustic. The musicians played in all directions, like in a rehearsal room. The only electric guitarist, Raphael Weber, played sitting on a chair towards the window niche, where the Dynacord amplifier was placed, so he could hear himself at all. This gave the whole thing a noncommittal impression. Was the Africana stage the only jazz club in the world that had such a stage setup?

The "hut" was removed around 1966 and then a real, small stage was positioned at the very back of the room. After we were elected with the "Marcel Bernasconi Trio/Quartet" at Berner's Jazzfestival in the front ranks, we belonged at the end to the firm bands which were allowed to play sometimes in one month 1 x per week. The band got 50 centimes per drink sold.

Before the gig, we first went to the "Predigerhof" bar across the street to get some courage. In the meantime, they were playing for money in the back. 

I could not play poker. I just watched Fredy Meier, Hans Hartmann, Ueli Trefzger and Alex Bally with interest.

Some musicians came with schnapps-filled "hip flasks" directly into the aff.

Gradually, Hugentobler had also invited rock bands.

We already felt that it will not go long with the aff.  Also the first, almost hated "Disc Jockeys" showed up. So mean; they just came with a bag of LP's and played music they hadn't recorded themselves and acted as if they were the ones who had produced this sound.

Sorry DJ's of today; that's how we felt back then…

The operating concept of "free admission plus a surcharge for consumption" had somehow just about worked from 1959 to about 1965. With the running costs and less daily income towards the middle of 1966, I can well imagine that the Africana no longer brought in anything for the owner Louis Scheuble. Not even with the rock groups and DJ's hired at the end. 
But thanks to his long-suffering, we musicians and visitors at least had our main, cool meeting place for more than 8 years!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Shortly after the closing, the Old-Style-Jazzers fled across the street to the small Safari-Bar and a former barmaid from the Casabar opened the Tea-Room "Atelier" in the front Zähringerstrasse, where quiet Jazz, like the Klaus Koenig Trio, played on Sunday afternoons. For a short time we were allowed to rehearse in the basement of the "Atelier" with the band … "Peyer-A Marca-Katz-Kennel".

The Africana was certainly not the only live club that had to close. Throughout Europe, a jazz club die-off began. The old Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen was also "dying out." 

Around this time Remo, Irene, our trio and a few other musicians played a few times at "Platte 27".

See Stories > Platte 27