"There weren't many cocktails in Sophiatown," chuckles Jurgen Schadeberg, chief photographer and photo editor of Drum magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. "The closest most people came was a quart of beer with a nip of brandy thrown in; then hastily downed before the shebeen got raided. It tasted terrible!"Until the forced removals of 1955, musicians, artists, intellectuals and political activists from all over the country found relative sanctuary in Sophiatown, where people of all races still had freehold property rights.For jazz greats like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Kippie Moeketsi, it was a South African New Orleans: a racially and culturally mixed pressure cooker of creativity. They absorbed American jazz, made it their own and then re-exported it - and often themselves, in exile - to the US and Europe. In turn, Louis Armstrong covered the African jazz standard Skokiaan, which was named after another of Sophiatown's illicit brews.Gareth Wainwright of The Landmark cocktail bar and I felt it was time to commemorate this great Transatlantic jazz collaboration. The effect we wanted to create was New Orleans jazz with a unique South African flavour. For our starting point, Wainwright co-opted The Sazerac, created in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1838, but he used brandy instead of the now extinct Sazerac-de-Forge et fils cognac .THE SOPHIATOWNFill a whisky glass with crushed ice and a few drops of Field of Dreams absinthe. Stir well until the glass is coated with absinthe and well chilled. Discard the ice and remaining absinthe.Mix in a pint glass:30ml Van Ryn's 12- year-old brandy30ml Woodford Reserve bourbon3 dashes Angostura Bitters3 dashes Toscello Bitters2 teaspoons brown sugarStir well and strain into the whisky glass.Squeeze lemon peel zest over cocktail and serve immediatelyTo get Field of Dreams go to jd7.co.za. The Landmark, corner William Nicol and Ballyclare drives, Bryanston, Johannesburg 011-463-5081..