Band - Welcome Jazz Jam Session

VELI NGWENYA, is today considered one of the midwives of
modern iazz in South Africa.
But it had been a long and painful slog for this musician who stood on the shoulders of giants in
his field. These giants included MacKay Davashe and General Duze, one of the musicians who
took South African jazz from the swing era of the 40s to the bebop era.
Born in Soweto's Orlando East township 70 years ago, he grew up in Shantytown, an informal
settlement west of the township, where his music interest was first kiddled. This was the
perfect setting for Ngwenya as the settlement was the home of one of South Africa's top jazz
bands, the Shantytown Sextet led by tenor saxophonist-composer Davashe.
Other household bands in the settlement were Mzobe's Easy Walkers band and The black
Rhythm Boys.
As the 1950s were ä critical era for South African black jazz as the music was undergoing a
transformation from swing to bebop spearhead by American greats Charlie "Yardbird" Parker,
Thelonius Monk, Earl "Bud" Powell among others, Ngwenya dirtied his hands and muddied hie
boots in his music education.
It was a musical education of sorts because there were no music schools for blacks in South
Africa - it was illegal under the country's apartheid laws to run such schools for blacks. Small
wonder Ngwenya received his "music education" singing with various township vocal groups.
Later he took up pennywhistle before graduating to trumpet, simple systern clarinet and flute
Confident enough the young Ngwenya enrolled for music studies with the then informal
African Music and Drama Association {AMDA) housed at the Johannesburg city centre's Dorkay
House, then the crucible of black music and drama countrywide AMDA boasted in its teaching
staffgiants Gideon Nxumalo, a prolific jazz and classic pianist, composer and bandleader.
On the side Ngwenya also studied music at the adjacent Jubillee School of Music under Khabi
Mngoma (later a professor of music) where he graduated with a Grade Eight certificate in
Music Theory from London's famous Trinity College.
From there Ngwenya did not look back * for two years he studied by correspondence arranging
and composition with the world-famous Berklee College of Music in Berklee, United States.
Ngwenya also studied flute with South Af:'rcan concert master Charles Manning before he
turned professional in 1958.
ln 1959 he formed his first Broup The Klooks Octet, named after American jazz great Kenny
"Klook" Clarke. Ngwenya's octet included fresh and innovative South African jazz talent in the
likes of Ollie Ntsibande.
Perfoming across the black townships of South Africa, the Klooks octet won critical approval. lt
came as no surprise when the band won top prize for best performance in the new jazz gruup
category at the 1963 NationalJazz Festival at Soweto's Morola-Jabavu Stadium, which was
Africa's first open-air jazz festival.
The following year (L954) Ngwenya won the top prize for best woodwind instrument (Flute) at
the second National Jazz Festival at Soweto's Orlando Stadium.
ln 1967 Ngwenya was chosen to play flute and baritone saxophone in the first international big
band to visit the black South African townships. The big band featuring top-flight Americans
such as vocalist LaVern Baker and pianist George "Stardust" Green also featured the cream of
South Africa's black jazz musicians led by pianist (Gideon) Nxumalo)
After the Americans left the country, the black South African musicians performed a series of
concerts countrywide before recording the critically-acclaime d L967 album "Early-Mart", an
album which was a tribute to top drummer Eariy Mabuza and Martin Ngoasheng. Mabuza died
of natural causes while Ngoasheng died after an assault in Soweto while putting up posters
advertising one of the band's concerts.
ln 1968 Ngwenya formed another top-flight band The Jazz Faces which lasted two years. His
earlier band the Klooks Octet was revived, this time as a sextet with a number of young
promising jazz musicians from Soweto. ln-between his band duties Ngwenya did numerous gigs
with the country's ace jazz musicians around Johannesburg and major cities around South
Africa.
From the mid-70s Ngwenya threw him-self nody and soul intc ;tudying music privately and on
reflection about the state of jazz in his homeland.
"After a long absence from the South African jazz scene, I am now working with my son Vusi,
who is also a flautist and saxophonist. I am also playing in a band of of South African jazz
veterans, who are in their late 60s and upwards," says Ngwenya who stays in Soweto.