Ezra Ngcukana

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Ezra Nyaniso Ngcukana (born August 25, 1954 in Port Elizabeth , † August 9, 2010 in Gugulethu ) was a South African musician ( tenor and soprano saxophone , piano , vocals ) of Cape Jazz .

Live and act

Ngcukana came from a family of musicians (his father Christopher Mra Ngcukana played with Chris McGregor , his brothers Duke and Cyril are active as flugelhorn and keyboard players). He grew up in Langa . At the age of eight he began, initially on the trumpet ; from 1970 he played the saxophone. He studied science and economics at the University of South Africa and was a member of the Big Band of Abdullah Ibrahim and, in 1972, of Louis Moholos Spirits Rejoice . He also worked with Winston Mankunku and Duke Makasi and was one of the leading musicians on the Cape Town jazz scene in the 1980s. He influenced younger musicians like McCoy Mrubata . He also played in Basil Coetzee's band Sabenza . In 1989 Koloi Lebona gave him the opportunity to write his debut album, on which, in addition to pieces influenced by Fusion and Coltrane , a composition by his father and (as the title track) Mongezi Feza's You Think You'll Know Me (But You'll Never Know Me) can be found. He also played with the Four Sounds . Since 2000 he has also led the youth big band Little Giants together with jazz pianist George Werner , with whom he also performed at the Cape Town Jazzathon Festival.

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary by Gwen Ansell ; see. also Jürgen Schadeberg & Don Albert Jazz, Blues and Swing: Six Decades of Music in South Africa 2007, p. 160
  2. Obituary
  3. Historical Cape Jazz on dispatch.co.za ( memento of July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 17, 2010
  4. Max Mojapelo et al. a. Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music 2009, p. 250