Johnny Gertze

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Johnny Gertze (* 1937 ; † 1983 ) was a South African jazz musician ( double bass , also trumpet , guitar and saxophone ).

Gertze was a member of the Cape Town jazz scene , where he initially achieved success as a wind player. He switched to bass in Tony Schilder's quartet . From 1958 he played in a quartet with Kippie Moeketsi , Abdullah Ibrahim and Makaya Ntshoko . With them he became a member of the South African all-star group Jazz Epistles . With Ibrahim and Ntshoko he went to Europe in 1962 to work as a jazz musician. The trio played in Zurich for a year and then toured Europe, where they also worked with Sathima Bea Benjamin and later with Joe Haider . In 1968 he returned to South Africa, where he worked with musicians such as Winston Mankunku and Mike Perry. He died of complications from a brain tumor .

Discographic notes

  • Jazz Epistles Verse 1 (1959, with Kippie Moeketsi, Hugh Masekela , Jonas Gwangwa , Abdullah Ibrahim, Makaya Ntshoko)
  • Abdullah Ibrahim Duke Ellington Presents the Dollar Brand Trio (1963)
  • Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) Round Midnight at the Montmarte (1965)
  • Sathima Bea Benjamin: A Morning in Paris ( Enja , 1963)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See interview with Tony Schilder, in Gwen Ansell, Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa , Continuum 2004, p. 70
personal data
SURNAME Gertze, Johnny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1937
DATE OF DEATH 1983