Makaya Ntshoko

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Makaya Ntshoko (born October 29, 1939 in Cape Town , South Africa) is a South African jazz drummer .

Live and act

Ntshoko began his career in Johannesburg with Dudu Pukwana and then worked with Mackay Davashe and Pat Matshikiza . In 1960 and 1961 he played with the Jazz Epistles , which included Hugh Masekela (tp), Kippie Moeketsi (ts), Jonas Gwangwa (tb), Dollar Brand (p) and Johnny Gertze (b), and took with them the record " Verse 1 “on; it is the first long-playing record recorded by a black modern jazz band in the land of apartheid . He visited England for a year in the early 1960s and then moved to Switzerland, where he married his first wife, Ursula Gyger and fathered a daughter, Rose Ntshoko, with her. Together with bassist Johnny Gertze, he has been back in a trio with Dollar Brand since 1962 and has also recorded records with Duke Ellington , Svend Asmussen and Sathima Bea Benjamin .

The dense polyrhythm of his drumming, which is occasionally reminiscent of Elvin Jones , and his quick empathy made him a congenial and equal partner in the ensembles of Mal Waldron , Steve Lacy , Karl Berger and Don Cherry . He opened the first festival in Willisau in the quartet of John Tchicai and Irène Schweizer . He has also worked with Dexter Gordon , Ben Webster , Roland Kirk , Kenny Drew , George Gruntz , Joe Haider , Dusko Goykovich , Benny Bailey , Pepper Adams , Hannibal Marvin Peterson , Joe Henderson , Piere Favre and Roman Schwaller . He also leads his own groups such as "Makaya and the Tsotsis" (with Heinz Sauer , Bob Degen and Isla Eckinger ) in the mid-1970s and currently the New Tsotsis with Andy Scherrer (ts), Adam Taubitz (from left), Vera Kappeler (p) and Stephan Kurmann (b). With Irène Schweizer and Omri Ziegele he forms the trio Where's Africa .

Ntshoko is a long-time member of the Jazz Against Apartheid project founded by Johnny Dyani in 1986 , in which he performed regularly with John Tchicai and Harry Beckett . He has lived and worked in Basel for many years .

Discography (selection)

  • Sathima Bea Benjamin A Morning in Paris (with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and others, 1963)
  • Dollar Brand Pre Abdullah Ibrahim (1965)
  • Makaya and The Tsotsis (1974)
  • John Tchicai / Irène Schweizer: Willi The Pig (with Buschi Niebergall , 1975)
personal data
SURNAME Ntshoko, Makaya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town , South Africa