Philip Tabane

Philip Nchipi Tabane (born March 25, 1934 in Mamelodi near Pretoria ; † May 4, 2018 in Pretoria) was a South African musician ( guitar , penny whistle , vocals , bass ), who was one of the most innovative guitarists in South Africa, especially with the Malombo -Music is associated.

Live and act

Tabane grew up in a musical family in Mamelodi; his mother was a traditional healer and taught him ritual music. He has been playing the guitar since 1940. General Duze taught him the basics of musical knowledge. He then went to Johannesburg, where he met Gerard Sekoto , Aggrey Klaaste and Can Themba at Dorkay House and wrote the play Ekufeni . Until 1958 he performed as a solo guitarist. He developed “his own music that lives between blues quotations and completely unmediated, atonal, but never superimposed fragments of sound”. Then he founded a combo, which initially included the pianist Gideon Nxumalo . In 1963 and 1964 Tabane took part in the Castle Lager Jazz Contest , which he won both times with his trio, in 1963 with an interpretation of Bags' Groove . In 1965 the flautist Abey Cindi and the drummer Julian Bahula split up as Malombo Jazz Makers . Tabane then brought Mabi Thobejane into his group as a drummer. He spent several years in New York City in the 1970s , where he also performed with Miles Davis , Herbie Hancock , Herbie Mann , Charles Mingus and the Pointer Sisters .

He performed with Bheki Mseleku at the 1977 Newport Jazz Festival . In 1986 he played at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Open Ohr Festival . He also performed with Busi Mhlongo . He was involved in the anti- apartheid film Last Grave at Dimbuza .

From 1971, Tabane was invited to international universities, where he conducted workshops.

Honourings and prices

Tabane was awarded the South African Music Awards (SAMA) Lifetime Achievement Prize. In 1998 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Venda .

Discographic notes

• Philip Tabane and His Malombo Jazzman The Indigenous Afro-Jazz Sounds (1969)
• Malombo (1976, Atlantic Records )
• Silent Beauty (1989, Cross Culture / Erdenklang)
• Ke A Bereka (1996, Kariba Records)

literature

• Max Mojapelo, Sello Galane & Chris Walton: Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music . African Minds, Somerset West 2008
• Sello Edwin Galane: The Music of Philip Tabane - An Historical 'Analytical Study of Malombo Music of South Africa Dissertation Pretoria 2009

Web links

• Portrait ( Memento from October 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
• South African Music
• Philip Tabane in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Date of birth according to Discogs a variety of other dates of birth, e.g. B. 1947, can be found in Galane's dissertation. According to Mojapelo, he must have been born around 1937.
2. ↑ Jazz musician Philip Tabane dies. ENCA, May 10, 2018, accessed on May 18, 2018 . 
3. ↑ This style of music, which is based primarily on the interaction of guitar and percussion, is called Malombo by Tabane after a Venda word for "soul" ( Drum January 1966).
4. ↑ Tom Schulz comments on a festival of African music in Hamburg , Die Zeit , December 7, 1984