Dudu Pukwana
Dudu Pukwana (1938-1990) was a saxophonist, composer and occasional pianist, born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, into a musical family. Both parents were singers, and his father gave him some piano lessons from aged six, though he was mostly self taught. He took up the saxophone at 18, taking some lessons from tenor player, Nikele Moyake. The pair played together in the Jazz Giants at Johannesburg Jazz Festival in 1962, where Pukwana picked up an award as ‘best saxophonist’. Off the back of that performance, he and Moyake were invited to join Chris McGregor‘s racially mixed group, The Blue Notes, alongside trumpet Mongezi Feza, bassist Johnny Dyani and drummer Louis Moholo. The group held down a residency at the Downbeat Club in Johannesburg, and made their first studio recordings in Cape Town in 1964. Later that year, to escape harrassment by the apartheid regime, the group set out on a European tour, and decided not to return to South Africa.
The Blue Notes played in France, Switzerland and Britain, and most of the band (including Pukwana) settled in London, where they became influential figures in the burgeoning free jazz scene. Pukwana, Dyani, Moholo and Feza were founding members of Chris McGregor’s big band Brotherhood of Breath in the late 1960s. Pukwana also recorded in the Afro-rock group Assagai (again with Feza and Moholo) and also recorded a kwela album with his band The Spears, produced by Joe Boyd. He also recorded with artists as diverse as Toots and the Maytals, Centipede, Hugh Masekela and Han Bennink.
In 1978 Pukwana formed a new band Zila with guitarist Lucky Ranku, which toured the UK and Europe regularly during the 1980s. He made one of his last appearances in a tribute to Nelson Mandela at Wembley Stadium. Pukwana died in June 1990 at the age of 51, just a month after his friend and colleague Chris McGregor.
Key Recordings:
With The Blue Notes and Brotherhood Of Breath
Dudu Pukwana and Spear (Quality 1969)
In The Townships (1973)
Live in Bracknell and Willisau (Jika 1983)
