Mongezi Feza
Mongezi Feza (1945-1975) was only 30 years old when he died, but in his short life he had a big impact on the jazz scene in South Africa, and in Europe. He was born in the town of Queenstown, now known as Komani. He played trumpet from the age of 8, and was talented enough at 17 to join The Blue Notes, alongside Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo. The group was named ‘Best Group’ at the National Jazz Festival in South Africa in 1963. Despite the band’s popularity, the Apartheid regime made life difficult for a mixed-race group, and after they were invited to perform at Antibes Jazz Festival in 1964, The Blue Notes decided ‘en masse’ to stay in Europe, settling in London in 1965. They released the album Very Urgent in 1968, billed as the Chris McGregor Group.
When McGregor started his big band, Brotherhood of Breath, it was built around the core Blue Notes musicians, with the addition of the cream of the British free jazz scene, musicians like Evan Parker, Harry Beckett, Elton Dean, Paul Rutherford and Lol Coxhill, John Surman and Mike Osborne. 1971 was a busy year for Feza – the Brotherhood of Breath released their debut album, he joined Keith Tippett‘s Centipede on the album Septober Energy, and he joined Pukwana and Moholo in the afro-rock group, Assagai. The following year, he reunited with Johnny Dyani in the group Xaba, that also included Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz. Feza joined Pukwana in the band Spear, who released In The Townships in 1973. He also began to work with ex-Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt on his solo albums.
Feza was an adept exponent of both bebop and avant garde jazz, but carried enough influences from kwela and other African music to mean he sounded distinctive. His death in 1975 of pneumonia hit his friends and colleagues hard, and The Blue Notes reunited in tribute to him for an album in 1976. Feza’s tunes ‘You Ain’t Gonna Know Me ‘Cos You Think You Know Me’ and ‘Sonia’ are standards in South African jazz repertoire.
Key Recordings:
With Dudu Pukwana, Robert Wyatt
Very Urgent (Polydor 1968) with The Blue Notes
Brotherhood of Breath (RCA 1971)
Music For Xaba (Sonet 1972)
