African Jazz Pioneers -
Jazz, Instrumental and African - Johannesburg
The background of the African Jazz Pioneers
stretches back to the 1950’s, when jazz was the
fashion and big bands were the name of the game. The
late Ntemi Edmund Piliso, leader and founding member
of AJP, nourished the group from their humble roots
to their current international acclaim.
In the early 1950’s Bra Ntemi and his Alexandra All
Star band hit the cutting edge of South Africa’s
music scene, blending American big band sound with
traditional Majuba tempo’s and Marabi influences.
The African Jazz Pioneers enjoyed enormous success
and had a huge following in those days. Sadly, all
this came to an end in the late sixties with the
demolition of Sophiatown, when big bands went out of
fashion.
African Jazz Pioneers
The African Jazz Pioneers will make your head spin
with joy. There is a profound feeling in their
music, as well as humour. Like “Sip’n Fly" the
Pioneer's ode to African tactics for sneaking booze
past the apartheid police pass patrols. The African
Jazz Pioneers take you into their stories and
dreams, their parties, their fantasy land of great
sound. With their wonderful music the Jazz Pioneers
celebrate life.
After the easing of the cultural boycott in 1990,
the African Jazz Pioneers were amongst the first to
travel abroad, headlining jazz venues, festivals and
concerts in Europe, Australia, Japan and Africa.
They shared the stage with artists like Youssou
N'Dour, Quincy Jones, Manhattan Transfer, Neville
Brothers, Chick Corea, Gilbert Gill, Salif Keita,
Nina Simone, Rita and Ziggy Marley, as well as South
Africa’s home-grown virtuosos like Miriam Makeba,
Hugh Masekela, Winston Mankunku, Darius Brubeck,
Mbongeni Ngema, Dolly Rathebe, Jonas Gwangwa,
Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu.
Since their first performance in Alexandra, African
Jazz Pioneers have evolved to a point where their
invigorating concerts have become famous at venues
throughout the country and neighbouring states. The
band reaches everyone, from high society to
liberation movements and political rallies,
including the honour of performing several times for
our country’s first democratically elected
President, Nelson Mandela.
African Jazz Pioneers
The driving force behind the Pioneers has always
been Bra Ntemi. Musicians have come and gone, but he
was always at the core of the band, ensuring the
continuance of its unique Township jazz sound. Even
he found it difficult to categorise the Pioneers’
music. It derives from Marabi and evolved to include
the instrumental sound of the big swing bands of
Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. Since the band’s
early days, Bra Ntemi has changed from one structure
to another without giving up anything along the way.
Just over fifty years ago the young Ntemi settled
for the saxophone, after his cherished trombone got
stolen. The saxophone soon became his trademark and
he was one of the country’s best and most enduring
saxophonists, a fact for which he was honoured by
Minister Ben Ngubane in August 2000 during a
ceremony at Morelete Park, Mamelodi. Bra Ntemi
passed away on 18 December 2000.
African Jazz Pioneers
The African Jazz Pioneers are honouring their
promise to Bra Ntemi to keep the music going. The
Ikageng Jazz Festival, established in 2001, has been
named ‘The Night of the Pioneers’ and AJP closes
each edition as top of the bill. In the last two
years, they performed for the Flemish Minister of
Culture, the President of the European Parliament
and President Thabo Mbeki.
In October 2002, African Jazz Pioneers recorded a
CD/DVD – to be released end of October 2003 - with
Jamaican jazz-legend & the ‘Godfather of Ska’,
Ernest Ranglin at Downtown Studio’s, Johannesburg.
May 2003 saw the Pioneers in an extraordinary
co-operation with the RAU Song & Dance Company and
Dolly Rathebe in ‘Sof’town – a Celebration’, which
ran for 5 nights to a sold-out house.
They are currently working on a new CD ‘Tribute to
Bra Ntemi’, to be released by Gallo, later this
year.
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African Jazz Pioneers -
Jazz, Instrumental and African - Johannesburg
