Dudu Pukwana

Dudu Pukwana began by studying piano within his household, yet a 1956 encounter with tenor saxophonist Nick Moyake prompted him to take up the alto saxophone instead. Two years later he claimed first prize at the Johannesburg Jazz Festival alongside Moyake’s Jazz Giants, whose 1962 Gallo/Teal recording documented the victory. Chris McGregor soon recruited him into the Blue Notes; the interracial sextet, subjected to mounting official harassment, departed into exile in 1964 and performed across France, Zurich, and London. Pukwana’s impassioned alto resounded not only inside the Blue Notes and McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath but also in widely varied contexts, from sessions with the Incredible String Band to free improvisations alongside Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink on the 1978 ICP release Yi Yo Le. Among his compositions, “Mra” became one of the Brotherhood’s most cherished pieces. His own ensembles Assagai and Spear, which issued several albums in the early 1970s, fused kwela rhythms, electric-guitar drive, and extended jazz solos. On the predominantly electric Freedom album Diamond Express (1977) he joined Mongezi Feza, Elton Dean, Keith Tippett, and Louis Moholo for two striking acoustic tracks. His influence further shaped Moholo’s Spirits Rejoice! and Harry Miller’s Isipingo. Additional African bandleaders, among them Hugh Masekela and trombonist Jonas Gwangwa, enlisted him for their projects; the latter’s African Explosion appears on the 1969 recording Who, Ngubani. In 1978 Pukwana established Jika Records and assembled the group Zila, whose South African members included guitarist Lucky Ranku and the commanding vocalist Miss Pinise Saul. Zila documented its work on Zila Sounds (1981), Live in Bracknell and Willisau (1983), and the 1986 album Zila, the last of these featuring keyboardist Django Bates and revealing Pukwana’s growing emphasis on soprano saxophone. A 1987 duo session with John Stevens yielded the freely improvised Affinity album They Shoot to Kill, inscribed to the memory of Johnny Dyani. Dudu Pukwana succumbed to liver failure in June 1990.