Jazz It Out

Gideon "Mgibe" Nxumalo (1929 – 1970) was a South African jazz pianist, actor, marimba player, composer, and arranger who played a vital role in shaping the modern South African jazz sound during the 1950s and 1960s. Nxumalo has been hailed as "perhaps one of South Africa's greatest unsung musical and cultural heroes." Both his mother and father played the piano, his father taught him how to play SABC Radio jingles as a young boy. He received formal training in classical music at the University of Roma in Basutoland. Under the name "Mgibe", as he was known by admirers, Nxumalo was, from the early 1950s, host to a radio programme 'This is Bantu Jazz' for the SABC. Nxumalo popularised local indigenous music on the radio, most notably Mbaqanga. He was also key to the orchestration of the legendary productions ‘King Kong’ and later ‘Sponono’. Sponono was the first South African production to play on Broadway. A jazz score composed by Gideon Nxumalo with Max Roach featured in the film Dilemma which was shot secretly by Henning Carlsen in 1962 in South Africa under apartheid. Along with Chris McGregor, Gideon Nxumalo helped pioneer the pre-exile South African jazz sound. His 1962 album ‘Jazz Fantasia’ is widely regarded as a seminal South African jazz record. He passed away just months after the recording and release of his final album, Early-Mart. Source: Wikipedia/Soweto Blues - Jazz, Popular Music, & Politics in South Africa