Article by Social Share
Cape Town – South African and world music has lost an icon with the death of jazz trombonist, composer and organiser Jonas Gwangwa.
The musician, who was 83, died on January 23 succumbing to cardiac complications.
He passed away on the same date that his great friend Hugh Masekela had died three years earlier, and two years to the day after Zimbabwean great Oliver Mtukudzi.
Gwangwa, who spent the prime of his life in exile, not only won acclaim for his music, he was also deeply involved in the struggle against white-minority rule in the country.
Born in the Johannesburg township of Soweto on 19 October 1937, Gwangwa went on to enjoy a highly successful musical career spanning six decades.
This story was first published byThe Conversation.
Music is not a zero sum game with only one “best”. But if you seek to name one musician whose life embodies the South African people’s struggle for a national culture, it must be trombonist, composer and cultural activist Jonas Mosa Gwangwa, who was born on 19 October 1937 in Orlando East, Johannesburg, and died on 23 January 2021 in Johannesburg aged 83.
Through 65 years on stage, Gwangwa’s playing contributed to every genre of South African jazz. Overseas, he was hailed as player, producer and composer. Yet he chose to step away from mainstream success for 10 years, leading the Amandla Cultural Ensemble of the African National Congress (ANC) to win hearts for the anti-apartheid struggle everywhere and present a vision of what post-apartheid national culture could be.
Jonas Gwangwa: The musician who embodied South Africa’s struggle for a national culture
The trombonist, composer and cultural activist never wished to be ‘the state composer’ but remained political until the end. Jonas Gwangwa at the Cape Town Jazz Festival in April 2017. | Jonas Gwangwa/Twitter
Music is not a zero-sum game with only one “best”. But if you seek to name one musician whose life embodies the South African people’s struggle for a national culture, it must be trombonist, composer and cultural activist Jonas Mosa Gwangwa, who was born on October 19, 1937, in Orlando East, Johannesburg, and died on January 23 in Johannesburg aged 83.