Johnny Dyani

Artist

Double bassist from the Eastern Cape who joined the Blue Notes as a teenager and left South Africa with them in 1964. He settled in Scandinavia and played with Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and Abdullah Ibrahim, taking the music deep into free jazz. He collapsed after a concert in Berlin in 1986 and died there, and the surviving Blue Notes recorded a memorial for him.

Connections

worked with

Abdullah Ibrahim (1973) the African Space Program tour of Europe

lived in

London (1965) before moving on to Scandinavia

was a member of

The Blue Notes double bass

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Hear the music for yourself

Play the South African music quizTen new questions every day, most of them short clips from more than 90 South African recordings, from kwela and Cape jazz to amapiano. Answer to read the story behind each song.

Sources for these connections

South African History Online: Biography of Johnny Mbizo Dyani by Brandon Norman

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