Hamba kahle to Zim Ngqawana

Great sadness has befallen the South African music industry once again, with the untimely passing of maestro wind and brass instrumentalist, Zim Ngqawana, who died 10 May 2011 from a stroke at a young age of 52 in Johannesburg.  Days previously he was rehearsing for a concert; weeks earlier he was heard in Capetown jamming with his younger fans and protégés at several night clubs!

I quote a lovely comment from Aryan Kaganof’s article in Pambazuka of 12 May 2011:  http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/73195

“It’s true that Bra’ Zim recorded ten albums (of which at least 5 are masterpieces), and it’s true that he was mentored by the “greats” of Afro-American improvised music (Archie Shepp and Yusuf Lateef) and it’s also true that he went on to mentor an entire generation of extraordinary young South African talents (most notably piano virtuosos Kyle Shepherd and the bass phenomenon Shane Cooper), but actually his greatest achievements were on the level of the everyday. Zim was a man whose immense quality of spiritual Being simply altered the lives of all those who came into contact with him. He was an alchemist, a transformer of energies, and, most importantly and in the deepest sense of the word, a Spiritual Healer. Music was not an end result for Bra’ Zim, it was the means to provide healing.”

My very brief interaction with ZIM was through his mentor, jazz multi-instrumentalist counselor, fellow spiritualist, and teacher, Dr. Yusuf Lateef, with whom I had rubbed shoulders during our ‘time together’ at the School of Education of University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the mid-1970s!  He would have been in this 50s at that time.  I kick myself now that I was not aware of Yusuf’s mission in life as not only a well – versed jazz musician, but also as an Islamist scholar. At the time, I knew and had met the late drummer Max Roach who was teaching at the University, and apparently became a teacher, and mentor, to Lateef, as did Archie Shepp who also taught at UMass. Yusuf and I were  studying for our Doctorates in Education then, he completing his Ed.D. in 1975, some 5 years before I completed mine.  It was sometime early 2000s, at Capetown’s Good Hope Center, attending the ‘North Sea Jazz Festival’, that I heard Lateef in concert with his protégé Zim who had attended our University sometime in the early 1990’s to study with Lateef.  After the performance, I cornered the two of them, enthusiastically chanting how we were all from the same alma mater!!  Lateef and I had a memorable ‘memory’ chat about ‘our days’ at UMass.  At that point, I realized how absolutely privileged  Zim was to have such a don friend and colleague in Yusuf.  Although some 40 years apart in age, the spirituality of both men was oozing out of their music that evening.

Now, we must heal our wounds without the living music of bra Zim, but engage his past sounds as our psyche tries to understand what dynamism he brought to our jazz and general musical world.

May his soul find its peace….and keep jammin’ up there…..!