Name Gideon Nxumalo | Died December 24, 1970 | |
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Ndikho Xaba & the African Echoes : Zulu Lunchbag
Gideon "Mgibe" Nxumalo [nkǁɔˈmalɔ] (born 15 June 1929 in Kimberley; died 24 December 1970) was a South African jazz pianist and marimba player, acclaimed also as a composer and arranger. Nxumalo has been hailed as “perhaps one of South Africa’s greatest unsung musical and cultural heroes.”
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Life
Nxumalo graduated from university with training in classical music, playing the clarinet, viola, guitar and drums. He specialized in swing, helping to pioneer this new direction in music.
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 South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre, his declared political commitment was to lose him his position at the SABC.
At “Dorkay House” in Johannesburg, Nxumalo taught piano and music theory. He was also active as a writer, inter alia for the stage, as visual artist and as actor. In 1958-59 he was a member of the Philip Tabane Quartet; also appearing with Dorothy Masuka and the Manhattan brothers. Producing two jazz records, Nxumalo’s compositions brought together diverse musical styles including swing, Big Band and elements of indigenous African song and rhythm.
Nxumalo also composed a String Quartet, works for Chamber Orchestra, musicals, jingles and musical themes. He arranged African songs for the musical Sponono (script by Alan Paton and Krishna Sha), produced at the Cort Theatre on Broadway in 1964. A jazz score composed by Gideon Nxumalo together with Max Roach featured in the film Dilemma which was shot secretly, by Hennig Carlsen, in 1962, in South Africa under apartheid.
Nxumalo’s celebrated "Jazz Fantasia", in an arrangement by Denzil Weale for symphony orchestra and big band, and commissioned by Music is a great investment - MIAGI, was performed in 2009 by the MIAGI Youth Orchestra in concerts in South Africa and on tour in Germany.