Background
Dyani was born and grew up in Duncan Village, a township of the South African city of East London.
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Johnny Dyani
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In 1964, the band fled South Africa to seek musical and political freedom. Moholo explained, "We were rebels and we were trying to run away from this apartheid thing. We rebelled against the apartheid regime that whites and blacks couldn"t play together.
We stood up."
In 1966, Dyani toured Argentina with Steve Lacy"s quartet.
Lacy, Dyani and Moholo recorded The Forest and the Zoo. In 1971 Dyani formed his own group Earthquake Power, and in 1972 co-founded Xaba with Mongezi Feza and Okay Temiz.
Performing widely throughout Europe, Dyani moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in the early 1970s, and about ten years later to Sweden, recording many albums under his own name. He recorded with Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray, Joseph Jarman, Clifford Jarvis, Don Moye, Han Bennink, Brotherhood of Breath, Mal Waldron, Pierre Dørge and many others
Dyani died suddenly in 1986 after a performance in West Berlin.
Other musical tributes include:
Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra"s album Johnny Lives (1987)
David Murray"s composition "Mbizo", which was first recorded on the Clarinet Summit"s Southern Bells (1987) and the duo album The Healers with Randy Weston (1987) and giving the title to the World Saxophone Quartet"s record M"Bizo (1997). In a memorial published in the South African magazine Rixaka, Pallo Jordan wrote of Dyani: "Above all, his music resounded with a joy in life.".
Membership
In the early 1960s, he was a member of South Africa"s first integrated jazz band, The Blue Notes, with Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Chris McGregor on piano, and Louis Moholo on drums. After his death, the remaining members of The Blue Notes reunited to record a moving tribute album, entitled Blue Notes for Johnny.
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Born
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Died
October 24, 1986 (aged 40) -
Nationality
South Africa