Johnny Dyani

Johnny Dyani

Johnny Mbizo Dyani (30 November 1945 – 24 October 1986) was a South African jazz double bassist and pianist, who played with such musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray and Leo Smith.

He was born and grew up in Duncan Village, a township of the South African city of East London.

In the early 1960s, Dyani 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. 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.

He moved to Kopenhagen, Denmark in the early 70's, 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.

After his death in 1986 (West-Berlin), the remaining members of The Blue Notes reunited to record a moving tribute album, entitled Blue Notes for Johnny. 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: "Above all, his music resounded with a joy in life."