Jabulani Patrick Nkosi was born in Alexandra, a township in the Gauteng province of South Africa which forms part of the City of Johannesburg, to legendary saxophonist and pioneer of South African Jazz Isaac 'Zacks' Nkosi and EMI session vocalist for the Dark City Sisters Kate Nkosi (née Olene) in 1954, he was the eldest son of four other siblings.
Having possessed a nimble and distinctive improvisational touch, self-taught pianist/keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Nkosi developed a brilliant natural sense of harmonic vocabulary and musicianship during his early years, having also received nurturing through the practice and disciplined guidance of his father, Alexandra's legendary jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Zacks (Zakes) Nkosi.
"The son of legendary alto sax and clarinet player Zakes Nkosi, Jabu Nkosi left school at an early age and began performing jazz with friends and family. He never learned to read music but amazed fellow musicians with his intuitive grasp of harmony and other concepts.
Nkosi’s keyboard style was characterized by an infinite delicacy and his ability to improvise." – AP News
Jabu Nkosi was a member of The Anchors which was formed in March of 1968 by Ezrom Kgomo and Collins Mashigo (Mashego) after a split in an earlier Alexandra soul group simply called The Soul. At the time of their first recording ’Soul Upstairs’ (1969) most of the band members were still attending school and had included 19-year-old Jabu on organ (also known and listed under his middle name Patrick Nkosi), Anderson Nkosi (18) on lead guitar, Given Sabela (19) on bass, Condry Sequbu (Ziqubu) (who must have been 13 or 14) on rhythm guitar, and Dinah Mbatha (17) on vocals.
Soul Upstairs was recorded in March 1969 at Herrick Merrill Studios in Johannesburg and issued on the City Special label.
“The debut album by one of Alexandra's first soul groups — The Anchors. Under the influence of the Memphis Sound of groups like Booker T and the MGs, organ jive swept South Africa in the late 1960s and the Anchors were one of the earliest purveyors of this style of music. "Last Time," a single (not on this LP) by the group, is featured on the excellent Next Stop Soweto Vol. 2 (2010) album, one of the best compilations in recent years.” – Electric Jive
Jabu Nkosi was signed to the Gallo Record Label and other small labels throughout his prolific career and worked as an intuitive and forward-thinking musician who was in demand as a pianist/ keyboardist, producer, and artist. As well as being a successful solo recording artist in his own right, he also worked as a session musician throughout his career and toured the world (Southern Africa, USA, Europe, UK) with bands such as The Drive (replacing Bheki Mseleku), Mike Makhalemele (The Peacemaker), Sakhile (Sipho Gumede, Khaya Mahlangu, with whom Nkosi recorded Phambili and toured with during the apartheid-era), Roots (with South African Tenor Saxophonist Barney Rachabane), Freeway (Abahambi), McCoy Mrubata, and worked on several recording projects with other notable Southern African artists and musicians which included the likes of Hugh Masekela, Lucky Mbatha, Sipho Gumede, Kippie Moeketsi, Thembi Mtshali (Today Tomorrow, Peace), Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Harry Belafonte, Caiphus Semenya (Streams Today, Rivers Tomorrow), Letta Mbulu, and Miriam Makeba, amongst many others. The Rough Guide to South African Music states that:
Read more
"The Drive as well as the nominally soul-styled Movers were successful examples of this type, while Sakhile achieved cult status with a following that crossed every racial boundary. These bands often spawned soloists who later became names. A good example was sax player Henry Sithole from The Drive who was tragically killed in an automobile accident at the apex of his career. Sakhile featured saxophonist Khaya Mahlangu and bassist-vocalist Sipho Gumede (who later formed Spirits Rejoice) as well as keyboard player Jabu Nkosi (who also was in the drive). All three still feature permanently in the local jazz scene". (Allingham, 1999: 665)
With a rich musical legacy underpinned by his pioneering father's self-coined motto "Our Kind of Jazz', Nkosi was a proud torch bearer who was in constant honor of his late father Zacks Nkosi. Albeit short-lived, his music career spanned over a mere four decades and proved to be abundant, as did his discography, which serves as a direct reflection of his dedication and commitment to his art, craft, and legacy as a highly respected and acclaimed musician of South African Jazz and beyond.
Jabu Nkosi Spotify
Jabu Nkosi ArtistInfo
Our Kind Of Jazz – Zacks Nkosi
Zacks Nkosi – Bandcamp
Zacks Nkosi – Wikipedia
Liner Notes from Jabu Nkosi’s City Jazz 7 ‘Remembering Bra Zacks’ (CDGMP—40718)
As a new South African cultural consciousness slowly emerges from the ruins of the old apartheid order, it is only to be expected that this country’s musical history will be re-examined and newly evaluated. The reputations of certain popular heroes are then bound to be eclipsed by those of other individuals who will be seen in retrospect to have made the more important contribution.
The late Isaac Nkosi — known and loved during his lifetime by his friends, colleagues, and audiences as “Bra Zacks” – is one figure whose current secondary status cries out for review and renewal. It is in just this spirit that Zack’s son Jabu-himself a musician of great talents, indeed probably the one half of the greatest father and son combination in local music history – has recorded this album to pay tribute to the memory of one of South Africa’s musical Giants.
Zacks Nkosi was born in 1918 at Ingogo, a small town near Newcastle in Natal, but when he was still very young, his parents bought land and settled in Alexandra Township, just north east of central Johannesburg. He first attended Holy Cross Catholic School in the Township, and they learned the rudiments of Piano and Organ. By the age of nine, he was already regarded as something of a musical prodigy and, by age 15, he had added a knowledge of the accordion, violin and, clarinet to his instrumental repertoire. Soon thereafter, he began playing professionally with local bands around Alex, like the Blue Diamonds (where he first picked up the alto saxophone) and the Havana Swingsters. While not yet out of his teens, he successfully auditioned (competing against “other big fellows“, he later wrote, who “wanted to smack me“) for the second alto spot with the legendary Maniacs under Soloman Zulu boy Cele, one of the pioneer aggregations whose combining of indigenous elements with American swing music would eventually result in the style known as African jazz.
The 1950s and 60s were Zacks’ heyday. After the breakup of the Jazz Maniacs, he had moved into the orbit of another, larger group of musicians that included such talents Elijah Nkwanyane, Ellison Temba, Dugmore Darkie’ Slinger, Boycie Gwele, Michael Xaba, Jeff Hooja Cartiers, and Gideon Nxumalo, to name just a few. They frequently played for shows and dances using the name African Swingsters, but recorded dozens of sides under different names on the old HMV and Columbia labels for producer Rupert Bopape. Zacks’ wonderfully precise and incisive solos on both sax and clarinet (that now forgotten instrument) were a frequent feature of these recordings, particularly those made under his leadership and issued as the City Jazz Nine or Zacks and His Sextet.
He was still actively playing in the mid-seventies, just at a time when younger audiences in the townships were becoming increasingly disinterested in the African jazz favoured by the parents’ Generation. About this time, Zacks recorded a couple of excellent LPs for Gallo’s GRC’s subsidiary, the first and last of his career-but increasingly, ill health began to affect his activities. Bra Zacks died in 1980.
“Everything at home was Music” recalls Jabu Nkosi, the eldest of Zacks’s several children. At a very early age, he was already following in his father's musical footsteps - Zonk! Magazine featured him on their cover as a toddler clutching a scaled-down saxophone - and by the time he was 10 or 11, he was drumming in a trio with his father, playing pop instrumentals such as Greenwich Onions’ or “funky stuff like Lou Donaldson or Grover Washington" for weddings in and around Alexandra. But, says Jabu, “every time I played with my father, I don’t get paid, so I jumped", thus initiating his trajectory as one of South Africa’s most accomplished keyboard players.
Jabu’s has been a remarkably wide range in career, one characterised by his unequal ability to fit seamlessly into a wide variety of musical contexts. He has over the years accompanied an astonishing collection of South African talent - everyone from Kippie Moeketsi to Bra Sello, Phuzushukela to Sammy Brown, Margaret Singana to Yvonne Chaka Chaka - in addition to a long list (“so many I can’t remember them all”) of international stars on local tours that include Edwin Starr, Jimmy Witherspoon and Buddy DeFranco.
Then there were the more permanent geeks with various bands that are counted as some of this country’s finest of the '70s/'80s period.
The first was the Anchors, and Alex outfit that was one of the original soul bands, followed by Roots, which also included Dennis Mpale and Gilbert Matthews in its ranks (after Jabu’s departure, they became Spirits Rejoice). A long residence with the Drive, both before the tragic death of Henry Sithole and two other members of the band in an auto accident, and afterwards with their replacements, was followed by the short-lived Renaissance with Lucky Mbatha. Jabu’s next stop completed the classic lineup of Sakhile - together with Sipho Gumede and Kaya Mhlangu, Jabu recorded ‘Phambile’, the group’s finest album - then there was Varu Kweru with Vusi and Bakithi Khumalo and Victor Ntoni (they also provided locally recorded backing tracks for Hugh Masekela in the US).
A tour with Sipho Gumede and Condry Ziqubu, backing up Caiphus Semenya in Lesotho, led to a period of working in the US behind Harry Belafonte and Letta Mbulu. After returning home, Jabu resumed his career as a freelancer, at first travelling around South Africa and the continent with Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and since then maintaining his present pattern of doing tours and one-off shows, often with once-exiled stalwarts such as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Jonas Gwanga. There was even a tour during the 1994 elections with Mara Louw for Voter Education (about the time, incidentally, that he says, “I quit drinking … It had really messed me up").
On his album, Jabu has taken on more of a supporting role, providing the arrangements and setting up chords and rhythms to support the soloists. He did allow himself the odd solo excursion here and there, but preferred to give most of the solo space over to two horn-men. (“I’ll do more solos on my album”, he promises, “this is my father’s album.”) Alexandra Bourne-and-bred Barney Rachabane is one of the best-known Jasmine in the country, and he asked Jabu if he could contribute to this album in order to repay a long-standing debt of gratitude. It was. Bra Zacks, who gave him saxophone lessons and later his first chance as a second alto, playing with Zacks around the township. Scorpion Madondo is another graduate of the Alex music scene. He started his professional career with the Flaming Souls, then later played for Afrozania, Johnny Clegg’s Juluka, and Mzwaki Mbuli, and now makes his way as one of the country’s top session men.
Probably the most enduring component of Zack’s Nkosi’s legacy are his songs. He was one of the truly great South African composers, and included within his extensive catalogue are melodies which have now become so commonplace that many mistake them for being traditional. Jabu has chosen to record new versions of six of these evergreens and then has added another three of his own in the same vein, thus testifying to his own, not inconsiderable talent as a composer. Some listeners will note the more than casual similarity of ‘Jackpot’ to ‘Mannenberg’, which is as it should be; the melody is all Zacks’ and was later ‘borrowed’ and reworked some 14 years ago after Zacks first recorded it. And yes, ‘Tomatie Sauce’ really is a traditional tune, a Xhosa melody first adapted and renamed by Coloured Musicians in the Cape. Later, it provided the basis for Malayisha by the Manhattan Brothers, and then Zacks’ arrangement of the tune became the first hit record for the African Swingsters, where it competed mightily in the marketplace against the rival version by the Harlem Swingsters.
Too often in the contemporary jazz scene, the situation has risen where endless solos are the order of the day. “This guy wants to show off his technique, “says Jabu, “so he goes on and blows anything. Six of them are still waiting to do the same thing, so the song ends up too long, and the people are sleeping. Those are the Jazz destroyers." Equally deadening is the effect of so-called "challenging" arrangements, the type that elitist critics regularly applauded but which, in reality, produce music that is as difficult to listen to as it is to play. “That is the thing that makes people hate Jazz“ complains Jabu.
The production philosophy behind "Remembering Bra Zacks" has been to make the arrangements clever, fresh, and accessible, the solos inventive and economic, but above all to keep the melodies in the forefront.
Zacks himself would have approved.
Recording Personnel
Scorpion Madondo — Alto Sax & Flute
Barney Rachabane — Alto Sax
Leonard Rachabsbe — Tenor Sax
Jabu Nkosi — Keyboards
Johnny Chonco — Guitar
Mandlenkosi Zikalala — Bass
Jethro Shasha — Drums
(Swazi Twist, Jackpot, Amaswai, Tomatie Sauce, Mandinga Dance)
Kenny Mathaba — Guitar
Don Gambo — Bass
Isaac Mtshali — Drums
Easy, BMSC, Hoshhh Hoha)
Barney Rachabane solos on Alto Sax
On Jackpot and Tomatie Sauce.
All other solos on Alto Sax and Flute are by Scorion Madondo.
Executive Producers: Rob Allingham, Simon Buthelezi.
Producers: Jabu Nkosi, Ian Osrin
Engineer: Ian Osrin
Recorded at: Digital Cupboard Studios
Sleeve Notes: Rob Allingham.
Sleeve Notes Information: Louis Peterson, Kay Manana
Gear
Piano
Electronic Piano
Synths
Hammond Organ
Rhodes Piano
Flute
Vocals
Show less
Buy Now
