Kippie Moeketsi
{{Short description|South African saxophonist and jazz musician (1925–1983)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Kippie Moeketsi
| image =
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| birth_name = Jeremiah Morolong Moeketsi
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|07|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Johannesburg, South Africa
| death_date = {{death date and age|1983|04|27|1925|07|27|df=yes}}
| death_place =
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| background = person
| genre = Jazz
| instrument = Alto saxophone
| discography =
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| past_member_of = Band in Blue
Shantytown Sextet
Harlem Swingsters
The Jazz Epistles
}}
Jeremiah "Kippie" Morolong Moeketsi (27 July 1925 – 27 April 1983) was a South African jazz musician, notable as an alto saxophonist.[http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/kippie-jeremiah-moeketsi "Kippie Jeremiah Moeketsi", South African History Online.] He is sometimes referred to as "the father of South African jazz"Maya Jaggi, [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2001/dec/08/jazz "The sound of freedom"], The Guardian, 8 December 2001. and as "South Africa's Charlie Parker".Jürgen Schadeberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HkuXMAtuAh4C&dq=kippie+moeketsi+died+april+1983&pg=PA145 "Profiles"], Jazz, Blues & Swing: Six Decades of Music in South Africa, New Africa Books, 2007, p. 145. He played with and influenced some of South Africa's great musicians, including Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela.
Biography
Born into a musical Johannesburg family, Jeremiah Morolong Moeketsi was the youngest of 11 brothers, and one sister who was a nurse (Mirriam Ntsadi Kathar, née Moeketsi), all but four of whom played an instrument. Growing up in George Goch township was unpleasant for him and he was often truant.{{cite web|url=http://www.joburg.org.za/sep_2002/kippie.stm |title=Kippies, the club that wasn't always there |date=September 16, 2002 |first=Lucille |last=Davie |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220025800/http://www.joburg.org.za/sep_2002/kippie.stm |archivedate=December 20, 2005 }} According to the Johannesburg official website, "His mother used to go looking for him, shouting: 'kippie-kippie-kippie', as if he were a chicken" — hence his nickname.
At 20 he started playing clarinet, but would soon move on to the saxophone. Influenced by his pianist brother Jacob Moeketsi, Kippie's career began playing in shebeens with his group, known as the Band in Blue. Over the years he played with several bands, including Shantytown Sextet, the Harlem Swingsters and famously the Jazz Epistles that brought fame to him, Abdullah Ibrahim (or Dollar Brand as he was known then), Jonas Gwangwa, and Hugh Masekela. Moeketsi claimed that he taught Ibrahim everything he knew about music.{{cite web|url=http://disa.nu.ac.za/articledisplaypage.asp?articletitle=A+tribute+to+Kiepie+Moeketsi+-+%22Bra+Joe+from+Kilimanjaro%22&filename=SeMar85|title=A tribute to Kiepie Moeketsi - 'Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro'|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604202221/http://disa.nu.ac.za/articledisplaypage.asp?articletitle=A+tribute+to+Kiepie+Moeketsi+-+%22Bra+Joe+from+Kilimanjaro%22&filename=SeMar85|archivedate=2011-06-04}} Ibrahim has credited Moeketsi with introducing him to the music of his greatest influence, Thelonious Monk.Robin D. G. Kelley, Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times, Harvard University Press, 2012, pp. 201–211, note 65, referencing Abdullah Ibrahim, "Monk in Harlem: A Short Brief on Some Aspects of the Music of Thelonious Monk".
Often introduced as "Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro" (Abdullah Ibrahim wrote a composition of that title to feature him),[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZoHLnyN4KI "Dollar Brand + 3 - Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro"]. YouTube. Moeketsi joined the cast of Todd Matshikiza's musical King Kong, which would take him to London in 1961. After the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, most of his contemporaries went into exile, but he returned to South Africa. In the oppressive circumstances he would not perform for four years.{{cite web|title=Township Jazz |author=Mike Gavin|year=2001|url=http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/ronnie_scotts/ronniescotts/129/129_08.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405061340/http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/ronnie_scotts/ronniescotts/129/129_08.htm|archivedate=5 April 2005}}
After many years of alcohol abuse, Moeketsi died penniless and disgruntled in 1983, aged 58.{{cite web |url=https://joburg.org.za/play_/Pages/Play%20in%20Joburg/Culture%20and%20Heritage/Links/Kippies,-the-club-that-wasn't-there.aspx |title=Kippie,the club that wasn't there |website=City of Johannesburg |access-date=January 30, 2024}}
Legacy
- The Newtown jazz club Kippies, located at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, is named after him.[http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/kippie-jeremiah-moeketsi "Kippie Jeremiah Moeketsi"], South African History Online, 17 February 2011.[http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=51 "Kippies, the club that wasn't there"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127084636/http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=51 |date=27 November 2016 }}, Joburg official website, 16 September 2002.
- A bronze sculpture of him, designed by Guy du Toit and Egon Tania, was unveiled on 25 September 2009. At the ceremony, Jonas Gwangwa said of his former mentor: "Bra Kippie was a very, very talented musician ... he became a father of jazz.... He was very challenging. He'd just walk on stage, take out his horn and play."[http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4372 "Kippie lives on in Newtown"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233657/http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4372 |date=3 March 2016 }}, Joburg official website, 29 September 2009.
- Moeketsi is the subject of a 1999 documentary film by Glenn Ujebe Masokoane entitled Blues For Kippie.{{Cite web |url=http://www.williambowles.info/musicsa/essays/kippie.html |title="Essays: Glenn Ujebe Masokoane's Blues For Kippie, a documentary film". |access-date=24 November 2016 |archive-date=31 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150731225001/http://www.williambowles.info/musicsa/essays/kippie.html |url-status=dead }}
Further reading
- Peter Esterhuysen, Kippie Moeketsi: Sad Man of Jazz, Viva Books, 1995.
References
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Category:South African jazz saxophonists
Category:Musicians from Johannesburg
Category:20th-century South African saxophonists