Johnny Fourie

Who was Johnny Fourie?

Jan Carel Fourie was a South African Jazz guitarist born in Postmas in the Northern Cape province.

His first passion for music came whilst watching cowboy movies and Johnny wanted to imitate the sound of the musicians.

After hearing the George Shearing quintet in 1949, he was entranced and instantly fell in love with Jazz music and started playing jazz day and night.

At the age of 15, he left his parents house in order to pursue his career in Jazz guitar playing. His first gigs were with Boeremusiek bands and he quickly gained recognition as a great guitarist in the Johannesburg music scene of the 1950s.

By 1961, Johnny wanted to ONLY play jazz and he took a boat to London. In the first two weeks his money ran out and his wife was becoming desperate. Johnny then got his first gig playing with an Eastern European violinist at the Blue Boar Inn.

This is what Johnny said about the situation: "What I saw in Soho forced me to leave in November on a boat destined for London with my wife a baby and about two hundred Rand"

A short while after this, Johnny Fourie auditioned for the Ray Ellington Quartet of The Goon Show fame.