Jonas Gwangwa

Who is Jonas Gwangwa?

Jonas Mosa Gwangwa has been an important figure in South African jazz for over 40 years. He first gained significance playing trombone with The Jazz Epistles. After the group broke up he continued to be important to the South African music scene and then later abroad.

In the 1960s he began to gain noticed in the United States and in 1965 he was featured in a "Sound Of Africa" concert at Carnegie Hall. The others at the concert included Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Letta Mbulu. Despite that he was not seen favorably by the apartheid government so left his homeland in the early 1970s

In later life he became important as a composer doing the scores of films like Cry Freedom and at the 60th Annual Academy Awards in 1988 he performed his nominated song Cry Freedom. Also in 1988 he performed at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in Wembley Stadium. In 1991 he returned to South Africa and in 1997 he composed the theme for their Olympic bid.

His autobiography has recently been written by acclaimed music academic Colette Szymczak.

It would be difficult to find a more accomplished and versatile jazz musician than Gwangwa. This South African paragon has thrilled audiences around the world with his artistry as a trombonist/composer and all around creative genius. The span of his musical career and the range of his accomplishments, make it difficult to categorise his talents. For over 30 years, he traversed the world as an exile, collecting accolades at every stop along the way. A product of the turbulent but musically significant 1950’s, Gwangwa emerged from the humble environs of Orlando East in Soweto. He electrified the famous Sophiatown music scene until it became illegal for Blacks to congregate and South African musicians were regularly thrown in jail merely for performing their craft. In spite of the restrictions, he blazed a fiery path in South Africa by establishing and playing with virtually every important band of the era, including the Jazz Epistles, a group that included such icons as Kippie Moeketsi, Abdullah Ibrahim, Johnny Gertse and Makhaya Ntshoko. The Epistles were the first South African band to record a long playing record. In 1961, Gwangwa left his home country to tour England with the hit musical "King Kong". When the tour ended, he ventured to the United States to further his education at New York’s prestigious Manhattan School of Music. He continued to reside in the U.S for 15 years, earning his American "break" through the patronage of musical legend Harry Belafonte. Over the years, Belafonte has been a staunch supporter of both the ANC and Jonas Gwangwa’s personal career. Gwangwa has also been a compatriot of a virtual who’s who of world music including Ahmad Jamal, Herb Alpert and contemporaries Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Caiphus Semenya. Believing that "politics and culture cannot be separated," Gwangwa’s total commitment to the struggle to end apartheid is intrinsic to his music. An official "enemy of the state" for many years, Gwangwa narrowly escaped death in 1985 when his home was blown up by South African security forces. His lifework crystallised when he served as composer, arranger and musical director of "Amandla", the much-heralded worldwide ANC cultural ensemble tour to which he devoted ten years of his life. He also had a national tour of Nigeria with Amandla Cultural Ensemble of the African National Congress in 1985. A prolific composer, Gwangwa joined forces with George Fenton to create the original score and theme song for the much-heralded Richard Attenborough film Cry Freedom. The score achieved Oscar, Grammy Bafta, Golden Globe and Anthony Asquith award nominations and won Ivor Novello and Black Emmy Awards. Gwangwa returned to South Africa in 1991. His lifelong dream of freedom was realised in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected president of a democratic new South Africa.