Afrika Mkhize@Intravinous

ABOUT

Afrika Mkhize (keyboards) with with Damian Kamineth (drums), Nick Ford (bass), Mark Fransman (tenor sax)

Jazz pianist Afrika Mkhize does not only carry the name of his biological father, Themba Mkhize, who is one of the 'fathers' of South African jazz, but his exceptional playing encompasses the soul of his being as well as spiritual movement for liberation.

 While the sound of his music is purely South African jazz, it draws influences from all sorts of moods, feelings and beliefs be it gospel, blues or Afro-pop.

 The composer, arranger and producer has this to say about his music:

 “Jazz is truth. It’s pure emotion; it’s like taking a knife and cutting out your heart and saying, here it is, look at it, this is me. One can’t talk about jazz without talking about blues and gospel music and you can’t talk about those without talking about the slaves that were taken from West Africa to America. For me, that’s where jazz really began. It was a way of expressing the pain felt by displaced people. But then, amongst the pain, there were also moments of joy and those were also expressed in the music. Essentially jazz is an expression of what we are feeling in the moment. Sometimes we go on stage and we don’t know what we’re going to play, but we come together and we play music. That is truth – being able to take your experiences during the course of the day and express them that evening at a gig. That’s jazz!

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