One of the most influential artists in South Africa’s rich history of jazz is Kippie Moeketsi. He was born on 27 July 2025 and passed away at only 57.

Like Moeketsi, Salim Washington plays the saxophone and composes jazz. As a professor of global jazz studies, he also teaches students about Moeketsi’s work and researches South African jazz.

As part of our coverage of Moeketsi’s centenary we asked him about the music behind the man.

Who was Kippie Moeketsi?

Kippie Moeketsi was born Jeremiah Morolong Moeketsi on 27 July 1925. He was a jazz virtuoso, a modernist, and cultural icon from South Africa, active from the 1940s to the 1970s. He was highly regarded among his peers and enjoys the reputation of being a musical genius.

He garnered his reputation early on as a member of the famous South African group, the Manhattan Brothers. He came of age among a coterie of outstanding local artists, including Mackay Davashe, and younger lights such as Dollar Brand (now Abdullah Ibrahim) and Miriam Makeba.

During the early part of his career he was a close associate with fellow musical visionary, pianist, composer and arranger Pat Matshikiza. With him he recorded Tshona and the more experimental Umgababa.

Why is he often compared to Charlie Parker?

Perhaps Moeketsi’s most enduring contribution is as a member of the Afro-Diasporic modernists. The musical modernists were celebrated in the US as so-called beboppers. The musicians themselves did not come up with the term bebop; they preferred the term modern music for their artistry.

That movement was centred around another genius saxophonist, US jazz star Charlie Parker, known as Bird, who died at 35 in 1955. Because Kippie admired Bird, and because he was of the same generation, and because his mythology (including his penchant for drinking too much) resembled Parker’s, Bra Kippie was often compared to Bird and was even referred to as South Africa’s Charlie Parker.

Read more: Charlie Parker: celebrating a century of the genius who changed jazz forever

This is more about the mythologies erected around these two giants; the musical record does not warrant the conflation of their legacies. (In the US one could rather make a musical case for saxophonist Sonny Stitt, or in South Africa one could think of saxophonist Barney Rachabane, as disciples of Parker.)

However, Moeketsi did inhabit many of the attributes that made Bird so important. First of all, he was a modernist who mastered the art of double timing (playing twice as fast as normal, 16 notes rather than eight) and could seamlessly employ this method wherever he felt musically justified.

Like his fellow modernists across the pond, he also mastered the intelligent use of chromaticism, or adding a texture and layer of intellectual acumen to his solos. Thus he was able to use his unusually developed technical mastery towards musical ends.

Equally important, he was a black nationalist, not in a doctrinaire way, but he dared to speak out when affronted by white managers and handlers of the music and the musicians. He also made a point of learning various kinds of indigenous African music.

Why is he regarded as a tragic figure?

The central tragedy of Moeketsi’s life is that his genius flowered during the period known as apartheid, formally entrenched by a white minority government in 1948. For black South Africans there were restrictions on movement, education and employment, and all manner of subjugations. This caused enormous pain and it thwarted the legitimate ambitions of the indigenous peoples of the nation.

Read more: Kippie Moeketsi at 100: the soul-stirring story of a South African jazz legend

One of the consequences of this system is that the music world in which black people operated was rife with underworld violence. Since black people did not have the sanctioned capacity to operate these businesses, they were vulnerable to the gun violence and sexual predation of tough guys and gangsters. Moeketsi’s professional life was affected by this.

As a sensitive and musically ambitious person, he was productive though he was suffering, and took to drink. Added to this was the western pathologising of black suffering: on tour with the South African musical King Kong he was diagnosed with a psychiatric condition and was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy before being dismissed from the tour. The spectacle of black pathology is often useful for historians and other commentators when talking about the legacies of black genius.

What are the highlights of his work?

I suppose we can start with King Kong. The musical was quite influential in South African music life. Despite having a black cast and creators, the production was allowed to go to England and many of the nation’s musical luminaries took part in this grand affair. Moeketsi was a leading member, playing his beloved clarinet.

Then there’s his delightfully abstract and bluesy writing on the track Scullery Department on an album by South African group The Jazz Epistles.

A more general highlight is how Moeketsi demonstrated how to flow over the famed South African I-IV-V chord progression in an arrangement. This irreducible nugget of jazz was gleaned from local marabi and mbaqanga music styles.

Blue Stompin’ is an excellent example of how Kippie could play the blues. The ability to play the blues compellingly is one of the hallmarks of jazz musicianship and Moeketsi acquits himself wonderfully, even a cappella.

Another outstanding feature of his saxophone playing is his ability to make an alto sax sound like a tenor sax! This is especially effective when he plays in the jump swing style as he did while with The Manhattan Brothers.

Why is he so influential?

Africa’s organic intellectuals took the world by storm in the 1940s and 50s. Kippie Moeketsi was one of the giants in this Afro Diasporic movement, unfortunately underrepresented in the history records because of the isolation South Africa brought upon itself through its apartheid policies.

To this movement Moeketsi brought a uniquely South African component. He placed his explorations on a firm foundation of marabi the way that “beboppers” did with the blues. The technical developments of South African jazz musicians are also unique in that many of the greatest of them started music relatively late.

Moeketsi was 20 when he started studying music. And like his fellow South African saxophonists who started in their 20s (for example Sidney Mnisi and Zim Ngqawana) they are essentially self-taught. As such they blazed legacies that were part tradition and part natural expression.

Moeketsi also made use of the close vocal harmonies he performed with during his time with The Manhattan Brothers. He adapted these harmonies to instrumental melodies in his improvisations.

Moeketsi, like other legendary South African saxophonists, such as Winston Mankunku Ngozi and Duke Makasi, enjoys a reputation among his peers and followers that is often greater than the recorded legacy.

As oral histories are especially relevant in jazz narratives we must acknowledge Kippie Moeketsi not only as a great musician but as an iconic figure who stood tall as a musician and as a man in a time when there were massive efforts to frustrate him at every turn.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Salim Washington, University of California, Los Angeles

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Salim Washington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.