Obituary: Pat Matshikiza, pioneering SA jazz pianist

Jazz pianist and pioneer Pat Matshikiza was laid to rest in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape yesterday.

1938-2014

He died on December 29 after a long struggle with illness.

The 76-year-old musician had just returned to his family home in Queenstown after the death of his wife and primary caregiver, Bridgette, who had succumbed to a heart attack a week earlier.

The couple had been living in Umlazi, Durban.

Five years ago, Matshikiza suffered a stroke that left him in a wheelchair. This meant he couldn't play piano any more and was unable to earn a living. He was surviving on a government pension.

Stories of his misfortune and destitution began to surface with news reports that he was living in a shack and had been seen pushed to a clinic in a wheelbarrow. In April last year, the then deputy minister of energy, Barbara Thompson, and eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo took time off the election campaign trail to present him with a new wheelchair and groceries.

Matshikiza helped shape South Africa's musical identity in jazz.

Notable among his contributions is a 1975 recording, Tshona!, a four-track album that featured him on piano with rock and funk stars Sipho Mabuse, Alec Khaoli, Kippie Moeketsi, Dennis Phillips and Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee.

It was the title track that won Matshikiza a lasting place in the hearts of South African jazz lovers. It was light-hearted, daring and danceable.

Matshikiza's piano had a metallic timbre that echoed the sound of marabi, an early genre of urban black music associated with good times at the shebeen . The sweet, reedy feel of the saxophones played in a call-and-response pattern with the piano and gave the song its irresistible charm.

Here Matshikiza was building on the creative breakthrough made the previous year by Coetzee and Abdullah Ibrahim with the smash hit Mannenberg - Is Where It's Happening. They had created a new musical movement; township jazz was the buzzword!

Matshikiza followed it up with another album, Sikiza Matshikiza (1976). His earlier projects included work with Mackay Davashe's Jazz Dazzlers and in Ben "Satch" Masinga's musical Back in Your Own Backyard, which featured singers Thandi Klaasen, Abigail Kubeka and Letta Mbulu.

However, success put Matshikiza on the radar of the apartheid police, who wanted to "deport" him back to the Eastern Cape. He assumed a false identity and lived in the coloured township of Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, as Patrick Matthews.

Matshikiza was born in Queenstown on November 20 1938 into a musical family.

His father, Meekly, was nicknamed "Fingertips" for his deft touch on the piano, although Pat's uncle, Todd, is credited as the encouraging force in musical education in the clan.

Todd Matshikiza composed music for the historic musical theatre production of King Kong. His son, John, was a respected actor and journalist until his death in 2008.

Pat Matshikiza spent much of his waning musical career, before the stroke, as a feature on the hotel circuit, playing piano tunes for diners and tourists.

He broke his silence briefly with his last album, Seasons, Masks & Keys, in 2005. It didn't do very well.

His star had already passed.