Jonas Gwangwa

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jonas Gwangwa (1937 to 2021) was a South African jazz musician, songwriter and producer, for more than forty years an important figure in South African jazz. He was born in Orlando East, part of Soweto, and became known as the trombonist of The Jazz Epistles. When that short-lived group broke up, he remained important, first in his own country and later abroad. In 1965 he took part in the concert Sound of Africa at Carnegie Hall, together with Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Letta Mbulu.

Music and breakthrough

The apartheid government disliked him despite his fame, and in the 1970s he went into exile. He lived first in the United States, then for most of the 1980s in Gaborone in Botswana, where he founded the band Shakawe and joined the MEDU Art Ensemble of anti-apartheid musicians, visual artists and writers. After the South African army's attack on Gaborone in June 1985, in which twelve people were killed, he went abroad again. From 1980 to 1990, at the request of Oliver Tambo, he led Amandla, the cultural ensemble of the ANC, which told the story of the struggle against apartheid in music in more than forty countries.

Influence

Later he wrote film music, including for Cry Freedom from 1987. His song Cry Freedom was nominated for an Oscar and he played it at the ceremony in 1988. That year he also performed at the concert for Nelson Mandela's seventieth birthday at Wembley. In 1991 he returned to South Africa and in 1997 he wrote the theme for South Africa's bid for the Olympic Games. In 2010 he received the Order of Ikhamanga in gold.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1987Cry Freedom (soundtrack)

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• After Hours: Session 3^NL Reader