30/11/2025
South Africa ln Heritage our pride🇿🇦🇿🇦African Jazz Pioneers Trio of Bra Ntemi Piliso (centre,Levy Kgasi (left and Joe Kgasi (right), The Trio’s spirit lives on ,one of the reasons we played Mbaqanga music for the Colombians and Colombian Ambassador that visited the 1921 Museum House of Miga Kgasi. Celebrating 100 Years of Bra Ntemi Piliso: 1925–2025 ____________________________________________
Mthuthuzeli Edmund “Ntemi” Piliso was born in Alexandra Township on 16 December 1925. He passed away two days after his 75th birthday in December 2000. A century after his birth, we honour a man whose life and music shaped the sound, memory, and identity of South African jazz.
A BRIDGE BETWEEN ERAS
Ntemi’s career stretches from the 1940s when urban Black jazz culture was taking shape to the post-apartheid 1990s. His journey connects the marabi/majuba big-band age with the modern revival of township jazz, making him one of the great custodians of our musical heritage.
His mother called him Ntemekwana, shortened to Ntemi, the name the world came to know. He often said, “Alex has always been my home. The place has also been my school. I learned music there.” Like many township children, he began with the pennywhistle in the streets.
Movies from America ignited his imagination. After seeing a Glen Miller movie, he dreamed night after night of playing in a big band.
EARLY CAREER: FINDING HIS SOUND
Ntemi’s musical path changed when he met Sam Maile one of the country’s finest arrangers and the man many called “South Africa’s Duke Ellington.” Maile’s mentorship opened new doors, and soon Ntemi joined Maile’s post-war band, Zonk.
His ambitions, however, pointed higher. The Harlem Swingsters and the Jazz Maniacs were the hottest bands in town, and Ntemi wanted to be part of that world. When the Swingsters needed a sax player, he auditioned before legends like Kippie Moeketsi and Todd Matshikiza. He played with fear in his heart but with brilliance in his tone.
He impressed them so deeply that they bought him his first saxophone and welcomed him into the band full-time.
“I’ll never forget that day. Kippie just said, ‘Play.’ I was scared, but he listened carefully… and he let me in.”
With the Harlem Swingsters, Bra Ntemi helped shape a uniquely South African sound mixing American swing with township rhythms to form what became known as African Jazz.
ALEXANDRA ALL STARS: THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND
When big bands began to splinter in the early 1950s, Ntemi formed the Alexandra All Stars in 1953. The band quickly became kings of the township. Even Alexandra’s toughest gangs respected them.
Ntemi made many records with the All Stars. His wife, Constance, who had a beautiful voice, recorded “Baby Come Duze” with him, a hit that earned the record company thousands, while he received only five pounds for the rights. “That is how it was in those days,” he would say.
With the All Stars, Bra Ntemi created a distinctive mix of big-band swing with marabi, majuba, and township idioms. Songs like “Sip ’n Fly” spread far beyond Alexandra and helped define the soundtrack of urban Black South Africa.
HARD YEARS: THE LATE 1950S TO THE 1970S
The golden era of big bands faded as apartheid tightened its grip. Forced removals, the Group Areas Act, and the rise of smaller mbaqanga groups left large jazz ensembles without venues or audiences.
For Bra Ntemi, this meant a long and painful decline in performance opportunities. Missing out on the King Kong cast that toured London in 1962 devastated him. For years, he played only occasionally, and the dream of performing internationally seemed gone.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to recording when Gallo-Mavuthela assembled a band to capitalise on the popularity of Dollar Brand’s Mannenberg and Lulu Masilela’s Bump Jive. Though this revival was short, it reignited the spark.
THE SECOND CAREER: REVIVING TOWNSHIP JAZZ
In 1981, Ntemi gathered former All Stars members and other township veterans to form the African Jazz Pioneers (AJP). This marked the rebirth of big-band township jazz just as political resistance was rising through the UDF and broader liberation movements.
The Pioneers’ early concerts sold out, reawakening a sound that had nearly been erased. The group blended experience and youth, fostering a powerful intergenerational exchange. AJP became both a musical force and a cultural symbol, reminding South Africans of the richness of their own heritage during one of the country’s darkest periods.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION: A DREAM FULFILLED
By the early 1990s, as South Africa re-entered global cultural circuits, AJP began to tour internationally, Europe, Japan, and beyond. Their performances introduced global audiences to authentic township jazz.
Bra Ntemi may have missed the King Kong tour in 1962, but decades later he stood centre stage as one of South Africa’s foremost jazz ambassadors. Many regarded AJP as the most significant “classic” South African jazz export of the era.
HONOURS AND LEGACY
In the post-apartheid years, Bra Ntemi Piliso was honoured as one of the nation’s leading saxophonists. The City of Johannesburg named a street after him.
When he passed in 2000, South Africa lost a living archive, a direct link to the earliest sounds of township big-band jazz. Yet his legacy endures through his recordings, the African Jazz Pioneers, and every young musician who keeps the spirit of majuba and marabi alive.
