Title: Memorialising Kippie : on representing the intangible in South Africa's jazz heritage : Fitzsimons Award Winner
Abstract:In January 1958, Drum magazine - then in the full blush of its celebrated golden age - published an article entitled Masterpiece in Bronze. The piece profiled Johannesburg's master clarinettist, alto ...In January 1958, Drum magazine - then in the full blush of its celebrated golden age - published an article entitled Masterpiece in Bronze. The piece profiled Johannesburg's master clarinettist, alto saxophonist and composer Kippie 'Morolong' Moeketsi, who likewise was at the peak of his powers on the South African jazz scene. The title is curious for a journalistic portrait that dwells more on Moeketsi's senses of inadequacy given his lack of formal education and his less than successful relationships with women, since the reference to bronze typically connotes heroic stature, perhaps with a hint of proto-black - or if you will bronze - consciousness implied. But this rather oblique title struck me as uncannily prophetic early last year when, the greater part of a half century later, I found myself reflecting on a latter-day dimension of what I've come to think of, in another sense, as Kippie's 'bronzeness.' By this I mean the tendency, since his poverty-stricken passing in 1983, of commentators to monumentalise Moeketsi's life in terms that might well have surprised the musical pioneer and those with whom he made and shared his music when he was alive.Read More
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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