Johnny Mbizo Dyani   Witchdoctor's Son

Johnny Mbizo Dyani - keyboards, vocals Dudu Pukwana - alto sax, whistles Peter "Shimmy" Radise - tenor sax Virimuje Willie Mbuende - electric bass Kenny Håkansson - electric guitars Hassan Bah - congos Bosse Skoglund - drums Felix Perrera - harp

All titles composed by Johnny Mbizo Dyani except "Tula Tula", traditional, arranged by JMD Produced by Stanley Koonin at Sound City Studios, Stockholm, Dec., 1979 Re-edited by Göran Freese, Flash Music, Stockholm, 1984 more mp3 tracks from the LP

Johnny Mbizo Dyani (30/11/45 - 24/10/86) was born and grew up in Duncan Village, a township of the South African city of East London where he played piano and later bass at home with his brothers.

Mbizo left for Europe in 1964 as bassist with a racially mixed quintet known as "The Blue Notes". Fifteen years later he was still in Europe and was by this time internationally recognised as a creative and highly original voice on the improvised music scene. He felt it was time for him to form his own group, and it is this present recording which uniquely documents the first formation of "Witchdoctor's Son". Mbizo indicated that with his own band he could play the South African music he had grown up with and teach others to play it, "Which I feel is also a political statement, when I play and let everyone feel it".

A South African, Stanley Koonin who has been in Sweden since 1967, was part of an organisation, "Ny Kultur" (New Culture), which was most successful presenting rock concerts from 1974 in Stockholm's "Kulturhus" (House of Culture). In 1979 Mbizo Dyani, who was also living in Sweden, asked Stanley if he would produce an album for him.

For the Witchdoctor's Son recording Stanley and Mbizo got hold of a couple of old friends, Bosse Skoglund (who said afterwards "it was the best drumming experience of my life"); guitarist Kenny Håkansson from the well known rock group Kebnekaise; tenorist Peter "Shimmy" Radise from Johannesburg who arrived in Sweden in 1959 with the Golden City Dixies and has lived here ever since; electric bassist Virimuje Willie Mbuende who came in 1969 from Namibia to Sweden; and from London his long-time colleague Dudu Pukwana. None of the group ever worked together previously. apart from Dudu and Mbizo: they simply went into the studio and did the sesssion.

The music is very special. Transcending the boundaries of nations and cultures, Mbizo's enthusiasm spread and inspired the session with his intense passion. A passion which revelled in a nostalgia for the myths and melodies of Marabi and Kwela. Mbizo's life was music, he gave his life for music. These sessions are Mbizo's own testimony to the spirit of hope for the future, for a better world. It is astatement so filled with vitality and with joy of rediscovered roots that it will stand as a signpost to the whole of his life and work.

Keith Knox