Loading details…
Artist
Basil Coetzee
12+ albums
saxophonejazzinstrumentalexperimentalflute
about
Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee (2 February 1944 - 11 March 1998) was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist. Mountain Records describes Basil thus: 'His distinctive raunchy tenor sound and the untiring commitment to his cultural roots made him one of the best known jazzmen to come out of South Africa. He earned the nickname "Manenberg" after the hugely successful collaboration with Dollar Brand in the late seventies. Basil toured and recorded extensively with Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim). Together with Robbie Jansen they created the unique brass sound of the group Pacific Express inspiring many younger cape jazz musicians in Cape Town.' Coetzee was born in an area of Cape Town, South Africa called District Six, an area which shared the poverty common to all townships, but which also fostered a vibrant music scene. His first instrument was the readily available penny-whistle, and he began performing within the township on that instrument in 1958. He turned next to drums, before finally settling on flute and the instrument most closely associated with him, tenor saxophone, and was entirely self-taught on all of these instruments. He is probably best known for his recording work with Dollar Brand (as he was then, before he took the name Abdullah Ibrahim after his conversion to Islam in the late 1960s). Ibrahim recorded "Manenberg" with Basil Coetzee — it became an enormous hit in the townships and impressed musicians as the recording is reputed to have been made
