MaP Alumnus Bokani Dyer (2002), a multi award-winning jazz pianist now resident in Cape Town, electrified an audience of MaP students this morning ahead of his evening Maitisong concert.

 

The Bokani Dyer trio played two funky jazz pieces, ‘Vuvuzela’ and ‘Untitled’, to a rapturous reception, after a tight warm-up set by MaP teacher Laone Thekiso’s band Soul Connect, which also featured recent MaP graduate Khaya Groth on drums.

 

Dyer said : “It feels amazing to be back (at MaP). So many memories. I remember the assemblies here; it was always people with positive messages, giving something back, sharing what they are doing.”

 

Dyer, whose father is also a musician,  first starting listening to music in Form 3. “Basically, it wasn’t about jazz at that time,” he said. “I was struck by the power of music and how it can inspire. It was (MaP teacher) Mrs Bennett who opened my mind to world music. (Genres) are linked more closely than people think; even though it might be called jazz, there’s often another sensibility at work.” Mr Peloewetse’s Jazz Appreciation Club at MaP was also a big influence, Dyer said.

 

After graduating, he went town to study jazz at the SA college of music. He has released two albums, ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Emancipate the Story’, and won the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2011 for Jazz and the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Piano Competition in 2013.

 

“When I was a student, I said to myself, ‘I want to do something that can make people feel how music makes me feel,'” Dyer said. 

 

The Bokani Dyer Trio, supported by Mr Thekiso’s band Soul Connect, plays Maitisong Friday February 13th, 8pm