Bokani Dyer – Jazz Pianist as well as Author of our Times


Bokani dyer is a Motswana-born, prize-winning pianist who has succeeded the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship as well as opened up the Greater london Jazz music Festivity. He is actually likewise the innovator of a trio along with bassist Romy Brauteseth and drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko.

Dyer’s songs is actually a rich mix of impacts and also suggestions. It fuses factors of a variety of genres without ever before ending up being eclectic or even chaotic.

His Life
Bokani Dyer is actually an award-winning pianist and also author that integrates standard African rhythms with jazz music. His structures are actually identified through intricate blendings and soulful melodies which have spellbinded audiences worldwide. He has done with worldwide greats like Shabaka Hutchings as well as Jason Moran and also local area stalwarts like Feya Faku, Shane Cooper, Sisonke Xonti as well as Friend Wells. OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Birthed in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Dyer grew listening closely to the sort of Pat Metheny, Khadja Nin and Oliver Mtukudzi, whose songs was played in his family members home. As he got older, he participated in the revolutionary multi-disciplinary fine arts collective Medu in Botswana where he played as well as made films, staged performances, mounted art events as well as conducted innovative shops.

Following Medu, Dyer moved to Johannesburg where he made a bachelor’s degree in popular music coming from the University of Cape Community. In the course of his time at the tertiary organization, he created enduring links with a hold of musicians that are today partners along with him in one type or yet another consisting of bassist Shane Cooper and also vocalist Sakhile Moleshe.

After accomplishing his researches, he launched his first self-released cd in 2010, adhered to by Emancipate The Account in 2011. In 2015, he recorded World Music with a quintet including top South African artists consisting of tenor saxophonist Feya Faku, pianist/composer Jonathan Jephta, drummer Pal Wells and bassist Shane Cooper. His trio cd Neo Native was actually released in 2019 and acquired a SAMA nomination for greatest jazz album. He also discharged Kelenosi, a completely solo cd made under astronomical disorders in 2020.

His Songs
The Motswana-South African pianist and also author Bokani dyer is a pressure to become assumed with in jazz. Technically skillful beyond his years, he is also innovative and creative in a wide array of jazz music genres. His songs draws from a wide stable of influences as well as is rooted in heritage while welcoming contemporary ideas and also possibilities.

The advertised multi-hyphenate’s most recent release is an extensive cd called World Songs, his very first for the prominent Gilles Peterson trace on Brownswood Records. The file observes up sophomore standout Emancipate the Story, as well as creates on it, combining a collection of broad impacts to produce an anti-genre file with an unique identity of its very own.

With the album, he takes together veteran superstars like drummer Hassan Khan and saxophonists Linda Sikhakhane, John Swanson and also Robin Fassie-Kock, in addition to younger bloods including trumpeter Sthembiso Bhengu as well as bassist Tendai Shoko. The outcome is actually a hypnotic combination of thought and feelings as well as stirring machinery.

In 2014, he was selected for a Pro Helvetia funded performer residency in Switzerland where he complied with musicians Donat Fisch, Stephan Kurmann as well as Norbert Pfammatter that joined him to form the Bokani Dyer Swiss Quintet. The set went on to dip into the opening of the London Jazz Festival as well as toured South Africa with jam-packed programs in King William’s Town, Johannesburg and also Maputo.

His Albums
For Bokani Dyer, a pianist and composer, the music is at the centre of his globe. He produces jazz music with factors of digital, R&B, Afro-Latin as well as refined. His design goes to the moment ingenious as well as elegant, as affirmative as it pries.

He has actually presently discharged 5 cds – his debut, Mirrors, in 2010, complied with through Emancipate the Story in 2013, Oscillations in 2014 as well as 2015’s Planet Music (which was recommended for ideal jazz music album at the South African Songs Honors), and a triad recording, Neo Native, which succeeded the honor in 2019.

The brand-new document, Broadcast Sechaba, was actually released on digital, CD and also 12″ plastic layouts on the 12th of Might 2023 by Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label. The cd pays attention to nation-building as well as oneness– styles that join his heart, given his origins in a Botswanan neighborhood in exile from discrimination.

The 14-track offering features religious reflective instants, uplifting energetic canals as well as an ingenious mix of music designs– moving keys and also vocals, jazz-funk and Afrobeat percussion, punchy horns as well as more. Besides his very own having fun, he enlisted an all-star cast for the sessions, consisting of trumpeter Sthembiso Bhengu, saxophonists Linda Sikhakhane and also Steve Dyer, guitarists Alder du Toit as well as Keenan Ahrends, bassist Tendai Shoko and drummer Tinotenda Dambaneunga. Two advancement singles coming from the album – Resonance of Fact with its own West African groove as well as appeal to observe your fact, and also Go on along with its phone call to relax as well as breathe– specified the tone for this terrific file.

His Tours
Bokani Dyer is just one of South Africa’s most reputable jazz music pianists, and also he on a regular basis tours internationally. Atrioventricular bundle includes a host of global and SA musicians, including bassist Shane Cooper, saxophonist Sisonke Xonti as well as singer Sakhile Moleshe. Having actually invested his early years in Botswana, where he complied with a lot of his existing partners, it is actually not a surprise that his popular music draws ideas from a rich and also varied culture.

After getting a degree coming from UCT, he signed up with powers along with drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko to create a triad which debuted at the 2016 SA National Arts Festivity. The band additionally visited Switzerland in 2015, playing stuffed receive Basel, Zurich, Bern and Wintethur.

In the very same year, he was selected to carry out at the prominent Jazzahead feature in Bremen and also went on to make saxophonist Sisonke’s launching album, Iyonde. He is likewise the maker of a frequent port at The Track Jazz Nightclub in Johannesburg, the Jazzafrika Legacy Procedure, which celebrates the work of well established and arising SA jazz music composers.

The band is an awesome power to be actually thought with on phase as well as the exchange between them goes over. It is actually to Bokani’s credit rating that he may team up the get-up so well, however additionally give room for individual members to sparkle, as holds true when he opens his set with the ballad Vuvuzela or on the hard bop song Key Keep in minds.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *