“I once saw Mankunku Ngozi blowing his saxophone. Yakhal’ inkomo. His face was inflated like a balloon, it was wet with sweat, his eyes huge and red. He grew tall, shrank, coiled into himself, uncoiled and the cry came out of his horn.
“That is the meaning of Yakhal’ inkomo.” – Mongane Wally Serote: from the introduction to his collection of poetry entitled Yakhal’ inKomo, published by Renoster Books in 1972.
The cover of Yakhal' inKomo
From the first deep, broad notes of Agrippa Magwaza’s bass one knows that this is a special album. The title track, Yakhal’ inKomo, starts with Magwaza and pianist Lionel Pillay laying down a funky groove with a two-note bass ostinato until the soulful tenor of Winston Mankunku Ngozi comes in about four and a half bars later to lay down the main theme.
This theme came to be one of the most instantly recognisable in all of South African jazz.
Read the full story of this remarkable album here.
Mankunku on stage at the Carling Circle of Jazz concert, Greenmarket Square, Cape Town, 1987 (photo: Tony McGregor)
