Johnny "Mbizo" Dyani was from a musical family and began playing the piano and singing in a traditional choir at an early age. At 13, he switched to bass, but would use both voice and piano later on. Chris McGregor hired him for the Blue Notes after hearing him play with pianist Tete Mbambiza; the group left the country in 1964, playing first at the Antibes Jazz Festival, then in Zurich, London, and Copenhagen. In 1966, Dyani toured Argentina with Steve Lacy's quartet, recording The Forest and the Zoo (ESP). In 1970, he played in Don Cherry's trio with Okay Temiz, and sat in with McCoy Tyner in New York. He worked with Abdullah Ibrahim and Alan Shorter (Tes Esat, 1970), and formed his own Earthquake Power in 1971. The following year, Dyani co-founded Xaba with Mongezi Feza and Temiz. He became very active on the European scene, playing with Irene Schweizer, Han Bennink, and with visiting American free jazz musicians such as David Murray, Leo Smith, Joseph Jarman, and Don Moye. His Witchdoctor's Son band made records with Dudu Pukwana and John Tchicai for Steeplechase, and with Swedish and Brazilian musicians for Cadillac (Witchdoctor's Son Together, 1980). His quartet featured guests Don Cherry (Song for Biko, Steeplechase), Pukwana (Mbizo, Steeplechase 1981), and Butch Morris (Grandmother's Teaching, Jam). He recorded in duo with drummer Clifford Jarvis (African Bass, Red 1979), and his septet/octet recorded two albums with Charles Davis (Afrika and Born Under the Heat, both released in 1983). Detail was his '80s trio with John Stevens and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, and Detail Plus featured Bobby Bradford on cornet. His 1985 album Angolian Cry (Steeplechase) was of a quartet with trumpeter Harry Beckett and Tchicai. A year later, Johnny Dyani died suddenly after a performance in Berlin. ~ Francesco Martinelli

Saxophonist John Tchicai was best known for his time in New York during the height of the '60s free jazz explosion, but he actually spent the majority of his career advancing the cause of avant-garde jazz in Northern Europe. Tchicai was born April 28, 1936, in Copenhagen to a Danish mother and Congolese father; he began playing violin at age ten, switched to both clarinet and alto sax at 16, and focused on the latter at Denmark's Conservatory of Music. In the late '50s, Tchicai began making the rounds of the North European jazz scene, which was quick to pick up on the early innovations of the American avant-garde. In 1963, he moved to New York City to immerse himself in the epicenter of free jazz. He hooked up with Archie Shepp and Don Cherry, eventually co-founding the New York Contemporary Five with them; he was also a founding member of the New York Art Quartet with Roswell Rudd and Milford Graves. Tchicai also recorded with Albert Ayler (on New York Eye and Ear Control), the Jazz Composers Guild, and John Lennon (Life with the Lions), and -- most importantly -- appeared on John Coltrane's legendary free jazz landmark Ascension. After a whirlwind three years, Tchicai returned to Denmark in 1966 and founded a large workshop ensemble called Cadentia Nova Danica, which he led until 1971. Shortly thereafter, he cut back on performing to concentrate on teaching full-time. In 1977, he returned to the studio, leading a fairly steady series of recording dates into the '80s, when he switched to tenor sax and joined Pierre Dorge's New Jungle Orchestra. In 1990, Tchicai received a lifetime grant for jazz performance from the Danish Ministry of Culture; and the following year he relocated to California's Bay Area, where he and his keyboardist wife Margriet founded John Tchicai & the Archetypes and the John Tchicai Unit, which both recorded during the '90s. After the turn of the millennium he returned to Europe and moved to Southern France; in June 2012 Tchicai suffered a brain hemorrhage, and although he reportedly began physiotherapy, he died in Perpignan, France in October of that year. John Tchicai was 76 years old. ~ Steve Huey

Dudu Pukwana grew up studying piano in his family but in 1956, he switched to alto sax after meeting tenor sax player Nick Moyake. In 1962, he won first prize at the Johannesburg Jazz Festival with Moyake's Jazz Giants (1962 Gallo/Teal). Chris McGregor then invited him to join the Blue Notes; the interracial sextet, increasingly harassed by authorities, went into exile in 1964, playing in France, Zurich, and London. Pukwana's fiery voice was heard not only in the Blue Notes and in McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, but in many diverse settings ranging from the Incredible String Band to improvising with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink (Yi Yo Le, ICP 1978). As a composer, Pukwana wrote "Mra," one of the best-loved tunes by the Brotherhood. His own groups, Assagai and Spear, which recorded a few albums in the early '70s, blended kwela rhythms, rocking guitars, and jazz solos. With Mongezi Feza, Elton Dean, Keith Tippett, and Louis Moholo, Pukwana recorded two masterful acoustic tracks on the mostly electric album Diamond Express (Freedom 1977). His presence was also hugely felt in Moholo's Spirits Rejoice!, and in Harry Miller's Isipingo. Several African leaders invited him into their groups, including Hugh Masekela and trombonist Jonas Gwangwa's African Explosion (Who, Ngubani 1969). In 1978, Pukwana founded Jika Records and formed his own band, Zila, featuring South Africans Lucky Ranku on guitar and powerful vocalist Miss Pinise Saul. Zila recorded Zila Sounds (1981), Live in Bracknell and Willisau (1983), and Zila (1986), the last with keyboardist Django Bates and Pukwana increasingly using soprano sax. In duo with John Stevens, he recorded the free session They Shoot to Kill (Affinity 1987), dedicated to Johnny Dyani. Dudu Pukwana died of liver failure in June 1990. ~ Francesco Martinelli