Mongezi Feza

Mongezi Feza (1945 – 14 December 1975) was a South African jazz trumpet player and flautist.

Feza was born in Queenstown, South Africa, in 1945. Born to a family of musicians with a bigger brother, Sandi Feza, who taught him how to play the trampet in the dusty street of Mlungisi township in Queenstown. A member of The Blue Notes, he left South Africa in 1964 and settled in Europe, living in London and Copenhagen. As a trumpeter, his influences included hard bopper Clifford Brown and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry. After The Blue Notes splintered in the late 1960s, he played with British rock musician Robert Wyatt,progressive rock band Henry Cow, and most extensively with fellow ex-Blue Notes musicians Johnny Dyani, Chris McGregor and Dudu Pukwana. Feza's compositions "Sonia" and "You Ain't Gonna Know Me ('Cos You Think You Know Me)" remained in the repertoire of his colleagues long after his death. In the early 1970s, Feza was also member of the afro-rock band Assagai.

He died in London in December 1975 of untreated pneumonia.

Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994

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