On the passing of Ta Blaqs
This was originally written in November of 2022, only published November 2024. Zami Mdingi, mentioned in the story, passed away in April of 2024. On the morning of Tuesday the 1st of November 2022, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognise. It was Sheila Tempi. Oh hey Sheila, howsit, where are you calling from on this new number? I’m at the Guguletu hospital she told me, distraught. Blacki has just passed away. That morning Blacki was scheduled to be at the hospital, but not for himself. He was taking fellow musician Tete Mbambisa for surgery on his eyes. Instead, it was Blacki at Guguletu Hospital, after a heart attack at home. Blacki and Sheila and I had been talking the day before, planning a Jazz dinner at their home for a group of 30 guests later in November. It would have been the biggest gig at their home since the Covid 19 pandemic had begun, and the beginning of a return to a consistent schedule of Jazz Safaris and Cuisine Safaris at Blacki and...