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 Sheila’s Guguletu home. 

 

Over a period of some 12 years, Blacki and Sheila hosted over a thousand international travellers at their home for intimate jazz concerts featuring Blacki on trumpet, joined by luminaries such as pianist Tete Mbambisa and bassist Spencer Mbadu. 

Sheila and Blacki were consummate hosts, Blacki telling stories of jazz, struggle, freedom and, always to my delight, the story behind the story of that Solomon Linda song the Lion Sleeps tonight, turning a jazz meme into a complex and rich musical narrative. 

Sheila served the tastiest array of traditional isiXhosa dishes with her own twist, developed from years of running eateries. For so many of the travellers that passed through their home, Sheila and Blacki’s grace and magnanimity, music and food were the highlight of their African trip. 

I am honoured to have worked with Blacki all these years, and to have been welcomed into his family and trust. I will miss those nights where Sheila joins Blacki and leads the guests in a dance. Where their niece and nephew Monde and Zami join Blacki spontaneously for cameo appearances. 

Blacki’s passing was sudden, but his warmth and generosity will live on in the memories of all those that encountered him on the rich journey that was his life.

With love to sheila and the family

iain