Dyani was born (3 years before the establishment of Apartheid) and grew up in Duncan Village, East London, in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, eastern Cape Province of South Africa.[1]
In the early 1960s, he was a member of South Africa's first integrated jazz band, The Blue Notes,[1] with Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Chris McGregor on piano, and Louis Moholo on drums. In 1964, the band fled South Africa to seek musical and political freedom.[1] Moholo explained, "We were rebels and we were trying to run away from this apartheid thing. We rebelled against the apartheid regime that whites and blacks couldn't play together. We stood up."[2]
In 1971, Dyani formed his own group Earthquake Power, and in 1972 co-founded Xaba with fellow Blue Note Mongezi Feza and Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz.[3]
Dyani died suddenly in 1986 after a performance in West Berlin.[3]
Legacy
After his death, the remaining members of The Blue Notes reunited to record a moving tribute album, entitled Blue Notes for Johnny. Other musical tributes include:
In a memorial published in the South African magazine Rixaka, Pallo Jordan wrote of Dyani: "Above all, his music resounded with a joy in life."[4]
Johnny Dyani, wrote a song for Gerald Vuyisile Mei, in 1983 about their encounter, where GV Mei as an anthropological researcher shared his findings on oral tradition, he titled the song, 'Bongo', meaning, 'Proud'