Notes

Sam Nhlengthwa was born and grew up in Payneville, a mining community near Johannesburg that was also home to a number of great bands and musicians of the era. His brother was a jazz musician and music has been a life-long passion for him. This work is part of a second series of works dedicated to jazz musicians.

Ron Carter is an African American jazz double bassist and one of the most recorded (over 2 500 recordings) and influential in jazz history. He came to fame with the Miles Davis Quintet in the early 1960s which included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Carter has recorded with many of the jazz greats over the years on the famous Blue Note record label. This work pays homage to Ron Carter, as much for his musical achievements as for his commitment to the cause of black equality.

Nhlengethwa completed a Fine Arts Diploma at the Rorke’s Drift Art Centre in Natal in 1978 and in 1994 he received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. In addition to his work referencing jazz greats, Nhlengethwa is also known for his political commentary, of which his 1990 work It left him cold – The death of Steve Biko in the Standard Bank African Art Collection at Wits Art Museum is considered to be a seminal South African artwork from the late apartheid period.

Provenance

Donated by Artists’ Press