Bheki Mseleku

Bheki Mseleku fused elements of traditional African township music, American bebop, and his own devout, far-reaching spirituality to emerge as the premier South African jazz pianist of his generation. Born Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku in Durban, South Africa on March 3, 1955, he was the son of a music teacher. Still, the senior Mseleku was a deeply religious man who feared any of his seven children would gravitate towards a life as a professional musician and kept the family's piano locked away, eventually chopping up the instrument for firewood. Mseleku's mother nevertheless slipped him the key whenever her husband was away from home, and over time the boy taught himself to play -- he even adapted his emerging style after a go-cart accident claimed the top joints of two fingers, compensating for his reduced hand span by developing a more accelerated and efficient technique. By his early teens, Mseleku was gigging on electric organ as a member of a semi-professional local group dubbed the Expressions, and in 1975 he relocated to Johannesburg to join the hard bop unit the Drive