Bheki Mseleku

One of a number of supremely talented improvising musicians who left South Africa and its oppressive apartheid system for London, Bheki Mseleku's Mercury Prize nominated debut, CELEBRATION, skilfully blended gentle, township-inspired compositions with modal, post-John Coltrane burnouts. 1993's MEDITATIONS, a live recording from the Bath International Music Festival, captured his absorbing style on two long tracks. TIMELESSNESS found him in the company of some top American heavyweights, including Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Abbey Lincoln, and Elvin Jones. Mseleku’s first album of the '00s, HOME AT LAST, a musical homecoming of sorts, featured fellow South Africans Feya Faku and Winston Mankunku Ngozi. While he would return to his homeland, he found no musical purchase there, and returned to London before succumbing to complications from Diabetes.