Johnny Mbizo Dyani is a frontline liberation music composer, a sentimental African Xhosa folk music performer and an avant-garde flag-bearer of the improvisational, free Jazz expression.
Poet Vusi “Macingwane” Mchunu told who was at the inaugural event and went on to record the life and passing of Johnny Dyani in the journal African Cultural-Literary Journal AWA – FINNABA that he co-produced and edited in West Berlin in 1984 – 1987. He performed poetry at a number of the JAA events
Johnny Dyani’s compositional approach combined Eastern Cape Folk Music with international progressive jazz, and the musical call to freedom.
Who am I? What is my voice? What can I contribute to music?” Who we are is where we come from?
By singing the praises of our unsung heroes, the true heroes of the struggle for equality, freedom and self expression, we give meaning and common sense to the shared history of humanity.