This blog post is part four of the blog series in which I share my personal and professional journey over the decades. You can find last month’s post about the turning point in my musical career here. To start from the beginning, you can read about my early life here.
After playing a jazz concert at the Athenaeum hall in Salisbury (now Harare), my Trio, consisting of Noel Kidwell on bass, Eddy Van Diermen on drums and myself on piano was offered a residency at the Chicken Inn, a restaurant in the Punch Bowl hotel in Salisbury. Noel Kidwell had to return to Bulawayo, so bass player Doug Graham (who had worked with me before) took his place.
Soon after, I had the opportunity to perform on radio
I was offered a solo piano residency on the Radio Rhodesia morning show with the very popular host Leslie Sullivan. I had to be at the radio station at 6 am every morning. Being up so early was alien to my lifestyle! Sometimes I would arrive at the studio after partying all night and not having slept at all……those were the days! During the gig at the Punch Bowl, we played until midnight and then dashed across to Bretts nightclub to take over from Spanish singer/pianist Braulio Perez who finished playing at midnight. Australian singer Lena Verne had joined my trio for a short contract from October 1960 to mid-February 1961, after which Portuguese singer Carlos Fernando joined us.
What happened next led to a stay in the Congo
At the end of May 1961 we were offered a stint at the Club Le Relais in Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) in the province of Katanga, Republic of Congo. Eddy van Diermen was unable to do the gig so I offered it to drummer Bobby Palos and he accepted. We then embarked on the 1,057 km journey by car to Elizabethville. We arrived on the 2nd of June, after two days of driving, and started work the next night. The gig started at 10:30 pm and finished at 4:30 am as the place was so packed that the owner asked us to continue playing! Thereafter, our hours were from 10:30 pm to 2:30 am six nights a week. The Club Le Relais gig was very lucrative so we didn’t mind the long hours. We had our own dining room and our own chef, and our rooms were attached to the nightclub which was very convenient!
Then everything suddenly changed – we got caught in the middle of an armed conflict
During that time, the Republic of Congo was in a severe state of unrest and political upheaval, and at 4 am on the morning of Wednesday the 13th of September, shooting started between Katanga and UN armed forces. Being stuck in the middle of an armed conflict was not attractive to us young musicians, so we, along with other people, decided to leave the country as quickly as possible. To be sure that we would not get stuck, Carlos and I decided to drive around and siphon gasoline out of stranded vehicles, filling up bottles and tins with it. Banks were closed, in fact nothing was open, and as we hadn’t been paid, we made an agreement with the owner of the Relais to take his upright piano in lieu of payment. After loading the piano into the back of my van, we began our journey to the Zambian border.
The drive to the Zambian border was very stressful
At one point we took a side road, and suddenly a whole platoon of Katanga soldiers popped out of the bush brandishing their weapons! Fortunately, Carlos was fluent in French. He explained to them that we were musicians, and suddenly their attitude to us changed. Some of them even accompanied us to the border. What could have been a life threatening situation turned into us getting an armed escort! After crossing the border into Zambia, we spent the night at the Nkana Hotel in Kitwe. We left Kitwe in the morning and later that day, we crossed the border into Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and drove to Salisbury. After spending some time in Salisbury, I realised that there was no work for us, so I made a bold decision…I would drive down to Johannesburg to see what I could find in the way of employment.
I arrived in Johannesburg in October 1961
Upon my arrival, I booked into the Chelsea hotel in Hillbrow. At around 5 pm, I went downstairs and heard a group playing in the lounge. On trumpet was Eddie Payne, an old friend of mine from Rhodesia. Eddie invited me to stay at his place in Berea, a suburb of Johannesburg. He was a lifesaver for me as it was my first time in Johannesburg and I didn’t know anyone. The next evening, we went to a little jazz club in Hillbrow called the Montparnasse. After a while, Eddie Payne asked one of the musicians if I could sit in. They said sure, and we played a couple of songs. Liking what he heard, the sax player asked me if I would like to play piano and organ on a recording session scheduled for the following Monday. That sax player was none other than George Hayden, a brilliant musician, producer and arranger who was well known throughout South Africa. I spent the month in Johannesburg doing some recording sessions and playing jazz some nights at the Montparnasse.
Shortly thereafter, my stay in Johannesburg was cut short
I got a call from the owner of the Punch Bowl hotel who asked me to return to Salisbury immediately as he needed a band for the Chicken Inn. Drummer Pat Higgins who I had met and played with in Johannesburg travelled to Salisbury with me, and we were joined by Doug Graham on bass. We started at the Chicken Inn on the 9th of November 1961 and played there six nights a week. During that time, we also played Saturday afternoon jazz sessions at Bretts. On the 9th of April 1962 our contract at Chicken Inn was up so I decided to return to Johannesburg.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about my move to South Africa.