The drummer Makaya Ntshoko died in Basel on August 17, 2024.
We mourn the loss of an important drummer with a great musical background in
South African music and jazz and a very eventful life in exile.


L to R: Makaya Ntshoko with Irène Schweizer and Omri Ziegele in 2009, Photo: Francesca Pfeffer

Makaya Ntshoko grew up in Cape Town. In South Africa he played with Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela and performed in the Jazz Epistles with Abdullah Ibrahim Dollar Brand and Johnny Gertze.
At the end of 1962 Makaya Ntshoko left South Africa. In exile in Europe he joined the Dollar Brand Trio. They played at the Africana in Zürich and in the Atlantis at Basel. He recorded with Duke Ellington and performed in the ensembles of Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, Karl Berger, Don Cherry, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Roland Kirk and Joe Henderson. He opened the first festival in Willisau in the quartet of John Tchicai and Irène Schweizer. A musical milestone is his CD “Song for Biko”, which is dedicated to the freedom fighter Steve Biko and was released in 1978 with Johnny Dyani, Don Cherry and Dudu Pukwana. He leads his own groups such as mid-1970s "Makaya and the Tsotsis" and later the "New Tsotsis" with Andy Scherrer, Vera Kappeler a.a. With the trio "Where's Africa" with Omri Ziegele and Irène Schweizer he had a comeback and recorded 2009 the CD “Can Walk on Sand” (Intakt CD 167). The trio played numerous successful concerts.