Bheki Mseleku

Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku (3 March 1955 – 9 September 2008), commonly known as Bheki Mseleku, was a South African jazz musician. He was a pianist, saxophonist, guitarist, composer, and arranger who was entirely self-taught.

Biography Mseleku's father was a musician and teacher, and a Cambridge University music graduate, who had religious beliefs that prevented his children from ready access to the family's upright piano in case any of them should pursue something as "devilish" as music. His mother gave him the keys while his father was away, but the piano ended up as firewood one winter's evening. During his childhood, Mseleku suffered the loss of the upper joints of two fingers in his right hand from a go-karting accident. After performing at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977, Mseleku settled in Botswana for a time, playing piano unaccompanied by other musicians, with a tenor saxophone in his lap. After this, Mseleku was taken up by Verve Records for several albums. The first of these featured a number of American players, including Joe Henderson, Abbey Lincoln and Elvin Jones.

With Home at Last (2003), the last record released during his lifetime, Mseleku, "a self-confessed 'Citizen of the World, explored "home" as being "a spiritual construct made up of special people and relationships, those that came along on the long hard road, those that were left behind to be re-visited later".

Mseleku was diabetic and at one time had been diagnosed as bipolar. His home was burgled in 1994, which affected him deeply, due to the loss of the mouthpiece that John Coltrane had used for the recording of A Love Supreme, given to him by Alice Coltrane at Newport.

Over the two years prior to his death, Mseleku had established a new band in London and had made several well received appearances around the country.

Discography

As leader Celebration (World Circuit, 1991) Meditations (Verve, 1992) Timelessness (Verve, 1994) Star Seeding (PolyGram, 1995) Beauty of Sunrise (PolyGram, 1997) Home at Last (Sheer Sound, 2003) Beyond the Stars (Tapestry Works, 2021)

As contributing artist Hugh Masekela, Waiting for the Rain (1985) The Rough Guide to the Music of South Africa (World Music Network, 1998) Vaughan Hawthorne-Nelson, See You There (TML Records, 1999)