Hotep Idris Galeta, the South African jazz pianist, who died last Friday in Johannesburg (of an asthma attack), was a another member of South Africa’s greatest generation of jazz musicians that have passed on in the last year (others: Robbie Jansen and Ezrae Ngcukana. The jazz historian Vincent Kolbe also passed.)  Born Cecil Barnard in Cape Town in 1941, Galeta started playing as a youth. He became friends with another pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim, at a high school musical event. Ibrahim, slightly older, became his mentor. After making a name for himself on the local circuit, he left for the United States in the 1960s (where he changed his name to Hotep Galeta), played at Woodstock, was in bands with Jackie McLean, Rene McLean, Archie Shepp, Herb Alpert, among others). In the late 1970s he formed a band with Hugh Masekela and Rene McLean.  He eventually returned to South Africa in 1991, taught music at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape, and performed widely. Reflecting on Galeta’s passing, Rene McLean wrote on his Facebook page: “… It would not be an overt exaggeration of facts to state that Hotep is one of the most important and innovative pianist and composers to emerge from South Africa.  At the same time, it must be stated and realized that Hotep’s significance and contributions to South Africa’s musical culture have yet to be fully realized and acknowledged.”

I would recommend buying Galeta’s albums Malay Tone Poem and the less well known “The Tempest,” an album of 11 piano solos, to get a sense of his musical genius. RIP.–Sean Jacobs