Zim Ngqawana, South African Jazz Musician in Concert at UT Chattanooga on
March 4, 8pm, Hayes Concert Hall

Zim Ngqawana, jazz artist-in-residence at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville School of Music will perform in concert on March 4th at UT
Chattanooga in the Hayes Concert Hall. The concert will begin at 8:00 pm.
Admission is free. Mr. Ngqawana, composer, arranger, saxophonist and
flutist will be accompanied by UTK jazz faculty members Rusty Holloway
(bass), Keith Brown (drums), Mark Boling (guitar), and student Ben Dockery
(piano).

Zim Ngqawana, a critically acclaimed South African jazz performer,
arranger, and composer is artist-in-residence at the School of Music at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville during the Spring Semester of 2003. Zim
Ngqawana brings a rich heritage to his music. He draws upon his humble
origins in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to blend indigenous and rural
traditions with his modern jazz style; his studies at Rhodes University and
the University of Natal further broaden his background to include Indian
and Western classical music. And his experience as an active performer with
jazz legendaries such as Max Roach make him a revolutionaryforce in South
Africas musical history. One of his most significant personal achievements
came at the historic inauguration of President Nelson Mandela in 1994,
where he directed the Drums for Peace Orchestra.

Born in 1959, Ngqawana was the youngest of five children. Forced to drop
out of school before completing university entrance requirements, his
musical prowess nevertheless gained him entrance to Rhodes University,
which led to a diploma in Jazz Studies at the University of Natal.  With
the universitys jazz ensemble, Ngqawana began to distinguish
himself.  While at an International Association of Jazz Educators
convention in the United States, he was awarded a scholarship to the Max
Roach/Wynton Marsalis jazz workshop and subsequently a Max Roach
scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with
Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef.

Since returning to South Africa, he has worked in the bands of veteran
South African jazz luminaries such as Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela.
He has also organized and performed with a number of ensembles from
conventional small jazz combos to his eight-piece band Ingomathrough the
Drums for Peace Orchestra.Ngqawana has recorded four albums with South
Africas premier jazz record label Sheer Sound, including his latest
Zimphonic Suites. This album, according to Ngqawanas album notes, seeks to
create a harmony between African antiquity and modernity.  The South
African online magazine Afribeat describes the music on this recording as &
a suggestive fusion of old and new, soft and hard & melding with a unique
philosophy and experience to create an infinitely recognizable
voice(http://www.afribeat.com).

During the residency at the School of Music, Zim Ngqawana will participate
in the campus- and community-wide activities organized in conjunction with
the Africa at Home/At Home in AfricaSemester. He will conduct several
student jazz combos, offer workshops in jazz arranging and improvisation
courses, and collaborate with the members of the School of Music jazz
faculty. As part of this collaboration, Ngqawana will contribute his skills
as performer, composer, and arranger to concerts on UT campuses in Martin,
Knoxville and Chattanooga,  and educational out-reach programs for K-12
students in East Tennessee. He will also teach a course in the School of
Musics Musicology/Music History area entitled Jazz in South Africa.

Information on Zim Ngqawana compiled from Sheer Sound biography, album
notes, and Afribeat. Additional information about Zim Ngqawana may be found
online at zymology.com. Information about other UTK faculty may be found at
music.utk.edu/jazz.