Just as the Blue Notes band composed of Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza, Louis Moholo and Chris McGregor blazed the trail and introduced European ears to an afro inspired form of free jazz in the mid sixties, Eugene Skeef is seen be a successor to the tradition purveying poetry and music on the continent of gladiators and Vikings.
He however – throughout his stay on the icy landscape of Europe – never forgot his roots. This he exemplifies through his first volume of published poetry entitled In Search Of My River. The collection is exceptionally lyrical and echoes the rhythms and music that suffused his life since he was a young boy, sitting on his mother’s lap, stroking the keys of an old piano
“thunderstorms would crack the skies and rain water leaked through our corrugated iron roof, and my mother would get us to run around to collect buckets and tins to put them under the drops. Because the tins and buckets were different materials and the holes on the roof where different sizes, the raindrops came through at different intervals and made different pitches. Those were my earliest sounds of a symphony if you like…” – Eugene Skeef.
To listen to the full interview with Eugene Skeef on The Art Of Sunday
