WeeklySA_Adminguitarist:Mokoka used to play some serious bass grooves
Veteran Kwaai Jazz proponent Don Laka and seventies Afrofusion band Ozila are mourning the untimely passing of master guitarist Thabo Patrick Mokoka who passed away last Sunday.
Mokoka, who had played with African traditional music and poetry group Malopoets before working with Ozila and then spending 25 years serving in Laka’s band passed on last Sunday after an illness. Kenny Mathaba, expert lead guitar player, who had been at Ozila together with Mokoka and several others, shared a post on Facebook in which Ozila’s pianist, Gus Poonan, was lamenting Mokoka’s passing.
Writing in typical social media shorthand, Poonan had said, in part: “Lost a fellow musician and bassist from our 70’s band Ozila today… Gonna miss you Pat. Farewell my friend.” Laka, also marking Mokoka’s untimely passing on Facebook, said it was with deep sadness that he was announcing the passing of one of the longest serving members of his band.
“Pat laid a solid Kwaai Jazz groove, which rang throughout the world; in small clubs, theatres and festivals across the world,” said pianist Laka in his post. “We first met in 1974 when we were both guitar students of the late music teacher and mentor, Lawrence Moloisi, and our friendship had never stopped, until his sudden passing. On 30 May 2021, we had our first show in a year – due to Covid-19 – on the Ditsong Museum grounds in Pretoria.”
Laka said, during that show, which had coincided with the playing of a newly recorded reprise of Mike and the Mechanics’ evergreen, In the Living Years, Mokoka had played some serious bass lines that had brought tears to the bandleader’s eyes. He had added that Mokoka’s serious bass grooves would “ring in our ears for decades to come”.
