South African jazz star Bheki Mseleku has died from the effects of diabetes at the age of 53, in his home in London. The pianist had been living away from his home country off and on since the 1976 uprising, returning sporadically in the intervening years. He had recently spent a number of years in South Africa, but returned to live in the UK in 2006.
Born in Natal, he first came to attention when he moved to Johannesburg in 1975 and began work as an organ player for jazz fusion act Spirits Rejoice. As aforementioned, the musician left South Africa the following year, finding success in the Stockholm Jazz scene in the early eighties, and in London from 1985 when he made his debut appearance at Ronnie Scott's. During his recording career he released six albums, the last one in 2003. In the last two years he had formed a new band and made a number of well-received UK appearances.
Minister of Arts & Culture in South Africa Pallo Jordan said in a statement: "Perhaps more than any other musician of his generation, Mseleku was able to put his genius, that had defied man-made structural constraints, on the international map when it was easy to blame apartheid".