05/08/2023
26 years!!!!
The World Show with NickyB Kaya 959!
I’ll never forget….meeting Oliver Tuku Mtukudzi - Legend for the first time!
Long before I started radio, I’d been a big fan of Oliver’s music.
I was a music collector from a very young age, and when I started DJ-ing in 1990, some serious ‘digging’ began…
And it was in the early-90’s, while doing a public art project in Europe, that I’d first picked up Tuku’s music in a vintage CD/vinyl store in Marseilles, France.
So obviously, Oliver Mtukudzi was on the playlist when, in 1997, I began The World Show with NickyB when Kaya 959 was launched (as the first black-owned independent radio in the newly democratic South Africa).
A few years later, Steve Dyer called to let me know that ‘Tuku’ was in town and asked if I’d be interested in interviewing him.
So, on 02 March 2001, I excitedly went to Steve’s house in Berea and met Oliver for the first time, and together we drove through to the [first] Kaya studios, in Bolton Rd in Rosebank.
What an amazing interview it was [I still have the archive]! And after, Oliver asked if I would mind taking him to some ‘record shops’ to see if they stocked his music. In those days, hard copies and music megastores where a big thing!
So we criss-crossed Joburg from Carlton Centre to Killarney, Rosebank, Sandton and Yeoville, and there wasn’t a single Oliver Mtukudzi album available in the stores!
But it was still worthwhile, because Oliver made contacts and I spent the day chatting with this powerfully humble, beautiful human…
Thanks again to Steve Dyer [because along with him being one of our multi-faceted musical masters], it was his ‘Mahube’ project and subsequent work as a producer for Oliver [starting with the iconic album ’Tuku Music’], that sparked the ‘Oliver fire’ in SA!
Oliver Mtukudzi was unceasingly productive - becoming internationally acclaimed as a performer, collaborator, solo recording artist and African superstar! And as consistent, was his character - his warmth, openness, relate-ability and commitment to Music and Africa…
Over the years, we met in many countries and venues, and he always introduced me as the person who first played his music on-air in South Africa.
I was honoured to MC at his 60th birthday event at Carnival City. Called ‘Oliver Mtukudzi and Friends’, it was a reunion of sorts and a major historical moment in music!
The line-up was a like a timeline featuring the finest guest artists, including Steve Dyer, Louis Mhlanga, Siphokazi, Judith Sephuma, and other greats…
And I’ll never forget Bra Hugh Masekela ZA backstage, prepping before the show, and fretting about getting his Shona lyrics on form.
As Oliver took the world by storm, we always kept in touch…
The last time I interviewed him was in January 2018, the week that bra Hugh passed, and along with exploring Oliver’s latest studio album ‘Hany'ga (Concern)’, we spoke about their work together & their special friendship.
Then later on that year, while I was doing a residency in Paris, he connected to ask if I would be available to MC at his upcoming gig in SA, which unfortunately I couldn’t make, but when I commented on his Twitter post about the event, he once again publicly thanked me for my contribution…
Who would have imagined that only one year later, on 23 January 2019, on the exact date of Hugh’s passing, Oliver Mtukudzi would also transcend…
