Pretoria - Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile has paid tribute to jazz musician, Hotep Galeta, saying he will live on through his vibrant music.
Galeta died in Johannesburg this morning after he suffered an asthma attack. The 69-year-old recently moved to Johannesburg from East London to pursue a music project involving young people.
He was an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has taken him to London and the United States in the 1960s. He returned to South Africa in 1991 after the end of the apartheid era.
Here at home, he performed in popular events such as the Cape Town Jazz Festival alongside, Hugh Masekela, Letta Mbuli and Abdullah Ibrahim, among others.
In April, Galeta was appointed as a board member of the Downtown Music Hub recently acquired by the Department of Arts and Culture, and given to the music sector.
Matshatile said his passing was a great loss to the industry, adding that his music was highly sophisticated yet very South African.
