Pioneer of Langa Jazz
Frazer Tem ‘Temmy’ Hawker was an Alto and tenor saxophonist, bandleader and the pioneer of Langa jazz. Hawker may well be the founder of the earliest, non-white jazz band in Cape Town. He was a respected musician in the township of Langa where he taught a number of gifted scholars jazz.
Born in 1909 in Beaufort West, Hawker was taught the violin as a child before going to Cape Town as a seventeen-year-old. He worked in the merchant navy as a donkey man where he undertook many sea voyages and most likely first got exposed to jazz and jazz musicians. He bought printed music every opportunity he got when he went ashore.
After Hawker moved to Langa in 1941, he bought a set of musical instruments from a shopkeeper named Mac. With these instruments he formed the first jazz band in Langa, ‘Tem Hawker and his Harmony Kings’.
His band members were Ezekiel Makeleni, trombone; Sam Maphila, guitar and banjo; Joe Oliphant, bass; Andrew Veldman, drums; Walter ‘Glider’ Jacobs, piano; and Moses Molelekoa, alto and tenor sax. Hawker taught all his fellow musicians how to play different instruments.
A strict disciplinarian, he taught them until they could produce musical notes before he brought them back to practice at his home till late in the evening. After about a month of practice, they would perform in shows on Saturdays. Three of Hawker’s students, Mbrooks Mlomo, James Bebeza and Peter Hashe started the second renowned Langa jazz band called the ‘Merry Macs’.
Due to the mounting pressure of apartheid, Hawker relocated to Beaufort West with his family in the 1950's. There he started a band called ‘The Modernaires’ and spent nine years there before moving to Mthata. Up to this day, virtually all Langa jazz musicians can claim to be musical descendants of Tem Hawker.
Bands like ‘De City Jazz Kings’, ‘The Swingettes’ and ‘Honolulu Swingsters’ derive from Hawker’s first band. His influence reached into the coloured music scene through disciples like Jimmy Adams, Kenny Japhtah and also through his engagement with musicians such as Abraham ‘Oupa’ Jacobs in the 1950’s.
Jacobs took over the name of Hawker’s band, ‘The Harmony Kings’ when he left Cape Town in 1954. He formed ‘The Hawklets’, a successful family band that featured himself, his wife Ruth and all of their children. The highlight of the band’s success was the 1976 performance for the birthday of King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (now Eswatini).
He played with the band until his death in 1977. Hawker’s influence on South African jazz and his contribution to the creation of Langa jazz was a stepping stone for other jazz musicians to flourish and grow the vibrant sound of South African jazz.