Jazz lovers pay tribute to Lebakeng, 71
“A GIFTED singer with a golden voice who became a renowned jazz legend in the Eastern Cape.”
This is how some tributes have described Port Elizabeth singer Dineo Lebakeng, who will be buried in the city this weekend.
Lebakeng, 71, of New Brighton, died on April 15 in a Cape Town hospital where she had been admitted in January.
She was one of the founding members of the city’s Metro Jazz Queens, who also went by the name The Jazz Divas.
The four other founders were Vuyelwa Luzipo, 66, Leo Mwanda, 55, Welekazi Pemba, 62, who left to pursue business interests, and Nomzamo Mkuzo, who was 77 when she died in June last year.
Lebakeng last performed with the group at the Love Life Centre in Uitenhage in December.
Luzipo said: “Her death is a great loss to the music fraternity.”
Lebakeng was born in Port Elizabeth on June 12 1945. She grew up in South End but later moved with her parents to New Brighton.
Thandiswa Lebakeng, 52, said her mother was introduced to music at a young age.
“We knew that on Saturdays only jazz would play at home. My mother would even attend the Cape Town Jazz Festival as old as she was,” she said.
Thandiswa said her mother played in other bands such as Black Slaves and Soul Jazzman.
Jazz stalwart the Rev Patrick Pasha said Lebakeng was a legend in the Eastern Cape jazz fraternity.
“For the past 30 years she has contributed immensely to the promotion of music,” he said.
A memorial service for Lebakeng will be held at the Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton tomorrow at 5pm. She will be buried at the North End cemetery on Saturday after a service at St Stephen’s Anglican Church, which will start at 11am.