Gabriel Mabi Segwagwa reportedly suffered a stroke and passed on on 3 June 2021.
Known as the man who became The Drum, Segwagwa died aged 74.
A friend and collaborator, David Coplan recalls the artist s magnificence.
Winter chokes the highveld in Johannesburg, South Africa, and takes from me, from our entire culture, a mighty mountain. Gabriel Mabi Segwagwa Thobejane, the diminutive tower of rhythmic power, has left us: a man who did not so much play the drums, but became The Drum.
He reportedly suffered a stroke at the age of 74 and passed on 3 June 2021.
Even though he was both master and a creator of South Africa’s indigenous sonic archive, Mabi, as we all came to call him, was also a showman and a collaborator. He could and would play in support of almost anyone, from jazz musicians to poets to mainstream artists. He was artistically intimidated by nothing and no one.