Feya Faku (1962-2025): South African jazz trumpeter who made the expressive ballad his trademark

Lex Futshane, the South African bass player in the 1992 student band NU Jazz Connection, was the first to tell me that the great South African jazz trumpeter Feya Faku had died while touring Switzerland on June 23. He was born on June 6, 1962 and was just 63 years old.

Within a day of Feya’s passing, my wife Catherine Brubeck and I had heard from every member of the student band that I’d helped form, except the late Lulu Gontsana of course. They expressed great sadness and praised not just his playing but also the man himself.

The trumpeter, flugelhorn player, composer and teacher was born in Emaxambeni in a black residential township called New Brighton in Port Elizabeth (today Gqeberha). He would be inspired by members of a significant jazz community there as a teenager and formalised his training at the then University of Natal (later University of KwaZulu-Natal). He’d go on to become one of the distinctive trumpeters locally and on the international jazz scene.

But a lot has already been written about Feya’s career (check out Gwen Ansell’s obituary), his recordings, a timeline of musical associates...

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