One of the great guitarists who played in Carlo Mombelli’s Abstractions in the late eighties was Johnny Fourie. He was born Jan Carel Fourie on 18 May 1937 in the Cape, but grew up in Benoni. His mother bought him a guitar and he never looked back. Johnny played in the USA and UK but at home he’ll always be remembered for his Johnny Fourie Band. The band was formed in 1979 and its other members included his son Sean Fourie (keyboards), Raymond Boschoff (drums) and Chris Becker (bass). It was after 1985 that he joined Carlo’s band. In the new democratic South Africa he became a teacher at the Pretoria Technikon in the Jazz Department. He also formed the Short Attention Span Ensemble whose members were Sean, Trevor Don Jeany, Barry van Zyl, Dave O’Higgans and Johnny himself. In 1997 they released Fingerprints Of The Gods. Actually, Johnny performed with the who’s who of South African jazz.He was from the generation that boasted musicians like The Manhattan Brothers and Spokes Mashiane. Johnny passed away in mid-August, 2007 after releasing the CD Once Upon A Time.

Johnny Fourie – extracts from the CD booklet