Jan Carel Fourie[1] (1937 – 2007) was a South African jazz guitarist born in Postmas in the Northern Cape province.
Growing up in the town of Benoni in the Gauteng province of South Africa,[1] his first passion for music came while watching cowboy movies and Fourie wanted to imitate the sound of the musicians.
[2] Following the end of apartheid, he became a professor of jazz at the Technikon University in Pretoria,[1] and told his students about the Ellington audition: "This was the biggest test of my life.
[2] Here, he was exposed to Bill Evans, Jim Hall, René Thomas, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Roland Kirk and Sonny Rollins, among others.
Fourie formed a band with friends Johnny Boshoff and Hennie Becker and played covers of John Mclaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra at The Branch Office club in Johannesburg.