Deny Lalouette – the Complete Bass Player

Deny Lalouette’s career spans every genre of music. He has featured in countless TV shows and thousands of recordings and he’s the man behind the band of the MNet Idols concerts.

Accolades and recognition as one of our most accomplished and respected musicians aside … Deny Lalouette knows how to put a band together for spectacular events!

As one of the greatest and most prolific bass players in the history of South African music, Deny is well connected and just about every musician wants to make music with him. His mastery, precision and timing of jazz is legendary and the Idols concerts alone were enough to showcase Deny Lalouette and his band as seriously awesome in rock, soul and contemporary.

Naturally the Lalouette children grew up with a love of music and performance art and his daughter Veronique made the top 3 in Idols and is on her own personal journey to success in the music industry. Younger daughter Corinne is a classically trained dancer and singer, currently appearing with Veronique in “Pure Adrenalin” – an extravaganza of Latin, hip hop and contemporary music. But to really get it … that is .. get the magic of the Lalouette family … you need to see them performing together!

Deny Lalouette background

Deny was born in Mauritius and started learning guitar and then drums from the age of 8. His family moved to Durban in the early 70’s and Deny’s first “public performances” were as a drummer in the Durban Boys High marching band. Switching to bass soon thereafter, he played many gigs at some of Durban's funkiest clubs.

He was one the most in-demand bassists during the 80's and 90's and won the SABC Session Musician of the Year award in 1987.

Any list of the number of bands Deny has worked in, or the number of albums he has appeared on, will be far from complete, but Deny himself is hard-pressed to recall all of his work. He puts the number of albums close to 2000.

Deny is able to play almost any piece of music and is fun and exciting to listen to. But the real pleasure in his playing is his mastery of jazz. He has performed in at the North Sea Jazz Festivals in Amsterdam and Cape Town, as well as concerts in Swaziland, Botswana, Switzerland, Poland, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Gdynia, Moscow, Budapest, Hong Kong, Singapore as well as every major city in South Africa. He has played with Shirley Bassey, legendary saxophonist Joe Henderson, Paul Hamner, world-renowned steel drummer Andy Narell, Trevor Rabin, Brazilian pianist Izio Gross, Wessel van Rensberg and Avzal Ismail, amongst many others.