Mazwai’s making music once again
Singer’s third album is first in seven years
IT’S been seven years since we heard from Ibokwe singer Thandiswa Mazwai, but if her latest release is anything to go by the wait has been worth it.
Yesterday the singer confirmed that she had signed with recording label Universal Music, while also sharing her latest serving called Belede, a jazz tribute album named after her late mother.
This, her third album, is the first studio album in seven years.
“After being in the music industry for a long time, sticking to one genre gets a little boring and you want to explore different things.
“It’s taken me this long because I got used to taking my own time.
“Even with Bongo Maffin, we never used to make an album every year.
“I got used to being the kind of artist who isn’t under pressure to stay popular or current,” she said.
Mazwai began working on the nine-track album in January, with drummer Ayanda Sikade, pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and bassist Herbie Tsoaeli, which she said was to “pay tribute to some of the most rebellious and monumental musicians of my time” such as Hugh Masekela, Busi Mhlongo, Letta Mbulu and Miriam Makeba.
Her first single that will be heard on air this week is Jikijela, a song written by Caiphus Semenya for Mbulu, which Mazwai said was dedicated to the #FeesMustFall movement.
She does a rendition of Mhlongo’s Wahazulwa and performs West Wind, a song that was recorded by Makeba, Mbulu and Nina Simone in the past.
The album will be in stores on November 25.
“Bra Hugh had said to me about five years ago that I should do an album of covers of South African music because it’s a great tradition everywhere in the world that singers redo and remake each other’s music,” she said.
But Mazwai is not limiting herself – she is heading to Mali to record another album in Salif Keita’s studio, which will be “releasing in the next six to eight months”.
When asked why she waited so long to get back into the studio, the singer said she still needed “to get myself out of sadness”.
“I had gone into like a really deep sadness about Lebo having died and when Mam Busi died that just completely finished me.
“I often said to people that when Busi Mhlongo died, I wanted everyone to stop singing, even me.
“This was kind of a way of getting . . . back in a space where I could trust the sound of my own voice, ideas and creativity.”