Bay musician uses lockdown to hone new album
Eastern Cape-based Zimbabwean bass player, music producer and musician Edgar Muzah will release his single, Wuse Market, this week as a taster for a new 13-track album.
The jazzy, soulful single portrays the activities of the bustling Abuja market in Nigeria, and Muzah said he had tried to reflect the vibe it exuded, “the pace, the interactions, the transactions and the Nigerian magic that makes the best of colourful dreams”.
He knows from his own experience how musicians have had to make the best of it over the past year, in particular due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
“As a musician it’s been really tough because the industry was literally shut down at the start of Covid-19 with the first lockdown.
“We had to adapt to something new, which was doing online concerts and it wasn’t for everyone,” Muzah said.
“It’s been pretty difficult but things are starting to pick up.
“On a personal level, to an extent Covid-19 was a blessing in disguise though, because I got a chance to fully focus on putting the album together and finally getting it done.
“The song we are releasing on April 16 is a prelude to the album that’s coming out at the end of June.
“There is so much to be explored with African music, it has unique flavours and you only get to understand or recognise that when you pay
attention to the music.
“Different continents have different sounds, and we even have a certain sound here in Southern Africa.
“South African, Zimbabwean, Mozambican and Zambian music are all different but somehow they have a signature,” he said.
Artists from around Africa such as the late Oliver Mtukudzi of Zimbabwe, Cameroon’s Richard Bona and Senegal’s Ismaël Lô all have inspired Muzah, but he cites South Africans as the major influence, having lived here for nearly 12 years.
REcre8 is planning a listening session for Wuse Market on May 25 which will be live for a small group of people, and open online through Show4Me.
“I’ll be talking about and playing the album, going through the production process and having a Q&A with the people who are there,” Muzah said.
Produced by Muzah and Mthokozisi Mabuza, the fiveminute Wuse Market is a lyrical, pulsing tune.
It features Mabuza on piano and keyboards, Tavern Solomon on drums, Matthew Ngorima on guitars and Joash Soobramoney on saxophones.
As well as playing bass, Muzah joins Mabuza and Siyasanga Koyo on vocals.
The album which will follow the single is the culmination of years of honing his craft since leaving a totally different profession.
Muzah was an electrical engineer until he switched to music full time in 2012.
“It was an uncomfortable few years, especially here where our music scene is not as big as in Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg,” he said.
“It took me a good three to four years to get to a space of being comfortable but I was determined to do that — I had to stay the course.”
Since going into music as a career, Muzah has travelled to — and performed in — several countries across Africa, as well as in Europe and Asia.
With his band, Edgar Muzah and Friends, he won the ESP Afrika Young Legends competition in 2019 ahead of thousands of entrants, and went on to perform at the 20th Cape Town International Jazz Festival as a result.
In SA, he has performed at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, along with several other Eastern Cape music festivals including Buy’elekhaya and Ebubeleni.
Muzah has played for and worked with big names such as Ringo, Vusi Nova, Phila Madlingozi, Asanda Bam, MXO, Sliq Angel, Bongani Tulwana, Ami Faku and Amanda Black, as well as several Joyous Celebration artists.
As a music and record producer, Muzah has produced music for Blaq Tye, Willis Wataffi Afirika, Cliq Claq and British artist Layla Melword, Andy Ndlazilwana, Julian-Roy SA, Joliza, Willionair, Lilitha, Nomsa, Mariloe Booysen and others.
In 2019, he was musical director for Ndlazilwana’s Ovation award-winning production at NAF in Makhanda.
He has also produced several projects flighted on national and regional radio stations, and was music director of the most recent Ebubeleni Festival Virtual Extravaganza and Lamentations Concert in Gqeberha.