Top 10 Things You Did Not Know About Gabisile Motuba In 2019
Top 10 Things You Did Not Know About Gabisile Motuba In 2019 – Young recording artist Gabisile Motuba is often described as a jazz vocalist, but she says she doesn’t like to be categorised by genre.
The Johannesburg-based artist is driven, she says, by collaboration and the idea of the collective.
- She established her career in varsity, she was privileged enough to share her space with prominent jazz musicians… They really had a lot of influence regarding how she approached producing music and just the creative process of music.
2. Her focus is not on the notes and the genre… She focuses on the environment of the music which is what she believes makes jazz music so great, what makes a particular record so great, is that they kind of surpass their genre and tap into a more, like a deeper narrative.
3. She graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology. is describing the genesis of her new album Tefiti, Goddess of Creation.
4. She borrows inspiration from Fanon; there’s poetry from MoAfrika Mokgathi, and an intense exploration of The Disruption of the Black Child.
5. Gabisile Motuba is a formally trained Jazz vocalist, although what is more apparent is the sense of Ubuntu in her singing which gleams in her harmonies.
6. Her natural beauty somehow reminds us of a young Miriam Makeba, her nonchalance but sternness on vocals got has us thinking of one Amel Larrieux. She maintains her stage presence without doing the unnecessary which complements her placid aura when performing.
7. Motuba has been part of Project Elo, The Wretched and Sanctum Sanctorium. The latter was a project she did with her husband, drummer Tumi Mogorosi together with some of Europe’s finest musicians.
8. She grew up in Pretoria’s Mamelodi township. Motuba’s talent was encouraged, especially in church. But “I come from a Methodist home so we never had soloists,” she shares. “It was hymns so it was congregational so we had a strong sense of always singing together.”
9. In 2016, she emancipated Sanctum Sanctorium as part of a duo with Mogorosi. One of the songs that stand out on that album is Nefertari. “I wrote that one for my daughter,” she remembers. “I was pregnant at the time and it speaks a lot to the influences regarding this new album.” Motuba seems to have been inspired by her daughter in ways that are conscious and ways that aren’t. “During the three years of working on this album, I came across this animated film called Moana because my daughter was really intrigued by Tefiti, this green goddess who was the source of all being,” she recalls.
10. Motuba’s talent was encouraged, especially in church. But she comes from a Methodist home so she never had soloists, she states. “It was hymns so it was congregational so we had a strong sense of always singing together.”
Written by: Aphiwe Theodorah Mvinjelwa
