Tumi Mogorosi | Grandma's House | Drum | Higher Learning | Jazz Masters |Group Theory | The Wretched

Tumi Mogorosi is a South African jazz drummer, composer, and social activist. A founding member of Shabaka & the Ancestors, he has also worked in the Amandla Freedom Ensemble and Nicola Conte's Spiritual Galaxy. Mogorosi won global notice for his debut album, 2014's Project Elo, which featured a jazz sextet and four classically trained singers. After touring and recording with several of the aforementioned groups at home and in Europe, Mogorosi co-founded the Wretched with singer Gabisile Motuba and bassist electronicist Andrei Van Wyk. They offer a sonic interpretation of the philosophy of Frantz Fanon, author of the liberation classic the Wretched of the Earth. They recorded and released an acclaimed self-titled album in 2020 and appeared on the Brownswood South African showcase, Indaba Is. In 2022, Mogorosi released Group Theory: Black Music, that included his quintet, three vocal soloists, and a nine-voice choir.
Mogorosi was born in Johannesburg in 1987. A musical fan from early childhood, he began learning to play guitar at age 13 and in 2004 he enrolled at the Allenby College campus in Bramley, Johannesburg to study the instrument. He eventually dropped out, switched his primary instrument to the drums and attended Tshwane University of Pretoria in 2012. He showed a natural affinity for his new kit and won performing spots with the Gauteng Jazz Orchestra, and played in the groups of several legendary South African jazz artists including trumpeter Feya Faku, the late saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, bassist Herbie Tsoaeli, and pianist Andile Yenana, who eventually became his producer.
Wisdom of Elders
In 2015 he and Mvubu joined the Amandla Freedom Ensemble to record the full-length Bhekisizwe. During the recording sessions he met Hutchings, who also performed on them. The drummer joined Shabaka & the Ancestors, a group that placed the Caribbean-born, London-based saxophonist in the company of seven South African musicians. In 2016 they performed and recorded his Afro-futurist "psalm in nine parts," in a single day in a Johannesburg studio. Issued as Wisdom of Elders by Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label, the set married the modern South African jazz tradition introduced by the Blue Notes, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Hugh Masekela to Afro-Caribbean folk and calypso, Sun Ra's space age blues, John Coltrane's spiritual modalism, and Miles Davis' spectral late-'60s work. That same year, Mogorosi recorded Sanctum Sanctorium, with Project Elo singer Motuba, Brazilian pianist Malcolm Braff, Swiss cellist Andreas Plattner, and German double bassist Sebastian Schuster. That same year he cut Deliverance with veteran pianist Pule Pheto, a collaborative intertextual jazz project that saw the involvement of Mzwandile Buthelezi with his paintings, and the spoken word oratory of Percy Mabandu.
Let Your Light Shine On
Two years later, Mogorosi, Makhathini and conguero and percussion master Abdissa Assefa joined Nicola Conte's Spiritual Galaxy to record the uplifting, modal groove outing Let Your Light Shine On for MPS. The South African joined a large international ensemble that also included Americans Logan Richardson (sax) and Theo Croker (trumpet), and Italians Pietro Lussu (piano/keyboards), Conte (guitars), and Gianluca Petrella (trombone), among others.
We Are Sent Here by History
In 2020, Mogorosi re-teamed with Shabaka & the Ancestors on Impulse! for the universally acclaimed, charting, We Are Sent Here by History. Given the drummer's absorption in history, social activism, and critical theory, he co-founded the Wretched with vocalist Motuba, and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Andrei Van Wyk. Their eponymous album showcased the intertextual performing ensemble offering a sonic reflection on Frantz Fanon's seminal text, The Wretched of the Earth.
Through it all, Mogorosi's commitment to and exploration of jazz only deepened. In late 2021, when COVID-19's quarantines were lifted, Mogorosi assembled a new sextet and choir and vastly expanded the reach of his music from Project Elo. Mvubu and Motuba remained, but the rest of the studio ensemble was exclusive. It was co-produced by the drummer and South African jazz pianist Andile Yenana, who also appeared on four of the recording's 11 tracks. Two versions of the folk song/spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" were offered by soloists Motuba and Siyabonga Mthembu (also a member of Shabaka & the Ancestors), while the set's final cut, "Where Are the Keys?," featured rapper Lesego Rampolokeng. Titled Group Theory: Black Music, It was released collaboratively by Mushroom Hour Half Hour and New Soil in July 2022. [ All Music]

[@ThabangMonoa]

This is so beautiful and heartfelt!

[@tshidisosetshogwe156]

TO LOVE AND FREEDOM

[@HermanoMotheo]

26:17 "At the Limit of the Speakable" always reminds me of the avant-garde jazz that is always played at the jazz appreciation societies of Pitori/Tshwane. I always think of it as a particular homage to that sound and tradition that has persisted to this day.

[@spidrum28]

Lijo, I just became so emotional watching this as uBhut' Tumi is a long time homie. This says a lot about where we are in life now. Big ups Tumza🚀👊🏽💥