The award-winning musician will be returning to South Africa to perform at Old Mutual's Music in the Gardens in Sandton.
Food has a lot more to offer than just its primary purpose of providing nutrition.
Food is also an expression of a people's culture and few dishes are more emblematic of life in a South African township than kota, something Grammy award-winning singer PJ Morton experienced during his last stay in Mzansi.
“I had kota… I also had chicken feet in South Africa,” PJ Morton said. The CitizenHe spoke during a Zoom interview during a stop on his North American tour in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It was a lot of fun. Really fun. First I had to think about where I wanted to do it and what I wanted to do. They brought it to the studio. I took my wife to the shantytown nearby,” he said with a laugh.
The award-winning musician experienced Kota in Mzansi during a tour last year, when he boldly Cape Town to Cairo The album was produced during a 30-day trip to Africa.
The album was written and recorded entirely on the African continent, and he is currently returning to South Africa to perform at Old Mutual's Music in the Gardens in Sandton.
“It's such an emotional, full circle moment because less than a year ago these songs didn't even exist and now they exist because of Africa. So now to go back to Africa and play these songs that I wrote on the spot, it's like a beautiful story,” PJ declared.
PJ Morton has been the full-time keyboardist for Maroon 5 for the past 14 years and has collaborated with many artists including Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Jon Batiste, Nas, Lil Wayne, JoJo, Yeva, Jill Scott and many more.
The five-time Grammy Award winner has been nominated for an Academy Award 20 times.
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Immersion
PJ spent time in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nigeria, Accra, Ghana, and Cairo, Egypt, and while he felt different in each African city, he said the common thread was how welcome he felt.
“You can see the difference straight away. We first landed in Cape Town and everyone was so calm, warm and welcoming,” he said.
“As soon as I got to the airport in Lagos it was like, 'move, get over here'. But people showed me the same amount of love and I felt just as welcomed when I got to Nigeria, it was just in a different way.”
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Do it right
From the Cape to Cairo For P.J. Graceland Similar to Paul Simon, PJ was immersed in the culture of the places he visited and made music.
“It started as a small idea to collaborate and produce with African artists, then they asked me if I wanted to do a project involving African artists; Graceland And how Paul Simon did it,” PJ said.
Simon in 1986 Graceland The event, which featured a number of South African artists, was deemed an act of cultural appropriation.
“I'd seen the criticism that Paul Simon got. He came in and brought his flavour to a different place and made something completely different. I wanted to take it a step further and create completely on the continent, write songs completely on the continent and then that became the big idea and I said I wanted to spend time there,” PJ said.
“We really tried everything. We tried to do everything we could. We went to the clubs, saw all the DJs, felt the vibe, [sic] I went to the church and got a feel for the atmosphere there.”
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Cooperation
Like Stevie Wonder, PJ has an elegance in his music-making that allows him to collaborate easily with other artists, something he says comes from his side as a musician and producer.
“I think that's because I was a musician first and a producer and songwriter second before I was an artist or a singer. So, as a producer and writer, I think it's always been about collaboration and finding the right voice to fit the songs I'm writing and producing. I never lost my love for bouncing ideas off each other.”
Artists appearing on the project include Nigerian singer-songwriter Fireboy DML, South Africa's Ndabo Zulu Asa and the Soweto Spiritual Singers.
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