Pretoria-born, Antwerp-based jazz vocalist Tutu Puoane returns to South Africa this August with Wrapped In Rhythm, her award-winning double-album inspired by the poetry of Lebo Mashile. She will perform two full-band concerts in Gauteng, followed by four intimate duo shows with Belgian pianist Ewout Pierreux in Durban, Cape Town and Gqeberha. The orchestral Volume 2 of the project, featuring the Grammy-winning Metropole Orkest , will be released worldwide on 19 September 2025.
What inspired this album?
I remember how deeply I was affected by the poetry collection “In A Ribbon Of Rhythm” by South Africanpoet and activist Lebogang Mashile. Ten years ago, this book had me in a choke-hold. I often find things about my country so difficult to express, it all feels so strange after being gone from home for so long and yet still hold a very deep connection to the land and people. The poems of Lebo helped me feel and express things I couldn’t express myself.
What did Lebo say when you approached her about turning her poems to songs?
Lebo was so kind, loving and warm and she immediately thought it was an interesting idea. She loved the first poem I recorded of hers on one of my previous albums, so she was very welcoming of the idea of doing a whole music work based on her poems. After hearing the entire Vol 1 album, she had this to say: ”When Tutu started sharing her experiments online during the pandemic, and when I first heard what she and Ewout were doing in their home studio, it felt like multiple timelines were collapsing and converging at once. Across continents, in the isolation of lockdown, on social media, I felt intimately connected to Tutu’s imagination of these poems, and seen and affirmed in a way that no artist has ever made me feel before.”
Who did you create the album with and when?
My pianist/husband and i started working on writing this music around 2019 just before the global pandemic. We had a small tour scheduled for 2020 but covid scratched that out of course. We then got together with my band and started playing the music with the band and we recorded a demo for LA based producer Larry Klein in January of 2023, then we recorded in Belgium with Larry in July that year, 2023.
When did the album come out...describe the end result?
Wrapped In Rhythm Vol 1 already came out in March of last year, 2024. Wrapped In Rhythm Vol 2 is coming out this coming September.
Tell us about the South African shows?
For this upcoming SA tour, I really want people to come, sit down, turn their cell phones on silent and really drink in these words and this music. I will of course play some of their old time favourites, but this is a chance for my South African audience to experience/remember the magic of Lebo Mashile’s powerful “In A Ribbon Of Rhythm”.
How has the album been received abroad
Ohh it’s been received extremely well. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve written Lebo’s name on a piece of paper for people after a gig. People come to the show hoping I have her poetry book to sell. The music is just the cherry on top :-)
Where do you live, and where do you mostly perform?
I’m currently based in Antwerp, Belgium. I perform mostly between Belgium, The Netherlands and France. Now and again in Germany as well.
Why is it great about coming home to perform, how is the South African audience different?
My audience, is by far the best audience in the world. There’s nothing like singing Sepedi to people that truly comprehend every word you’re saying. It uplifts a part of my soul I don’t get to feel often when I perform to a EU audience. I really would love to come home often to sing, not only once a month at a huge festival. I love singing in smaller intimate gatherings as well so I am really hoping that people will come out and support these few dates I have lined up.
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