Biography
Tumi Mogorosi, the Johannesburg-born South African drummer, composer, and activist from 1987, helped establish Shabaka & the Ancestors while also contributing to the Amandla Freedom Ensemble and Nicola Conte’s Spiritual Galaxy. His first recording, Project Elo, appeared on England’s Jazzman imprint in 2014 and paired a jazz sextet with four university-trained vocalists; the date earned shortlisting for a South African Music Award, the Standard Bank Ovation Award, and Mail & Guardian “Jazz Album of the Year” honors. After extensive European and domestic touring alongside those ensembles, Mogorosi launched the Wretched alongside vocalist Gabisile Motuba and bassist-electronicist Andrei Van Wyk; the trio’s self-titled 2020 album, issued via Brownswood’s Indaba Is showcase, translated Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth into sound. Two years later he issued Group Theory: Black Music, a session uniting his quintet, three vocal soloists, and a nine-voice choir.
From childhood Mogorosi collected records; at thirteen he took up guitar, then enrolled at Allenby College in Bramley in 2004. He later abandoned that path, turned to drums, and entered Tshwane University of Pretoria in 2012. Facility on the new instrument quickly led to engagements with the Gauteng Jazz Orchestra and sideman roles alongside trumpeter Feya Faku, the late saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, bassist Herbie Tsoaeli, and pianist Andile Yenana, who later served as his producer.
Project Elo wed post-bop jazz to contemporary South African choral and sacred traditions. The single-day session featured alto saxophonist Mthunzi Mvubu and guitarist Sibusile Xaba within the sextet, plus four singers Mogorosi had met at university; Nduduzo Makhathini produced the seven originals. Although reviewers likened the effort to Mary Lou Williams’ Black Christ of the Andes, Donald Byrd’s New Perspective, Max Roach’s It’s Time, Andrew Hill’s Lift Every Voice, and Billy Harper’s Capra Black, Mogorosi had never encountered those works; his reference points remained local classical and liturgical practices. The title invoked Elohim, the Hebrew-scripture angels the drummer regards as emblems of realized humanity, and the resulting spirituality reflected a twenty-first-century, non-dogmatic syncretism. After its release the group performed at major African festivals.
In 2015 Mogorosi and Mvubu joined the Amandla Freedom Ensemble for Bhekisizwe, where Mogorosi first encountered Shabaka Hutchings. He subsequently became the drummer for Hutchings’ seven-piece Shabaka & the Ancestors. Their 2016 Johannesburg session captured the saxophonist’s nine-part Afro-futurist suite in one day; Brownswood issued the results as Wisdom of Elders, fusing the South African lineage of the Blue Notes, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Hugh Masekela with Caribbean folk, Sun Ra’s cosmic blues, Coltrane’s modal spirituality, and Miles Davis’ late-sixties electric explorations. That same year Mogorosi recorded Sanctum Sanctorium with Motuba, Brazilian pianist Malcolm Braff, Swiss cellist Andreas Plattner, and German bassist Sebastian Schuster, and cut Deliverance with pianist Pule Pheto, painter Mzwandile Buthelezi, and poet Percy Mabandu.
In 2018 Mogorosi, Makhathini, and conguero Abdissa Assefa joined Conte’s multinational Spiritual Galaxy for the modal MPS album Let Your Light Shine On, alongside saxophonist Logan Richardson, trumpeter Theo Croker, pianist Pietro Lussu, and trombonist Gianluca Petrella. The drummer rejoined Shabaka & the Ancestors for their 2020 Impulse! release We Are Sent Here by History. Concurrently he formed the Wretched with Motuba and multi-instrumentalist Van Wyk, whose debut album offered an intertextual meditation on Fanon’s text.
After pandemic restrictions eased in late 2021, Mogorosi convened an expanded ensemble and choir for Group Theory: Black Music, co-produced with Yenana, who also performed on four of its eleven tracks. Mvubu and Motuba returned, while new voices included soloists Siyabonga Mthembu and rapper Lesego Rampolokeng; the set juxtaposed two readings of the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” with the closing piece “Where Are the Keys?” Mushroom Hour Half Hour and New Soil co-released the album in July 2022.
From childhood Mogorosi collected records; at thirteen he took up guitar, then enrolled at Allenby College in Bramley in 2004. He later abandoned that path, turned to drums, and entered Tshwane University of Pretoria in 2012. Facility on the new instrument quickly led to engagements with the Gauteng Jazz Orchestra and sideman roles alongside trumpeter Feya Faku, the late saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, bassist Herbie Tsoaeli, and pianist Andile Yenana, who later served as his producer.
Project Elo wed post-bop jazz to contemporary South African choral and sacred traditions. The single-day session featured alto saxophonist Mthunzi Mvubu and guitarist Sibusile Xaba within the sextet, plus four singers Mogorosi had met at university; Nduduzo Makhathini produced the seven originals. Although reviewers likened the effort to Mary Lou Williams’ Black Christ of the Andes, Donald Byrd’s New Perspective, Max Roach’s It’s Time, Andrew Hill’s Lift Every Voice, and Billy Harper’s Capra Black, Mogorosi had never encountered those works; his reference points remained local classical and liturgical practices. The title invoked Elohim, the Hebrew-scripture angels the drummer regards as emblems of realized humanity, and the resulting spirituality reflected a twenty-first-century, non-dogmatic syncretism. After its release the group performed at major African festivals.
In 2015 Mogorosi and Mvubu joined the Amandla Freedom Ensemble for Bhekisizwe, where Mogorosi first encountered Shabaka Hutchings. He subsequently became the drummer for Hutchings’ seven-piece Shabaka & the Ancestors. Their 2016 Johannesburg session captured the saxophonist’s nine-part Afro-futurist suite in one day; Brownswood issued the results as Wisdom of Elders, fusing the South African lineage of the Blue Notes, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Hugh Masekela with Caribbean folk, Sun Ra’s cosmic blues, Coltrane’s modal spirituality, and Miles Davis’ late-sixties electric explorations. That same year Mogorosi recorded Sanctum Sanctorium with Motuba, Brazilian pianist Malcolm Braff, Swiss cellist Andreas Plattner, and German bassist Sebastian Schuster, and cut Deliverance with pianist Pule Pheto, painter Mzwandile Buthelezi, and poet Percy Mabandu.
In 2018 Mogorosi, Makhathini, and conguero Abdissa Assefa joined Conte’s multinational Spiritual Galaxy for the modal MPS album Let Your Light Shine On, alongside saxophonist Logan Richardson, trumpeter Theo Croker, pianist Pietro Lussu, and trombonist Gianluca Petrella. The drummer rejoined Shabaka & the Ancestors for their 2020 Impulse! release We Are Sent Here by History. Concurrently he formed the Wretched with Motuba and multi-instrumentalist Van Wyk, whose debut album offered an intertextual meditation on Fanon’s text.
After pandemic restrictions eased in late 2021, Mogorosi convened an expanded ensemble and choir for Group Theory: Black Music, co-produced with Yenana, who also performed on four of its eleven tracks. Mvubu and Motuba returned, while new voices included soloists Siyabonga Mthembu and rapper Lesego Rampolokeng; the set juxtaposed two readings of the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” with the closing piece “Where Are the Keys?” Mushroom Hour Half Hour and New Soil co-released the album in July 2022.
Albums
Singles
