Marabi meets Highlife

 MARABI MEETS HIGHLIFE: JO KUNNUJI IN CONCERT WITH MLUNGISI GEGANA

With Joseph Kunnuji (trumpet), Mlungisi Gegana (double bass), John Smit (drum kit), Thembi Dunjana (piano) and Vuyani Gxavu (trombone)

29 March 2025 | Odeion | 19:00  

This concert is titled “Marabi Meets Highlife: Jo Kunnuji in Concert with Mlungisi Gegana.” The concert aims to sensitize the public to the need for unity and peace among Africans and within our cities. The Guardian recently published a report titled “Negative Stereotypes in International Media Cost Africa 3.2bn Pounds a Year.” This report details how focusing on conflict (xenophobia, ethnic rivalries, election fraud etc.), corruption and poverty raises the perception of risk, heightens interest on sovereign debt and dissuades investors. As a public-facing form of academic activism, this collaboration between Jo Kunnuji (an academic) and Mlungisi Gegana (an award-winning South African jazz legend) will showcase how musical genres and knowledge sourced from different parts of the continent can be synthesized and made to work together while spreading a message on the need for Africans to link arms instead of being divisive. The concert aligns with the UN’s SDG 16 of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. Joseph Kunnuji is a musician and ethnomusicologist. He pioneered the Ethnomusicology and African Music program at the Odeion School of Music, University of the Free State. His doctoral research focused on re-contextualising indigenous Ogu music from Badagry, Lagos State, and other sites along the West African Atlantic coast, blending it with popular aesthetics and production models. Jazz aficionados across the country have been sitting up and listening to the sounds of award-winning jazz legend Mlungisi Gegana as a double bass & electric bassist, a band leader, music composer, music arranger, music producer and a session musician. He is widely versed in South African music idiom and has collaborated with some of the finest jazz musicians in South Africa. Gegana’s combos have graced stages of South Africa’s major jazz festivals and premier live music venues. He has performed with South African and international musicians on local and global stages, including Sweden, France, Norway, Algeria, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Thembi Dunjana, is a Cape Town born pianist who started playing piano at the age of 11. After completing a jazz degree at the University of Cape Town, she released her debut album, receiving 2 Mzansi Jazz awards. In 2024, Thembi released her second album, which was recorded in NYC, and published under US record label Ropeadope/AfrikArise. Currently Thembi performs mainly in the Cape Town scene, and in other parts of South Africa and is also known for her YouTube content creation and teachings. John Smit has been involved in the music industry since 1994. Through the years he has recorded, sessioned as kit-drummer/bassist and audio mixed numerous national and international music productions covering from classical to rock, traditional to jazz recordings and live performances. From 2006- end 2023 he lectured part-time in Music Technology at the Odeion School of Music.

PROGRAMME

1. My first audience – Mlungisi Gegana 2. Jesu nikan – arr. by Jo Kunnuji 3. East to West – Mlungisi Gegana 4. Bloem Highlife – Jo Kunnuji 5. Sibamba ngazo zozibini – Mlungisi Gegana 6. Omo rere – Jo Kunnuji 7. Introspection – Mlungisi Gegana 8. Titilayo 2 – Jo Kunnuji 9. Tell it as it is – Mlungisi Gegana 10. Peace and Unity – Jo Kunnuji  11. Uthando – Mlungisi Gegana 12. Centre 4 Play and Learning – Jo Kunnuji