When
Tumi Mogorosi composed this suite for jazz musicians and opera vocalists he had
never heard the previous successful attempts by Donald Byrd, Max Roach or Mary
Lou Williams to combine these seemingly 'unfriendly'aesthetics. Tumi, born in
1987 and already an accomplished drummer on the Jo'Burg scene, was at the time
studying music at the Tshwane University of Pretoria where he became close
friends with opera singers working on the same campus. So unlike some of his US
peers Tumi's beliefs are not 'religious'.
Surprisingly,
Tumi's suite wasn't influenced by these great elders' masterpieces, but anyone
who listens to this album will agree that the suite encaptures the soaring
spirituality that made these experiments of the '60s the beloved classics that
they are today. Tumi does not belong to any religious group. This album is
neither a jazz mass like Mary Lou William's Black Christ of the Andes, nor a
compilation of devotional pieces like Donald Byrd's Christo Redentor. Project
Elo stands for Project Elohim, the angelic entities of the spiritual scriptures
which are in the drummer's philosophy, a symbol for accomplished human beings.
The spirituality the album conveys is attuned to a 21st century syncretic, non
dogmatic vision infused with esotericism. Recorded live with no overdubs in two
days by a group of friends, this album captures a moment of Eternity and will
defy any idea you may have of what South African jazz is. Tumi's music
transcends labels and styles. When composing or playing he is only concerned
with being true to the primodial source of life, which cannot be confined to
any genre.
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