Benjamin Jephta brings coloured' flavour to SA's jazz sceneComposer and jazz performer Benjamin Jephta finally understands his own coloured-ness' with a new EP exploring what that means for him.
by Rafieka Williams
16-08-2023 19:11
in Culture
Benjamin Jephta aims to disturb the hornets nest with his interpretation of jazz music. Image: Hymie Sokupha
Musician and founder of Akoustik Elektrik, Benjamin Jephta thinks there's more to the music industry than doing free shows on the Expresso, as he prepares to perform his latest self-composed jazz offering at Cape Town's go-to theatre on 7 September.
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The new work available on streaming platforms titled Born Coloured, Not Born Free received rave reviews on social media within days of the EP's release in July.
The conundrum of identifying as coloured' In an interview with The South African, the bassist said he created the music as a response to, a dilemma or conundrum that I felt I was in. I noticed other people who found themselves in the same dilemma.
Born in 1992, he doesn't claim to know everything about music, race or politics but his own position in society, I'm a jazz performer, not a politician. I don't have the answers It's not about getting the answers but disturbing the hornets nest.
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Commenting on the blatantly subjective title of his work and experience, Certain artists don't get the breakthrough adorn that others get, our narrative is not part of the bigger entertainment landscape, Jephta said.
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From no audience' to international jazz education The musician has no qualms with musicians who perform on tv and was featured on SABC's Morning Live shortly after unveiling the work. He said the way you're taught music from a particular background, you're meant to believe, There's no audience for you, he says, that has always sat with me.
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The work composed by Jephta and performed alongside other jazz musicians, is what he describes as the end to his search for meaning in his identity, something the musician has been grappling with since his return from studying abroad.
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Raised in Mitchells Plain, Jephta studied jazz at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and later graduated form The Berklee Global Jazz Institute, in the United States of America (USA). He has used his individual ideas on identity to spur his creative artistic expression, This is the full story and I understand my coloured-ness, Jephta said.
[To be continued]
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Benjamin Jephta brings coloured' flavour to SA's jazz sceneComposer and jazz performer Benjamin Jephta finally understands his own coloured-ness' with a new EP exploring what that means for him.
