Still he rises

South African musician Benjamin Jephta marks a decade in music with a collaborative album blending gratitude, tradition and innovation

- Kibo Ngowi

Last month Benjamin Jephta released Still I Rise (Part 1), the lead single from his forthcoming album Homecoming Revisited. The song's title, of course, comes from Maya Angelou's famous poem, a declaration of resilience that Jephta first set to music more than a decade ago.

"I wrote the original version for my debut album," he tells me during a virtual interview. "Back then, I was trying to capture that victorious vibe, the feeling of overcoming whatever is put in front of you."

This revisited version does more than update old work. It folds in the sounds Jephta lives with daily — Afrobeat rhythms, hip-hop textures, amapiano grooves — refracted through his grounding in South African jazz. The result is youthful without being naïve, complex without being inaccessible. It is jazz, yes, but jazz that feels at home on a dance floor, on a car stereo or during quiet late-night listening.

When Jephta speaks about Homecoming Revisited, he repeatedly returns to the word "gratitude". Ten years after releasing his debut, he sees this project as both a reflection on his journey and a tribute to the peers who shaped it.

"I've been overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who invited me into their spaces," he says. "So, with this album, I wanted as many musicians on the tracks as possible. It's my way of honouring the young South African jazz scene."

The result is a sprawling collaboration of about 30 musicians, among them Linda Sikhakhane, Ndabo Zulu, Kujenga, and Leagan Breda. Jephta smiles as he recalls the process of bringing so many artists together. "You'd think it would be difficult to align everyone, but honestly, we just get it. The South African jazz community is diverse in sound, but we share this common thread. We grew up in a post-apartheid, democratic South Africa, and we're all trying to articulate that complex identity through music.