Dizu Plaatjies just got a new spring in his step. With a solo album released late last year, and a blow-away performance at the Oude Libertas auditorium last weekend, Plaatjies has been reinstated on the musical map.
Plaatjies is the founder and former leader of world-renowned percussion and marimba group Amampondo. For 15 years the group has toured the world extensively, to much critical acclaim, but it’s been a different story on home turf. It seemed Plaatjies and his outfit were fading into oblivion, playing to niche audiences in Cape Town.
Something seems to have changed with the release of Ibuyambo (Mountain Records) — a solo effort from Plaatjies that highlights sub-Saharan African music. After years of thumping African drums from the Langa township, just on the other side of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Plaatjies is now audible. He says of his recent performance in Stellenbosch: “I am surprised to see that black people are starting to attend these performances of African music. The audience is becoming more balanced.”
Ibuyambo, which means renaissance, is a musical journey through sub-Saharan African countries that captures unique melodies and instruments. Plaatjies travelled to some of the countries to sample the music and bring back some of the instruments.
“As old people die, they disappear with vast knowledge of how music was made in the past. Most of us growing up now have very little knowledge of African instruments and melodies.
“[President] Thabo Mbeki’s vision of rebirth in the African continent inspired this album. Old African classical music has to be documented in Africa’s new beginning,” says Plaatjies. On this album, traditional African instruments are mixed with unique melodies from various countries.
A Rwandan traditional melody rendered with Kudu antelope horns and a mixed choir, and a Congolese male choir performing to the background of marimbas are just some highlights from Ibuyambo.
So how is this all different from previous offerings from Amampondo? “In this album, I tell the listener what goes into each song, where the music is from and what instruments were used to produce the music,” Plaatjies explains. However, the introductions to the songs can be tedious at times, especially when the album is listened to more than once.
During the day Plaatjies can be found lecturing at the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music and on some evenings he puts on some awe-inspiring stage performances in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. This is the Plaatjies renaissance.
Over the course of next month, Plaatjies and the musicians of his Ibuyambo ensemble will be taking their performances to schools in the Western Cape. If you’re curious, the album is sure to be on the shelves of local music shops.