Tich Makalisa to debut new material at Zimbabwe Jazz Festival

AFTER spending years developing his musical voice across Zimbabwe, South Africa and Europe, jazz pianist and composer Tich Makalisa is set to bring a new chapter of his work home when he debuts material from his forthcoming EP at the Zimbabwe Jazz Festival next month.

Makalisa, who is also Director of Music at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music, will perform at the festival at Alliance Française in Bulawayo on October 16 before taking the material to Harare on October 17.

The Zimbabwe Jazz Festival, run by the Zimbabwe Jazz Community Trust with support from the French Embassy and the British Council, provides the setting for the musician’s latest exploration of contemporary jazz and African musical expression.

For Makalisa, the performances represent more than a return to the stage in his home country.

They mark a meeting point between the musical experiences he has accumulated abroad and his renewed engagement with Zimbabwe’s cultural and educational landscape since returning home in 2024.

The forthcoming EP brings together musicians from Europe, Mozambique and Zambia, introducing an international dimension to a project that remains grounded in African musical traditions.

Rather than treating jazz as a fixed form, Makalisa’s new material brings contemporary jazz harmony into conversation with African rhythms and melodies, reflecting the musician’s longstanding movement across different musical spaces.

“Jazz lovers and lovers of my music should expect sophisticated jazz harmony and soulful improvisation, reinterpreted through the pocket of hip hop and the pulse of African rhythms,” said Makalisa.

That description points to a musician interested in the spaces between genres rather than their boundaries.

Makalisa’s own musical education has been similarly broad. He studied at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music under Derek Hudson and later worked with Felix Westwood at Plumtree School before pursuing a degree in jazz at the University of Cape Town.

His subsequent experiences in South Africa and Europe expanded his musical outlook, with composition, performance and production becoming interconnected aspects of his practice.

His return to Zimbabwe in 2024 has consequently introduced another dimension to his career – that of an educationalist helping shape the next generation of musicians.

As Director of Music at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music, Makalisa has become involved in an institution whose programme increasingly brings local audiences into contact with musicians and ensembles from across the region and beyond.

The Academy’s forthcoming cultural season is part of that wider engagement.

The programme begins with the KidzCan Benefit Concert on September 26, hosted by Barry Johannsen and featuring vocal and piano recitals, local ballet and marimbas. Proceeds from the event will go towards children fighting cancer through KidzCan Zimbabwe, with a red-carpet meet-and-greet scheduled before the concert.

On September 29, a chamber group from the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra will perform, bringing South African classical musicians to the local stage.

The Drakensberg Boys Choir follows on October 3, with the internationally recognised ensemble scheduled to perform at the Robert Sibson Hall.

On October 9, Tibone Matikiti will take the spotlight in a programme celebrating indigenous heritage alongside contemporary local talent.

Makalisa’s Zimbabwe Jazz Festival appearance then forms part of this sequence of cultural encounters, placing jazz alongside classical music, choral performance, indigenous traditions and community-oriented initiatives.

The range of programmes points to an evolving cultural ecosystem in which institutions such as the Academy are increasingly becoming spaces for dialogue between different artistic traditions.

For Makalisa, this is particularly relevant given his dual role as musician and educator.

His return has not meant abandoning the international influences accumulated during his years away. Instead, those experiences are being brought into conversation with Zimbabwean musicians, audiences and students.

The forthcoming EP similarly reflects this approach.

Its collaborations across Europe, Mozambique and Zambia provide an opportunity for musical exchange, while its combination of contemporary jazz, African harmonies, hip-hop sensibilities and improvisation places Zimbabwean music within a broader contemporary African and international context.

The project also arrives at an interesting point in Makalisa’s career.

Having developed professionally outside Zimbabwe, his current work allows him to participate in the country’s cultural life not only as a performer but also as someone involved in music education and institutional programming.

His Zimbabwe Jazz Festival performances therefore offer audiences an early encounter with material that is still developing, while also providing a glimpse into the direction of his current musical thinking.

The performances in Bulawayo and Harare will ultimately be part of a broader cultural season that places artistic exchange at its centre.

For Makalisa, the return is both personal and professional: a homecoming shaped by years of exposure to different musical traditions and a renewed commitment to contributing to Zimbabwe’s cultural landscape.

In Makalisa’s case, the journey back home has not been a return to the past.

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