Ndabo Zulu and Umgidi Ensemble offer a preview of Joy of Jazz at Kaya 959

Award-winning jazz trumpeter Ndabo Zulu brought the umgidi Ensemble to Kaya 955 for an Unplugged Session on Brenda Sisane's The Jazz Standard on Sunday.

The road to this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival passed through an intimate setting on Sunday when trumpeter, composer and arranger Ndabo Zulu brought the Umgidi Ensemble to Kaya 959 for an Unplugged Session on Brenda Sisane’s The Jazz Standard on Sunday. 

The performance offered listeners an early encounter with the musical language Zulu and his collaborators will take to the Conga Stage at the festival on 25–26 September.

Rather than functioning simply as a promotional appearance, the session provided a glimpse into the breadth of Zulu’s compositional world. The ensemble performed selections from his existing repertoire alongside unreleased material, creating a useful bridge between work that audiences already know and music that is still taking shape.

At the centre of the performance was Zulu’s trumpet, but the music was deliberately larger than the voice of a single instrumentalist. 

Umgidi Ensemble is built around a collective approach in which jazz improvisation meets Southern African musical traditions, orchestral thinking and indigenous sonic textures. That approach has been central to Zulu’s work, particularly Queen Nandi: The African Symphony, the expansive project that established Umgidi as a distinctive compositional vehicle. 

https://x.com/KayaON959/status/2102038645079183572

The album explores the incorporation of Nguni traditional themes into a hybrid orchestration, creating space for musical and historical material to coexist within contemporary jazz. 

Sunday’s unplugged format consequently offered an interesting contrast to the scale of Zulu’s larger work. Songs associated with his established repertoire could be heard in a more intimate environment, while the unreleased pieces suggested that his exploration of African orchestration and contemporary jazz remains an evolving process.




The significance of Umgidi lies partly in this ability to bring together musicians whose individual careers have already contributed substantially to South African jazz. 

For the Joy of Jazz performance, Zulu is scheduled to lead a group featuring regular collaborators including pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, bassist Dalisu Ndlazi, drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko, percussionist Gontse Makhene and saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane, with Muneyi and Paras Dlamini also part of the ensemble. Standard Bank describes the Conga Stage as a space focused on rhythm-driven performances rooted in African musical traditions, with Zulu and Umgidi Ensemble closing the stage’s programme.


Award-winning jazz trumpeter Ndabo Zulu and Umgidi Ensemble with Brenda Sisane at the Kaya 959 unplugged session on The Jazz Standard on Sunday.

The ensemble’s recorded catalogue gives some indication of the musical terrain awaiting audiences. Queen Nandi: The African Symphony includes extended compositions such as “Nandi’s Suite”, “Umgidi”, “Ngovivi” and “Abalimi (Finale)”, reflecting Zulu’s preference for expansive forms rather than conventional song structures. 

What made the Kaya 959 session particularly significant, therefore, was its function as both performance and prelude. Listeners heard music with an established history while also being introduced to material that has yet to enter the public catalogue.

In that sense, Sunday’s session did more than build anticipation for Joy of Jazz: it demonstrated how Ndabo Zulu and Umgidi Ensemble continue to use jazz as a space for memory, experimentation and the development of a distinctly Southern African musical vocabulary.

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