PJ Morton releases Cape Town to Cairo album

The nine-track Cape Town to Cairo album, out on Morton Records/EMPIRE, features African acts Fireboy DML, Mádé Kuti, Aṣa, Ndabo Zulu and Soweto Spiritual Singers. Nigerian band The Cavemen and producer P.Priime also lent their talents to the project.

Morton, a five-time Grammy-winning artist, set out on a 30-day journey across Africa last October on a mission to immerse himself in as many different cultures, soundscapes, stories and communities as he could. His plan was to create a collaborative project that would capture his experiences and “show music as the greatest common language.”

The trip, which saw Morton visit Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra and Cairo started with no preconceptions. Reflecting on his travels, PJ Morton said: “It really was an experiment in trusting my instincts. I have the ability to overthink as many of us do, so I wanted to spark something that had real stakes. I wanted to capture the emotions I felt while I was on the continent, so I made a promise that I wouldn’t write anything before I arrived in Africa and I wouldn’t write anything after I left – I ended up recording all my vocals before I left too.”

About the song-making process, he said: “We didn’t have the luxury of time to police which genres would fit where, and the origins of all this music started in Africa anyway. What ended up happening was that all of my raw thoughts and influences came out all at once. There’s of course R&B and soul, but there’s also gospel in songs like ‘Simunye’, pop in ‘Count on Me’ and jazz on ‘All the Dreamers’.”

The transportive arrangements of ‘Please Be Good’ and ‘Simunye (We are One)’ featuring Soweto Spiritual Singers showcase native sounds and the pride in belonging to something bigger than oneself.

Whether the song came all at once or developed across multiple countries, as was the case with ‘All the Dreamers’ featuring Aṣa and Ndado Zulu, Morton felt a constant sense of gratitude that manifested in ‘Thank You’. An awareness of his personal lineage and an appreciation of his ancestors who were taken from Africa can be felt on ‘Who You Are’ featuring Mádé Kuti. ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, recorded a day after Fela Kuti’s birthday festivities, connects New Orleans to Lagos, while ‘Count on Me’ sees Morton and Fireboy DML speaking about the power of friendship and unity.

Morton, who is set to embark on his worldwide Cape Town to Cairo Tour soon, has also announced his career-spanning memoir Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Staying True to Myself from the Pews to the Stage, which will be released on 12 November. The book straddles the tensions of music and faith, race, culture, expression and identity.