The rediscovery of territory, the breaching of the voice, the strain on the body, the musical gaze of the subject, the subject becoming musical space, the state of mere suspension this is the orbit Gabi Motuba dwells in a world of eternal singing and swinging.
Gabis sound refuses to sit on the surface of time or at the bottom of language. She sings, she swings, which is to say she resocialises a survival melody to propel a feeling, a freedom sentiment into the universe. Let us contemplate the musical imagination and sonic flourishes of this vocal savant.
For the Pretoria-born jazz vocalist, composer and educator and 2026 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz the recognition feels fitting. In South Africa, musical innovation has always been bound up with resistance.
