Madosini

Bio

Madosini – ‘The Veteran’ as she is popularly known in Mpondoland in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa where she comes from is a great musician, composer, poet, singer, story teller and teacher. Her music is extraordinary, unique in its variety and the range of feelings it evokes.

She is unsurpassed in the making and playing of the Uhadi (calabash resonated bow), Umrhubhe (mouth resonated bow) and Isitolotolo (Jewish harp) and her songs are poems which speak eloquently of a rich personal and cultural history which take the audience back to the San cultures (from whom the Xhosa borrowed the musical bows.)

Madosini's music has also inspired many musicians to cooperate with her in producing works of fusion within the Classical, Folk and Jazz idioms.

She performs and has recorded a fusion piece written about her life with the MIAGI chamber orchestra. She has also performed at many festivals around the world such as the WOMADs in Reading, London, Singapore, Adelaide, Oaklands, Seattle, Las Palmas and Benoni.
Also performed in music, poetry and storytelling festivals in Oslo, Vienna, Medellin and Bogota, Madrid, Grenoble and Airvaut, Blantyre, Harare, Gaberone, Durban and London.

She has collaborated with PedXulu at the North Sea Jazz festival in Cape Town, Amapondo, Thandisa Maswai, Ringo and Patrick Duff in Bristol and Jazz musicians in Nigeria, Vienna, Bogota, Grenoble, Cape Town and Milan.

She also performed in Johannesburg with Gilberto Gil, (the famous Brazilian musician who was Minister of Culture for Brazil some years ago).

She was the main musician for the “Les Blancs” play which ran for two months at the National Theatre in London in 2017.
Madosini is rightly considered a “Cultural Treasure” in South Africa and has received many awards (Molteno Award and many awards from the DAC.) The DAC are right now writing a book and producing a documentary on Madosini and she has also been awarded a Doctorate in Music by Rhodes University. Madosini's songs are anything but "simple".

The harmonic progressions she plays on her bows are in the ancient African tradition, two Major chords, one whole tone apart but the
melodies she creates have astounding evocative power and use mostly the Mixolydian and Lydian modes. These two modes which are also produced by the traditional Lekgodilo flute are probably the first fixed scales heard by humans since the beginning of music. Madosini also uses additive rhythms such as 7/4, 9/4 and 11/8. These characteristics of Madosini’s music put her music at the very beginning of Jazz in Africa and are explored by the Cape Town based AmaThongo group.

ZACape Town, South Africa
In operation since: 
1972

Contact

0717891045
Latozi MPAHLENI

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