iphupho L’ka Biko’s performance on Friday evening at Niki’s oasis was a breath of fresh air

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
Pics credit. Oboikhanyo Menyatsoe

When it was announced at the launch of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz early this year at a Sandton venue that the alternative music group iphupho L’ka Biko was going to be part of the festival at the Sandton Convention Centre many were excited. There is a valid reason for that. For one this group, relatively huge in terms of the members that constitute the group, it was the first time that iphupho L’ka Biko was to be part of the jazz tribe to entertain fans. But there was another reason for this excitement, and that is that the outfit is actually a tight group that know why they are doing what they do best.

Unfortunately for me, even though I attended the Joy of Jazz this year, I went there on a Friday, and missed the outfit’s performance on the following day on Saturday. That was in September this year.

But then on October 12, when I heard that they were part of this year’s Back to the City Hip Hop Festival, I was really tempted to attend the event even though I had reservations. I simply did not figure myself sharing the dance floor with the young people that get attracted to this concert, the so called born -Frees or Ma2000s.  This is because I did not want to risk the issue of being the only malume in the crowd, which if it happened, would have created an awkward situation for me and the other audience members. And so eventually I abandoned the idea. However I heard later that in fact iphupho L’ka Biko did not perform after all at the festival.  I am not privy to what happened.

However this last Friday, I had my opportunity to see the group at Niki’s Oasis in Newtown, that enduring live music venue, that seems to be one of the city’s only  two  active jazz homes, – the other one being the Untitled Basement in Braamforntein.

And so I was excited and in fact contended to be one of the fully packed Niki’s Oasis on Friday, to watch iphupho L’ka Biko in performance.

They are good, politically cheek and are not apologetic about their politically conscious music that is very much informed by their decoloniality politics, with no doubt influenced by the politics of the proponent of Black Consciousness Movement, the slain Steve Biko. After all the members formed this group as students at Wits during that turbulent student strife, the FeesMustFall  protests in 2016.  In terms of repertoire, their music is hard to pin down to a specific genre.

Theirs is a clever mix of sophisticated sound that incorporates jazz elements, African melodies, drums , poetry and African rhythms. On Friday, they group featured lawyer and poet Makafula Vilakazi as a guest performer, and his poetry, which is cut from the same cloth as the politics of iphupho L’ka Biko, was well received by the audience. The group has an interesting mix of fan base, that include the suburb folk, the intellectual type, students and simply those that have developed a discerning ear and taste for good music –both white and black, young and old. 

This audience indeed was entertained on Friday, October 25, 2024.  And so the crowd did not regret spending a Friday night with iphupho L’ka Biko. Well I did not, and ne4xt time they will perform at a venue in Johannesburg, I would not mind attending the show again. They are a breath of fresh air in a music scene that is noisy with amapiano dominating the club scene.