With the release of an album unlike anything he has ever done before, PJ Morton takes listeners on a trip from Cape Town to Cairo. Out now via Morton Records/EMPIRE, the unprecedented project is to Morton what Graceland was to Paul Simon, except that the 5x GRAMMY-winner fully created his new LP during a 30-day journey across Africa. With no music, lyrics or preconceptions, he stepped foot onto the continent last autumn with only the dream to make a record in a month, and a mission to immerse himself in as many different cultures, stories and communities as he could. Reflecting on his travels – from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Cairo (Egypt) and back down to South Africa again, most of which he was visiting for the very first time – PJ Morton says:
“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. 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. 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,’ jazz on ‘All The Dreamers,’ all combined with the inspiration of Africa. 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. Cape Town to Cairo is the diaspora in music form, done my way.”
