Jazz it out

Croatian born vocalist, pianist, composer and music teacher Ziza Muftic has recorded and performed with some of the best South African musicians.  Her music is a fusion of European (Balkan, Western and Eastern Europeans musical traditions) and some South African musical styles.  “My musical roots are in Europe and I have blossomed in South Africa.  I’d like to think I belong more to the African side now”, she told Jazz It Out.

She was born and raised in Zagreb, capital city of Croatia.  “It’s a small city with a population of around 1 200 000 people, filled with culture and colourful history”, she said.  It runs along the Sava river and surrounded by a mountain called Medvednica.  It was part of Austrio-Hungarian empire for many years.  Her family had some wonderful years in the city.  “Growing up in Zagreb was really special and thinking about it always brings back good memories”, she added.

Her music lessons started when she was 7 and her first instrument was the violin.  Ziza studied Classical Western music from an early age.  However, she had an immediate attraction to contemporary genres, soulful melodies and singers with bold voices.  “I grew up listening to my family singing Bosnian folk songs around dinner table.  This exposed me to powerful soulful singing”, she recalls.  At some point Michael Jackson and Tina Turner were her favourites, and the list grew longer to include ABBA and Annie Lennox from Eurythmics.

Ziza Muftic. Picture by Siphiwe Mhlambi

After watching a tape of Janis Joplin singing at a jazz festival, she began to listen to this conscious, folk, rock sound instead of pop.  Her elder cousin, who had a huge collection of vinyl records, would invite her to listening sessions and would always emphasize the importance of listening to lyrics to understand what artists are articulating through the lyrical content.  This experience opened her mind in a big way.  Her secondary school education led to singing and studying voice.

Ziza attended Vatroslav Lisinki which is one of the well respected music schools Zagreb.  She had the priviledge of studying under one of Croatia’s divas, Lidija Horvat.  It was during that time that she received a third place at a singing competition, featuring young singers from all over Croatia, held in Osijek, near Zagreb. She was one of the young contestants to participate in the tournament.  Little did she knew that her parents were making plans for the family to leave Croatia and the city that she was proud to call home.

In 1992, Ziza and her family migrated to South Africa.  She took a while to finally settle in Johannesburg.  “I did not like golden city one bit.  I cried daily for about a year”, she remembers.  They left behind a little flat in Zagreb, which was hardly locked, to a house which was far from everything.  “You couldn’t see anyone playing in the streets.  One had to drive to get bread and milk”, she added.  She and her sister struggled to adjust to life in Jozi until they discovered Rocky Street in Yeoville, all the live music venues, and the arty crowd.

In the same year, she began her music studies at Wits University and her perspective started shifting.  “I started to feel like I could belong here”, signaling her change of attitude.  She considers herself fortunate to study with some of the best teachers in Zagreb and Johannesburg.  “All my voice teachers were practicing musicians and I felt in good hands”, she said.  Her first violin teacher showed her how to open and close the door holding the violin in one hand, how to bow, and every little detail.  Right through her studies at Wits, Ziza believes she was fortunate to be taught by some amazing musicians.

Her debut album

Her main subjects at Wits included Classical Vocal Studies (under a South African diva Dr Emma Renzil), Piano (Waldo Malan), History of Music (Dr Mary Rorich), RTM or teaching methods (Mr Malcom Nay and Pauline Nossel), as well as Harmony and Counterpoint (Mr Carl van Wyk and John Reid Coulter).  Ziza was a dedicated student who participated in annual musical productions and concerts in and outside Wits.  In 1994, she was given an award as a music student that had shown the most dedication during the productions.

Ziza also received a Certificate of first class for General Musicianship.  She was happy for the recognition of her hard work.  “This award didn’t surprise me because I was always good with things like solfeggio and the aural aspect on the ear training”, with confidence.  Sight-singing, melodic and rhythmic dictations is what she had done at the music school in Zagreb since the age of 7.  When she received the certificate, she was happy that the work she crafted for years got recognition.  She completed her Bachelor of Music Degree in 1996.

Ziza completed her Masters Degree in Music (majoring in research and performance) at Wits in 2013.  Her vocal training was supervised by Eugenie Chopin and her research project  titled ‘Hopa!: Exploring Balkanology in South African Popular Music Culture’ which was supervised by Dr Susan Harrop-Allin.  She also received lessons in Jazz Piano from Theodora Drummond.  She credits Drummond for teaching her to listen and pay attention to detail.  “She is a very gentle but strict teacher, with a lot of patience and time for her students, whom she wants to see growing”, she said.  

Her second album

She has performed with some of the best musicians such as Sydney Mnisi, Reza Khota, Marcus Wyatt and many others.  Ziza handpicks musicains she wants to perform with largely based on the skills they possess, and because she heard something in their playing which she likes and thinks they can bring to the message she is trying to convey in her music.  “I have learnt about the expressiveness of sound through listening to Bra Sydney’s playing.  Reza has some natural, other-wordly, qualities in his playing.  Marcus is a very inspirational artist”, she explained.

Her debut album titled “Ziza Muftic Quartet: Silver Moonbeams” which was produced by Marcus Wyatt was released in 2015.  The recording includes Roland Moses on piano, Peter Auret on drums, James Sunney on double bass and Ziza is on vocals.  She credits Wyatt for doing a brilliant job in the recording.  “He was patient, considerate and kind”, she said.  Getting a person of Wyatt’s caliber to produce and play on the album is something that gave her a lot of excitement.  “I still enjoy listening to this album every now and again, and I enjoy what I hear”, she added.

Her follow up album titled “Ziza: Shining Hour” was released in 2019 and produced by Theodora and Kevin Drummond.  The recording also included Peter Auret, Peter Sklair, Roland Moses and Sydney Mnisi.  All these individuals invested so much time, love and care in this project.  For Ziza personally, this album signified a state of mind.  It symbolizes personal blossoming, inside and out.  While working on the recording, she heard John Coltrane play the standard “Shining Hour” and her immediate reaction was ‘that’s exactly how I feel’.  As the saying goes, the rest is history.  The album won the Mzantsi Jazz Award for Best Female Jazz Artist.

Her third album

Her third album which was “Recorded Live at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Makhanda (2020)” was done under a difficult period artists were going through.  2020 will always be remembered as the year when Covid was declared a deadly pandemic and brought the world to a complete halt .  When the first lockdown happened, she felt the whole world stood still.  She kept her hopes high, like many of her colleagues, and used the time to practice and figure out how else to be creative.  “When I got booked for the festival in Makhanda, it sure was a dream come true”, she said. They gave their whole in the performance and had to immortalize this moment by releasing it in a ‘live’ album.

Ziza has a few ideas about what needs to be done to make jazz popular in South Africa.  “The first step lies in education.  Educating the youth by introducing jazz music programmes at primary school level.  Also, it will be a brilliant idea to encourage youth bands and student exchange programmes, locally and internationally” she elaborated.  There needs to be an improvement in marketing.  More and more audiences should know about what is happening in local jazz scene.  She believes projects such as “House on the Hill” by Marcus Wyatt and Romy Brauteseth are brilliant in promoting South African jazz.

She confesses that being a music professional is a lifetime commitment.  “I see myself creating and re-creating, growing as a human being and as a musician, exploring, collaborating and learning across genres”, she said.  Ziza sees herself absorbing life in all shapes and forms and expressing her journey through music.  She also hopes to continue inspiring and encouraging others to do the same.  Her fourth album titled “Singing in Tongues” is scheduled for release in the next month or two.

“The idea for the album is exploring voice as an instrument through different languages and rhythms.  It was largely inspired by the work of Bobby McFerrin”, she said.  “Singing in Tongues” explores her love for languages and how they translate through one’s voice and melodies.  The recording features a vocal trio called AmaNanule which is made of made up of herself, Zarcia Zacheus and Zsofia Borsanyi.  This project is completely different from her previous recording and also captures the long musical and personal relationship with Concord Nkabinde and Graeme Sacks.

Her fans will hear an acapella version of “Ablakomba, Ablakomba” from her debut album, a vocal trio arrangement of a Bulgarian folk song “Ergen dedo”, and an acapella version of the classic tune “Ziphi”.  She also recorded the same tune in Mrubata’s album titled “The Strings Attached Project”.  There is also and bass duo version of “Rain” by Kenny Barron that Ziza has given lyrics to, which she does with Romy Brauteseth. Her exploration includes her own lyrics to “Spirits of Tembisa” by Moses Molelekwa which she does with Concord Nkabinde and Graeme Sacks. She added lyrics to “Naima” by John Coltrane where Nkabinde did IsiZulu translation,  as well as her version of  Molelekwa’s composition “Mountain Shade” which she does with the quartet. 

The creative who is called aunty Zee by her young music students has so many favourite musicians from the country and around the globe.  “There are too many to mention”, she concluded. These include Bheki Mseleku, Siya Makuzeni, Chick Corea and Camen McRae.  Her life really is music, in all shapes and forms, and hardly has time for real hobbies.  She does however enjoys travelling and reading, mostly autobiographies and music books.  Her Facebook Page is Ziza.M.  Follow her on Instagram @zizamuftic.  Subscribe to her YouTube channel @muftiza