This is Writer/ Director James Ngcobo describing Songs of Migration which will be at Hackney Empire on October 10-14 – and also at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam for two performances before the London run – is described in the blurb as An incredible new jazz musical with Hugh Masekela and Sibongile Khumalo It previously ran for a month in 2012 at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. It hadcompletely passed us by until now.

The musical features songs by Joseph Shabalala, Dorothy Masuka, Miriam Makeba, and Masekela himself and others. More from the Hackney Empire’s website: The whole show operates like an extravagant jazz gig, with the band taking centre stage and all the players singing and acting around them. There’s an incredible take on Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s Nomathemba and the music then swings through the cotton fields of the Mississippi and the old gospel of the American South, via Nigeria with Fela Kuti’s Languta before returning to South Africa for the finale. 

Bookings here.