BIO

Muhammad Dawjee is a musician, composer, architect, researcher & educator from the indian apartheid group-area, Laudium, on the western outskirts of Pretoria. He sees improvisation as a research process and takes a particular interest in the identities of brown people(s) living in South Africa by using music to unearth complex stories of generational colonial subjugation, migration and a pursuit of liberation through dialogue. In his youth, he was selected for several Standard Bank National Schools’ Big Bands and has since worked with Dr Abdullah Ibrahim, Andile Yenana and Mandla Mlangeni.

 

After moving to Johannesburg in 2015, he cofounded the indo-jazz trio Kinsmen, served as a resident member of the pan-Afrikan septet iPhupho L’ka Biko and toured internationally with the experimental performance-art ensemble The Brother Moves On (TBMO). In 2022 he co-produced Them Who Feeds You Owns You Café - a week-long installation and takeover of an abandoned restaurant space in Melville Johannesburg, comprised of sound artists and composers in residency and an incidental jazz festival along the street for the duration of the week. Muhammad performs regularly in the city with his working band – Dawjee Trio which comprises Amaeshi Ikechi and Nicholas Bjorkman. His solo project Otherness is in process and features Keenan Ahrends, Romy Brauteseth, Nicholas Bjorkman and Lwanda Gogwana. Muhammad has co-led a research initiative with Kinsmen and Zimbabwean percussionist and ethnomusicologist Othnell Mangoma Moyo – the output of which is an album and a dialogue archive. In 2022, he was selected as a Onebeat Virtual 3 fellow and collaborated with artists from across the globe to investigate new dimensions of sound, the human experience and the reality of virtual reality. 

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Selected discography:

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Kinsmen – Window to the Ashram, Independent (2017)

The SN Project – Afrikanization, Independent (2020)

Muhammad Dawjee – ‘Otherness’ (single) feat. Siphephelo Ndlovu on compilation “New Horizons: Young Stars of South African Jazz Vol. 2”, Afrosynth Records (2021)

i’Phupho L’ka Biko. feat Kinsmen – ‘Abaphezulu’ on compilation “Indaba Is”, Brownswood (2021)

i’Phupho L’ka Biko – ‘UThixo Ukhona’ (single), ALTBlk (2021)

Msaki – ‘Anisixabisanga’ (single) feat. The Brother Moves On, Platinum Heart Open, Msaki (2021)

The Brother Moves On – Tolika Mtoliki, Matsuli Music (2021)

The Charles Gené Suite - Suite Nites (2022)

The Brother Moves On – $/He Who Feeds You Owns You, Native Rebel Recordings (2022)

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