PJ Morton is a man who wears many hats. The multiple Grammy award winner produces, records, writes and has defined several movements within African American music. Oscillating between genres that have included pop, R&B, funk and gospel, the New Orleans native has been able to reinvent himself in his two decades of music service. Cape Town to Cairo, which is Morton’s latest album, builds on the musician’s ethos of inventive genre-bending and collaboration.
Here, Morton takes us through the album, from its conceptual origins to how its nine songs came together, in segments lightly edited for length and clarity.
Photo by Cedric Tang.
PJ Morton and his team in Accra, Ghana.
PJ Morton:Cape Town to Cairo is an album I created on a 30-day trip across Africa. From Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa to Lagos, Nigeria, to Accra, Ghana, to Cairo, Egypt, and back down to South Africa again. I wanted to capture the emotions that 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.
“Smoke & Mirrors”
We landed in Lagos, Nigeria, on Fela Kuti’s birthday. We immediately went to the shrine at Felabration, which is an annual festival in his memory. The day after, I went to the studio and was still feeling those vibes I heard the night before. Me, my drummer Ed and my bass player got in a room and played the groove. I wrote the lyrics in the days following. It has the fighting spirit of Fela. I was experiencing the opposite of what people told me about Africa. It’s also about my journey through the music industry. I added the horns afterward in New Orleans, because it felt like the connection of Africa to New Orleans.
Photo by Cedric Tang.
PJ Morton and his team working in a Lagos studio.
“Count On Me” feat. Fireboy DML
I wanted to write something that could speak to the world as a whole. I feel like there’s so much negativity right now and something positive could be refreshing. This song also speaks to the power of friendship. I sat at the piano in Cape Town, South Africa and started to play the verse on the piano. While in Nigeria, I let Fireboy [DML] hear the idea and he came up with his verse right there on the spot.
Photo by Cedric Tang.
Fireboy DML working on “Count On Me” in a studio in Lagos.
“Please Be Good”
I wrote this on my first day in the studio in Nigeria. I was taking so much of my experience in and I think I just wanted to create a getaway vibe, something that takes the listener away to another place. I linked with the producer P. Priime in the studio to do this one with me.
“Who You Are” feat. Mádé Kuti
I love highlife. This puts me in that feeling. The lyrics were me speaking to myself and to many of us whose ancestors were taken from Africa. Being on the continent had that front of mind for me. Another one that was played live in the studio.
“Thank You”
I’ve always wanted to write a song that says thank you. I love saying thank you. It’s such a simple phrase but holds a lot of weight. I just wanted to create a backdrop for that sentiment. Also, as I was making this journey I was in a state of gratitude. We mostly recorded this one in South Africa, and connected with South African producer Xivonaki Manzini, who became a main collaborator on the album.
“I Found You”
This is a tune I had in my head for some time now but never did anything with it. Wherever I am, I’m still a writer of love songs. Even in Africa. So I wasn’t surprised that this idea came. I sat at the piano and wrote what love felt like at that moment. It felt like a wedding song, and I added strings when I got back to New Orleans. I worked on most of this in Cairo, Egypt.
Photo by Cedric Tang.
A photo of PJ Morton in Cairo, Egypt.
“All The Dreamers” feat. Asa & Ndabo Zulu
In a rush to write the whole album in 30 days, I was looking everywhere for inspiration. I went to splice and heard this vocal sample and it sparked an idea immediately. We went into a room and played the idea live. Then I went to Lagos and met up with Asa. She cooked for us at her house there. I let her hear the ideas I had been working on, and she loved this one. So I left it with her. We turned the sample into new words. The night before I was done, I started to write lyrics for the chorus. It’s talking about the underdog who is underestimated but fights until success and realizes their dreams. She sent me the rest of it. It has such a cool Afro-Cuban vibe to it. Then I got Ndabo Zulu to put trumpet on it. I love how we worked on it in all different parts of Africa.
“Home Again”
It was our last day in Lagos and I still hadn’t worked with The Cavemen. They finally had time that last night. So, after working all day in the studio, we drove to their home studio. As soon as I walked in, Kingsley got on the bass and started to play the line of the song. I got on keys and put chords to it. I wrote the chorus right there on the spot. We had all just met. I took that with me and wrote the rest in Egypt. It felt like home.
Photo by Cedric Tang.
PJ Morton works with a producer in the studio in Johannesburg.
“Simunye (We Are One)” feat. Soweto Spiritual Singers
I wrote this on my second day in Africa. I was in Cape Town, South Africa, and I guess I was feeling the pride of belonging to something bigger than myself. I knew I wanted to write a call and response that felt like an anthem or a hymn. I asked my great friend Jonathan Butler if there was a local word that describes something that could be that. He gave me “Simunye.” After he gave me the word, the whole song just came right there. Also realizing all that South Africa had gone through with apartheid and the 30th Anniversary of that, it all hit me.