Joel Karabo Elliott’s Roots Grown Deep into Mozambique

Roots Grown Deep is a cross-continental musical and cultural movement based in South Africa seeking the most resonant harmonies of human diaspora.
The roots of this musical fusion are in New Orleans jazz, Limpopo indigenous rhythm and dance, Jamaican roots reggae, and Appalachia folk, and the result is a passionate soul’s outcry of multiple languages, trances, and instrumental concepts guided by a poetic message of conscious spiritual ascension. Roots Grown Deep is a hearkening to our human beginning and becoming, a music for original life that is loved by children and adults alike.
Through collaboration with the musical elders of Inhambane and Zambezia provinces in Mozambique along with the renowned Studio Bom Dia, they aim to add some of the indigenous and modern sounds of Mozambique to their style, wisdom and musical expression.
“For myself and the Roots Grown Deep vision, Mozambique and particularly Inhambane has always been a place of inspiration, rejuvenation, and simple yet effective work. In previous missions, I have travelled there alone or as a member of the Cape-Town based ensemble Black South Easter (two trips to Inhambane in 2015). Now, I am ready to take my own ensemble to Inhambane for a more involved project of collaboration with local musicians in performance and studio recording, says