For 27 years, Kearoma Rantao has carried jazz, township grooves and church harmonies like family heirlooms. Now, the Afro-jazz singer is throwing a celebration that sounds less like a concert and more like a time-travelling mixtape
KEAROMA’S RHYTHM REVIVAL
There’s something cinematic about the way Kearoma Rantao talks about music. You can almost hear the sound system humming through the streets of Lobatse, church choirs echoing in the distance and Whitney Houston wrestling for airtime with Miriam Makeba somewhere in the neighbourhood.
For the Afro-jazz vocalist, songwriter and entrepreneur, music was never discovered in a studio. It lived in the streets long before it lived on stage.
And now, after 27 years in the music industry, Rantao is turning memory into a live experience.
Scheduled for August 8, Rhythm Through the Ages promises to be less of a nostalgia trip and more of a sonic autobiography. Venue still pending, the concert will pull together DJs, collaborators and musicians who shaped her journey from Lobatse selectors DJ Ralph and DJ Mocks to the Women of Jazz collective.
THE SOUNDTRACK OF A SMALL TOWN
“I called it Rhythm of the Ages because I wanted to take it back to who Kearoma is and where she started,” she told Time Out.
Lobatse, she explains, was loud in the best possible way. Church hymns collided with street music. School choirs met cassette culture. The result? A young girl absorbing rhythm like second nature.
She said: “The rhythm of ages is my journey, inspiration what happened and where I currently am.”
That energy will spill into the concert through impersonations of legends who shaped her ear, Boom Shaka, Michael Jackson and the giants of ‘80s pop culture that raised an entire generation of dreamers.
A NEW SOUND, A NEW ERA
But Rantao isn’t staying trapped in nostalgia.
Her upcoming album, Zambezi Soul, signals reinvention. Produced by Bangu, the eight-track project moves away from her familiar Afro-fusion palette and leans into a fresher, three-step-inspired sound.
“It’s a new sound of me that i can’t wait for everyone to enjoy. I will be releasing singles from the album as we work towards the August concert,” she said.