Benjamin Jephta Marks a Decade of His Landmark Debut Album ‘Homecoming’ With a Bold Revisit

Sometime last year, while plotting his next musical move, Benjamin Jephta had the idea of revisiting Homecoming, the seminal debut album that shook South African improvised music when it dropped a decade ago. The bassist and composer, known for artful dalliances with sound that never tiptoed around themes of identity and belonging, first imagined it simply as a performance with fellow Cape Town darlings Kujenga. But the idea grew, clawed its way to the front of his mind, and soon expanded far beyond the immediate moment.

“[Kujenga bassist] Zwide [Ndwandwe] once sent me a picture of him at a gig I did in Langa with that album. He also said they saw my performance at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in 2015, and that’s when they decided to form a band. I’m not saying I’m directly responsible, but [I was part of the ingredients],” Jephta tells OkayAfrica just over a week before the release of Homecoming Revisited. The sprawling body of work showcases his skill as an arranger and composer, as well as his instinct for cutting across imagined musical boundaries to find the right collaborators.

The project began with a three-day performance at the Artscape Theatre, followed by a studio session to record the music. “Initially, it was gonna be me and them, but I thought it needed to be bigger. It had to be an homage — paying respect and gratitude to everything that’s happened in my life with music and that album over the last ten years. The best way to do that was to get everyone else on it,” he says.

OkayAfrica meets with Jephta at the Wits Arts Museum’s cafeteria after a rehearsal with some of the musicians featured on the album. Drummer Sphelelo Mazibuko, saxophonist Sisonke Xonti, guitarist Keenan Ahrends, pianist Bokani Dyer, and trumpeter Robin Fassie linger nearby, chatting over drinks as they plot their next move. Their presence lends the space a certain flair, an aura that can neither be explained nor contained.

With Homecoming Revisited, Jephta sought a sonic aesthetic that was vibrant and celebratory. “I think my music, in general, has this dance element to it. Maybe it’s because I’m a bass player, always between the drummer and the pianist. I wanted to lean into that more here,” he says. “I just wanted to make a celebratory album — easy to listen to, easy to vibe with.” 

Where the debut held close to its jazz roots, the revisit sheds any pretensions about what’s acceptable. Lush is one word for it: horns so expansive they bend the horizon, drums and percussion so alive they threaten to spill over, guitars and basses weaving together like scripture. It’s a sermon, a celebration, a return to self. 

The rollout itself set a new precedent in South African jazz, a community that often struggles to stay top of mind. Within three months of the Artscape performance, Jephta was already teasing the project on social media, building anticipation and excitement. He kept the momentum going with clips from the recording sessions and childhood images – like one of him banging away on a toy drum kit. In the midst of it all, he became a parent, scored television shows such as Marked (2025), and even arranged Kelvin Momo’s catalogue for orchestra, performed over three days in June.

In one of the promo videos, Jephta reflects on how the album became an exercise in letting go of control. When asked when he realized the need for that, he explains: “That’s lifelong work. I have ADHD, and I’ve developed mechanisms to manage it, and part of that is trying to control and predict, so I know how I’ll be in a situation. The musician side of me is interesting because, like music, there are so many rules. But often when I play, I let go on stage. Afterwards, I’ll sit with it. I try not to over-analyze.”

“I had to get comfortable with saying: here’s the music, this is the vibe. I’d sit behind the [mixing] desk, listen, and go, ‘Ah, nice!’ Letting go and seeing what happens. There are 30 musicians on this project. I can’t control everything.”

Additional sessions happened in Johannesburg, and Jephta worked painstakingly to piece everything together into the tight, nine-track offering it is. “It’s been kinda nostalgic, revisiting the music from that time in my life and listening to it again. I was also trying to figure out: okay, how can I arrange for horns? How can I reimagine this music? There were compositional ideas I wanted to explore. I really like our version of ‘One for the Plein’ — it’s so different from the other vibes. I found an interesting way to revisit that song,” he says. The original, featuring Spha Mdlalose, has become a South African jazz standard. Jephta’s new take elevates it to high art, a display of his restless, inventive mind, this time joined by Siya Makuzeni. 

“I wanted to make it recognizable enough, but not make it the same as what it was,” he says. “I think I have a sound — and I don’t like to say that — but I do gravitate towards how I layer chords, how I arrange horns. The production element of making music is very important to me, and what I mean by production is where everything sits in the frequency — what’s in the front, what’s at the back, what’s in the middle. I consider all of that, whether I’m orchestrating or writing music for film, whether writing compositions for my own artistic stuff. I always consider, okay, the melody should go like this, and then the groove should do this. All of these parts. I do think about those layers in music; it’s a common thread. I try my best to tell stories, I like not ending the song the way it started. It has to take you on some kind of journey. It’s so much part of the ethos of the music; improvisation is part of the tenets of the music.”

Jephta has stated before that he doesn’t necessarily think much about what legacy he wants to leave behind; that his main task is to create and let others do the back-and-forth. But with Homecoming Revisited, he’s essentially extended the life of an album upon which his legacy shall be built, for better and for worse. So, we wrap up by asking him whether he cares how he gets perceived in the future. 

“I think that’s a very complex question because I would like to say that I don’t give a f***. But I think human nature is that, to an extent, we do care. For me, it’s always work, in the sense that this is what I’m doing, and this is what I want to do. Let's put in the work, and let’s just make it happen. Ultimately, I just have to put it out there, and people must just perceive it whatever way they do. At the same time, I do understand how the music industry works. So I do look at ways and means of framing and packaging this thing. Not to cheapen it, but because I believe in it, I want it to get where it needs to get, so that people can understand it, and it can be palatable for them. I do consider audiences when I make music, but I try my best to not let that cloud what I’m trying to do and what I’m trying to create,” he says.