A voice to set the tone.

Some voices seem to come from very far away, yet take only a few seconds to feel close. Tutu Puoane’s is one of them.

Born in South Africa and based in Belgium for many years, Tutu Puoane has built a career in which jazz has never been a boundary, but a place from which to open out towards the world.  

South African tradition, soul, song and improvisation all meet in her music; but beyond any label there is that voice — warm, powerful and extraordinarily expressive, able to move from intimacy to sheer momentum without ever losing the thread of the story it is telling.  

And storytelling matters deeply in her music.

Her most recent project, Wrapped in Rhythm, grew out of the poetry of South African writer and activist b>Lebogang Mashile. Puoane had been reading those poems for years and hearing music inside the words. Together with pianist Ewout Pierreux, she transformed that poetry into songs in which jazz, soul and South African memory find a language in common. The first volume appeared in 2024, followed in 2025 by a second, recorded with the Metropole Orkest.

There is something particularly beautiful about the process: this time, the words came first. The melodies followed, some of them almost spontaneously, emerging from the rhythm, imagery and musicality Puoane heard in Mashile’s poetry. It was never simply a matter of setting poems to music, but of listening closely enough to discover the music already living inside them.

In Sant Llorenç she will be joined by musicians with whom she shares far more than a repertoire: Ewout Pierreux on piano, Clemens van der Feen on double bass and Dré Pallemaerts on drums. A quartet used to breathing together, leaving space and making listening itself an essential part of the music.

And we can think of no better way to begin our tenth edition.

Because before we start counting countries, stages or concerts, we can begin with what matters most: four musicians, one remarkable voice and a room ready to listen.

On 20 November, at Espai 36, Tutu Puoane opens Alternatilla Jazz Festival #10. And the first instrument we hear will also be the most human of them all: the voice.