Carlo Mombelli’s fresh start at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival

Carlo Mombelli returns to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival with “Chapter 7”, marking a new era as he embraces life as a full-time musician. After more than four decades in music, acclaimed South African bassist and composer Carlo Mombelli is not slowing down, he is starting again. As he prepares to return to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Mombelli speaks less about legacy and more about renewal, a deeply personal shift he calls “Chapter 7”.

“Well, ‘Chapter 7’ is, for me, a new chapter in my life,” he said. “Because I was at the university for 20 years, I ended up being the head of the music department there, and I retired last year. “Now I’ve basically retired from academia, and I’ve gone full out, 100% musician again.” It marks a significant turning point for an artist long regarded as one of the country’s most distinctive jazz voices.

Born in Pretoria and largely self-taught, Mombelli built a career defined by curiosity and collaboration, performing across the world while helping shape South Africa’s jazz landscape at home. For years, his life balanced two demanding roles, educator and artist. “At the same time I was busy with academia, I was still doing my music and composing and recording, that never stopped,” he said.

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Now, without the structure of university life, he finds himself returning to something more instinctive. “I look at the different chapters in my life, and I realise that this next chapter is Chapter 7. I’m just a full-out musician again, practising, performing, composing new works.” “You know, we are playing a 2 000-seater venue, but I’m going to treat it as if it’s a 50-seater venue and try and play the music as intimately as possible.”

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