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Private school piano is a sub-genre of South Africa’s Amapiano. A fellow Amapiano artist bestowed Momo's style with the nickname.
Private Ampiano artist Kelvin Momo is part of this year's Redbull Symphonic. Picture: Kelvin Momo/Facebook
If you do a simple Google search of ‘private school piano,’ Kelvin Momo’s name will pop up.
Private school piano is the sub-genre of South Africa’s Amapiano coined by fellow artist Masterpiece to describe Momo’s signature sound.
“No, it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable because that’s me — if we were to come up with another name, it wouldn’t make sense,” Momo tells The Citizen.
Full name Thato Kelvin Ledwaba, Momo has a grip on the sub-genre because his version of Amapiano incorporates elements of jazz, deep house, and lounge music—presented in sophistication.
“My Piano is expensive,” he says, laughing.
The irony about the adopted-term of his music style is that some of his schooling was at private schools around Joburg.
The 31-year-old from Soweto was officially announced today as one of the headline acts for the Red Bull Symphonic, along with Adam Howard and the Egoli Symphonic Orchestra.
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Similar to US producer Knxwledge, Momo has released a large body of work in a short space of time — so much so that some fans complained about his rate of dropping.
In 2024 alone, Momo released three studio albums — Sewe, Jazz Cruise Series Vol. 1 and Ntsako.
The music producer said he started by releasing an album only once a year. In 2020, after the release of Momo’s Private School, he went about a year without releasing a body of work.
“After that, my fans were like, ‘We want more music’, ” he shares. He felt the fans wanted more after the release of his 27-track album Kurhula in 2023.
Like renowned Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, Momo has an unorthodox appreciation and reverence for music.
Kuti believed in the freedom to express his musical ideas without constraints. He didn’t adhere to traditional song structures or lengths, which Momo upholds.
“Oh man,” Momo blushes and sinks into his seat when I share this Kuti observation with him.
However, the person who influenced the length of his music is South African music producer, Cool Affair.
“He does some Jazzy House music. There’s a song he did that’s like 20 minutes long,” shares Momo.
“64 songs,” he says about the total number of songs when putting together his 2024 albums. But after a proper look, Momo’s trio of projects last year amassed 96 songs.
“People wanted more, so that’s why I was like ‘okay, I’m gonna give you a surprise album’”.
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Speaking about his influences, Momo says he listens to a lot of lounge music. “I also listen to a lot of Hip Hop,” he shares.
“Conscious hip hop,” he adds.
There’s a lot of sampling in hip-hop music. When I ask him whether he samples when making his own, he says he doesn’t, but he harbours no disrespect for those who choose to make music that way.
“I don’t really sample. I would start something from scratch that’s similar to that. With sampling, I feel like I’m limiting myself,” he says.
Some have joked that his albums are so long that one can drive from Joburg to Limpopo, just listening to one of Momo’s albums until they reach their destination up north.
“You know when you’re in studio, and you do a song and the song becomes nicer as you add more elements like the bass guitar…I just decide there that the song is getting stretched and made longer because it shouldn’t be this short,” says Momo about his respect for the music.
Momo says that when he started doing his style on Amapiano, he knew that the general public preferred the more up-tempo genre that dominates the charts.
“Sometimes we don’t need to be dancing. Sometimes, you just need to chill and calm down. I told myself I’d take the risk and switch my sound…and grateful for the change because it has brought me where I am today.”
Momo is obsessive about his music making. Like Kenny G, who still practices his saxophone daily, Momo’s Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for time in the studio.
“No matter how tired I get, Tuesday and Thursday are my studio sessions. People come to studio and we work, from 9pm until 9 in the morning.”
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He says his appreciation of the music ultimately made him agree to be part of this year’s Red Bull Symphonic, although he turned it down a couple of times because of the magnitude of the production.
“It’s not a platform where they are taking chances on this and that …it’s very musical. I didn’t understand why am I the chosen one,” he says modestly.
Speaking like a kid with an appointment at the candy store Momo speaks with excitement about sharing the stage with Adam Howard and Egoli Symphonic Orchestra.
“I feel like they’re putting me in my favourite store and locking me in there. It’s like that for me,” she shares.
“Imagine when you add all these elements; the strings, the violin, cello, trumpet, trombone…yoh man,” he gushes.
The second annual Symphonic will occur over two nights – 06 and 07 June – at The Teatro, Montecasino.
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