Grow to Black
Collective

Grow to Black Collective is a five-piece jazz group from Gaborone, Botswana. Founded in 2021 by bandleader and composer Laone Thekiso alongside co-founder and engineer Maleho "Lex" Makgothi, the collective composes and performs original music across three overlapping traditions: contemporary jazz, the African jazz lineage, and hip-hop-inflected instrumental music.

The music grew out of improvisation, but composition and arrangement have moved to the centre. The pieces are long-form and through-composed; improvisation is treated as a colour rather than a structural device. The rhythmic sensibility draws as much from beat culture as from the jazz tradition.

What's specific to Grow to Black is the perspective of making this music from Botswana, where the scene is still being built. Since forming, the collective has become one of Gaborone's anchor jazz acts, with notable engagements including the Maitisong Festival, International Jazz Day, the Stanbic Music & Lifestyle Festival, the 2025 Smokebreak Session (produced by creative agency Bullsheep), and a private cultural gathering held during the state visit of the President and First Lady of Switzerland.

The collective's debut album, The Nexus Suite Vol. 1, is available across all major platforms. In 2025 the group entered an extended writing and rehearsal cycle. They returned to the stage in June 2026 with two shows: as guests of the South African touring platform Kids Love Jazz on their Gaborone stop, and their own headline at Court Five. Grow to Black is bringing new material to audiences in South Africa and beyond over the coming year.