A friend of mine always starts her blog with a song of the moment. I think this is quite a good idea, so my song for the moment is Jammu Africa by Ismael Lo. I heard it played in a club last night. This club is a new discovery of mine, to my shock I found out that it has been open for a while. It was a gem waiting for me to find it. It's called Sankayi, the owners are Congolese and it has a large African foreigner following. The DJ played a jiving selection of Congolese, Nigerian, Mozambican and South African hits that got me pulling some moves on the dance floor. Last night was the opening night of “World Music Live”, an event that is organised by a friend Shoni. It was hosted by Nicky B from Khaya Fm and the band that featured was a Nigerian band lead by saxophonist and singer Olufemi. The band had a huge horn section and a rhythm section that was ripping apart the grooves. I was amazed to know that all the musicians were Nigerian and living in Joburg. I plan on going as often as I can to support this new event and to enjoy the music that is played in no other club in Joburg that I am aware of. I would definitely suggest this place to African music lovers.
Other than enjoying African club vibes, I have been busy finishing up the mixing of the album for my latest musical adventure, The Tholakele Project. It is so exciting to see this project progress from the composition and arrangement stage to hearing the finished product. It has been a long journey and I have learnt so much in the process. It has been very challenging for me to bring together musicians from such different contexts to me, to create a sound that works. The most inspiring thing has been working with some amazing Maskanda musicians. They are very established and well respected in their musical community and I felt quite intimidated bringing them together for my project. What was very difficult for me as a white, English speaking South African was trying to respect their culture and musical background but also making sure the music was what I needed it to be. It was quite interesting running rehearsals in a mixture of English and Zulu. There were times in the rehearsal processes when they got so excited and started talking amongst themselves in Zulu, leaving me to try and follow hand gestures and the very little Zulu that I know. All in all it was amazing to work with musicians who just love music. They put all of themselves into the music and you can hear that when you listen to it. I cant wait to release it and show people what happens when you put a group of people from different contexts and so much passion in one room to make music.
Here is a selection of photographs from the recording session.
(Photo's taken by Suzy Bernstein)
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| Lahla's ikonstina |
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| Maqhude |
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| Comeladies/iTholo |
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| Lahla |
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| Me |
