Gwen Ansell
17 July 2008
opinion
Johannesburg — IT's more than four years since bassist, vocalist and composer Gito Baloi was murdered, and a fresh look at his legacy is overdue. So it's appropriate that this month sees the launch of BEYOND, an album masterminded by producer and Grasslands leader/steelpan player Dave Reynolds.
The tragic circumstances of Baloi's death - he was waylaid on his way home from a gig - had symbolic value for a society scarred by how much crime poisons creativity. Too often, though, what is remembered is the tragedy, not the legacy. Yet Baloi also left us an enduring musical voice that still speaks.
From his early teens as a travelling guitarist in war-torn Mozambique, Baloi combined an urban popular sensibility (which in Mozambique meant marrabenta style) with the traditions of Shangaan and Nyanja veteran players who used their music as a vehicle for social comment.
In Johannesburg, he formed Pongolo, worked with other trenchant commentators such as Mzwakhe Mbuli, and, alongside successful international touring and solo work, he eventually found his musical soul mates in Tananas.
Beyond takes 10 vocal/bass tracks he laid down, and reworks them with guests and fresh arrangements. The songs cover many of Baloi's lyrical concerns: love, the environment, and peace. Some feature the usual suspects: former Tananas partners guitarist Steve Newman and drummer Ian Herman. Others bring in different jazz voices: Paul Hanmer, McCoy Mrubata, Tlale Makhene, Nibs van der Spuy and Tony Cox, as well as Reynolds himself on pans, guitar and a variety of percussion.
So we have, for example, a version of Baloi's Uma Mensagem that reinforces reggae roots with contributions from 340ml's Pedro, Rui and Paulo. The lyrical Sol is given gentle string accompaniment by Elliot Short's violin. There's a particularly poignant version of Todos Dias featuring another talented player dead far too soon: saxophonist Moses Khumalo.
Beyond ensures we remember Baloi for his substantial musical legacy rather than his tragic death.
Of course, what really intrigues about good musicians is rarely their personal lives, sartorial style or spousal arrangements - despite what Sunday newspapers seem to believe. It's how and why they create their sound. An excellent TV programme is now regularly providing insight into the creative process: Jam Sandwich, which flights on Tuesdays at 10pm on SABC2, takes the viewer onstage, into studios and discussions, where musicians from a range of genres informally unfold their music. The conversations are fascinating and the presentation and camera work refreshingly nonintrusive. The SABC should consider this format for an even wider range of genres - particularly traditional and gospel music, where jabbering, ill-informed presenters currently disguise the important discourses of these styles.
For more intelligent discussion of music, the place to be is this year's Durban International Film Festival (July 23 to August 3), which has pulled together a comprehensive music film programme. From SA, films look at Cape hip-hop group Prophets of Da City, club culture in Durban, at the story of Stimela and the remarkable collaboration between Sardinian avant-garde trumpeter Paolo Fresu and South African jazz veterans Ndikho Xaba (whose vision may be even more eclectic and risk-taking than Fresu's) and Theo Bophela.
The broader African continent is represented by an account of the Africa Unite concert held in Addis Ababa in 2005, and a biopic on controversial Zanzibari female performer Bi Kidude who, at 93, is still shaking audiences with her outspoken lyrics interrogating gender roles. Western music makes an appearance in two more biopics: one on Patti Smith and the other on UK band Joy Division's doomed lead singer, Ian Curtis. This latter, Control, directed by rock photographer Anton Corbijn, has already won more than 25 international film awards.
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