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Southern African musos to tour SADC region

3 Mar 2017 - 14:24

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

Botswana guitarist and singer Tomeletso Sereetsi will be leading a tour with Zambian artist Mumba Yachi and South Africa’s AusTebza to countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The collaboration, titled Kgalagadi Soul, will see the three musicians come together to share their music experiences.

Tomeletso Sereetsi will hold workshops where he’ll talk about the four-string guitar of Botswana.

The tour will begin at the Kgalagadi Jazz Festival in Kuruman, South Africa, on 15 April 2017 with tour dates for other SADC countries to be announced soon. Kgalagadi Soul will rehearse and hold a performance at the end of March before embarking on the tour.

The group will comprise a backing band featuring musicians from Congo (Nseka Bienvenu), South Africa (Bokang Kupi), Zimbabwe (Leroy Nyoni) and the US (Terry Lewis). The band is expected to produce an original fusion of melodies and rhythms drawn from the musical idiosyncrasies of the musicians involved.

“We have garnered a lot of respect and accolades in our home countries, including a growing international presence,” Sereetsi was quoted as saying. “My music has become the soundtrack of our country with just the quality of my debut album, Four String Confessions, which yielded hits such as ‘Robete’ and ‘Thaa Kokome’.”

The band will also engage with aspiring musicians. “Kgalagadi Soul will be doing workshops during the tour in cities we will be performing at. We want to share our knowledge with young and aspiring musicians,” Sereetsi said.

The one-day workshops will be led by Sereetsi, a four-time Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) award winner, who has also written The Solo Four String Guitar of Botswana, an 83-page instructional book that was approved by the Botswana Education Ministry as a supplementary material in schools. During the upcoming workshops, Sereetsi will teach the technique of playing a standard acoustic guitar with only four strings.

Yachi, who is an UN ambassador for gender equality, will share his experience of international music business. He is a leading musicians in Zambia and has landed collaborations with big names such as South African jazz singer Sibongile Khumalo.

AusTebza, real name Tebogo Sedumedi, will talk about her experiences as a performer, session musician and woman in the competitive music industry. The bass-playing AusTebza is known for launching an all-female band and for working with big names such as Kelly Khumalo, Max-Hoba, Swazi Dlamini and Wanda Baloyi.

The Kgalagadi Jazz Festival, which runs over Easter Weekend, will also feature Judith Sephuma, Zonke, Ringo and Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse.

For more information visit the festival’s official website.

Tomeletso Sereetsi