BOTSWANA: Shanti Lo leaves for European tour

Afro jazz artist Tumediso 'Shanti-Lo' Loeto will on Sunday leave for a European tour.
Shanti Lo will be accompanied by his manager Soares Katumbela and the widely travelled guitarist John Selolwane. According to their itinerary, Shanti-Lo will stage shows in Stockholm, Sweden.  He is also expected to do recordings with Swedish artists.
Shanti Lo and Selolwane will conduct music workshops for a selected group of Swedish musicians and students.
Katumbela who is also a promoter, will facilitate a workshop about music promotion in Botswana. After the Swedish tour, Shanti Lo and his band will proceed to Ireland at the end of this month.  In Ireland, they will perform with an opera singer Camilla Griehsel.  The concert will take place in Scholl at a venue called The Groove on June 2.
Shanti Lo will collaborate with Griehsel backed by Selolwane and other Irish musicians.  They are expected back in the country on June 6. This will not be Shanti Lo's first trip to Europe.  He travelled to Sweden last year accompanied by Katumbela and Selolwane.  During their tour last year, they performed with a number of Swedish artists.  Some of the artists that they collaborated with include Anna Christoffersson, Magnus Lindgren and Robert Ikiz.  The musical meetings were a success for all involved and the audience in Stockholm was highly impressed with their collaborative music.  On their return, Katumbela rated their trip as successful.  He said that they planned to start collaborating with Swedish on a number of projects.
Christoffersson and Ikiz reciprocated with a visit to Botswana at the end of last year.  When they were in the country, they staged shows with Shanti Lo in Gaborone.  They also facilitated at a music workshop. After making a positive impression on the local audiences, there has always been a feeling that Shanti Lo should explore the international market. In the past, Shanti Lo has performed in Swaziland and at the Grahamstown festival in South Africa.
Shanti Lo is one of the musicians who have made his mark in the country. He has recorded a number of albums.
When he is on the stage he is always a marvel to watch. Shanti Lo has also shared the stage with other esteemed acts like the South African songbird Zahara.
MMEGI ONLINE

BOTSWANA: Bhudaza’s great return

He joins Socca Moruakgomo on Easter tour

Botswana love Bhudaza Mapefane and the feeling is mutual. The Lesotho-born Afro-Jazz musician is back, reconnecting with Botswana’s own jazz maestro, Socca Moruakgomo for the Easter holidays tour.

Speaking to Time Out last week, the two jazz artists reminisced about their performances since Bhudaza’s debut in 2004.

“We performed together several times and every time we did it was great,” said Bhudaza.

“For me performing in Botswana is like a second nature, it’s home away from home,” said the jazz artist, who first came to Botswana during his days with the Lesotho Afro-jazz group, Sankomota.

Bhudaza has literally performed all over the country, from Molapowabojang to Maun. Despite being one of the most well known and recognised musicians of this decade, Bhudaza has no airs about him. So much that he got the shock of his life when performing sometime back in Maun and the crowd sung along to his music. “I thought to myself, this place is very far considering the distance we had traveled and the people there made me feel welcomed as they knew everyone of my songs’ lyrics.”

 It is not just the live performances that get Bhudaza charged up. He enjoys imparting knowledge. “Every time I perform here I always try to have a workshop for upcoming musicians. But this time around the scheduling is too tight and I will not have that opportunity ...hopefully on the next leg of the tour.”

Socca revealed that he admires Bhudaza and appreciates playing alongside him. “We are good friends and we like to perform, so it was only natural that we would eventually do this (tour) again after some time.”

Bhudaza and Socca will start their tour at the Botswana Craft for the Mascom live sessions on March 30th, heading for Selebi Phikwe for March 31st show. On April 1st, the legendary jazz musicians will be in Mochudi, then Palapye on 6th April, heading for Serowe the following day, April 7th and finally Mahalapye on April 8th.

MODIRI MOGENDE/the botswana gazette