06 Jul 2021

Some artistes have managed to sail through the COVID-19 havoc and came out with positive stories to share.

One such is the award winning Jazz band, Sereetsi & the Natives which released a nine tracked masterpiece dubbed I Am Afrika.

The band employed its inventiveness in the album and a likely prescription for fans overwhelmed by the effects of the pandemic.

While most releases around this time are centered around COVID 19, I am Afrika is different but makes the list of 2021 great jazz albums.

In an interview on Monday the band’s founder, lead singer, and also the four string guitarist, Tomeletso Sereetsi said the album was meant to bring Africans and their humbleness together to celebrate and embrace the rich diversity of music, language and cultural practises.

Producing I am Afrika album was not easy due to COVID 19 pandemic, however, Sereetsi never wanted to concentrate on the negative.

He also said the pandemic had also put a blot on his steadily growing international foot prints, since he had to halt some of the international trips.

“The creative pursuit enriched me and gave me hope that there is more to the future and one day people will come together again to rejoice in the music circles, this also revived and kept my spirit alive,” he said.

The album was produced at The Loop and Light house studios in Bokaa and Maun respectively, adding that it was mixed and mastered by Mikael Rosen.

He composed the lyrics of all track working along with other artistes locally and internationally, consisting of songs such as The Afrika song-It’s Our Time Now, Thelela, Tshaba, Heelang, Masheleng, Koma and Rato lame among others.

He said first track; The Afrika Song-It’s Our Time Now, featured international artistes such as Berita James Sekala, Mia Ismi and others, and it was call for Africans to unite as well as wake up to the power and beauty of their lands.

Sereetsi said Tshaba featured a local star singer and songwriter, Hanceford Magapatona alias HanC.

He said the track narrated a story of a partner who kept threatening the other partner that they were fed up but never left the relationship, and in the long run this behavioural pattern brought along implications and it becomes difficult for such partners to tell and stand their ground in the relationship.

Therefore, he said the song encouraged one to excuse themselves from the affair once such pattern cropped up, so as to avoid conflicts.

He further said he also featured United States multi award winning singer-songwriter and a guitarist, Jackie Venson on the Koma track, expressing the importance of music as a cultural aspect.

South Africa Music Awards winning jazz piano maestro, Bokani Dyer  was featured on Rato lame, a love song that encourage mutuality among couples, while the Nigerian multi-award winning heavy-hitter, Olawale Oloforo alias Brymo was  featured on the Thelela track.

“This album is totally different from the previous once, I collaborated and featured diverse artists locally and internationally, we normally had a team of not more than five musicians to play all songs in the album, but this time I picked a different team of musicians for each song depending on the creative outcomes I preferred,” he said.

Meanwhile Sereetsi noted that Sereetsi & the Natives recently signed a one year partnership with a local advertising company called Man Made Media, the partnership which he said would help them grow their footprints across the country and beyond. ENDS