Chibuku’s failed musical road

I was privileged to have been one of the judges at last Saturday’s

Chibuku Road to Fame where twelve bands from the Northern,
Central, Eastern and Southern regions competed for the grand prize of K1 million, plus a K400,000 recording deal, as well as a trip to the regional Chibuku Road to Fame in Botswana.

To start with, it was a disappointing encounter because, from the word
go, it looked as if those organising the event - the Musicians Union of
Malawi (MUM) and Chibuku Products Limited - were taken unawares to
put the event together.

By noon, when everything was supposed to have started, the
organisers were still mounting the stage. To make matters worse, this
continued even when bands started testing instruments which was a distraction to both the performers and the audience.

At the end of the show, I, together with the other panellists - veteran broadcaster and musician Maria Chidzanja Nkhoma and music lecturer at Chancellor College Andrew Falia, who was the Chief Judge - agreed that the competing groups should have refused to go ahead with the mediocre musical equipment.

I am not sure why the High Table was reserved for Sports and Youth Minister Grace ‘Obama’ Chiume and her officials when the reason we had assembled at the venue was to let the performers play music and be judged.

Because of such a bad decision on how and where to set the stage, a number of things were clearly improvised. So the make-shift stage was clearly that - ‘makeshift’! No wonder it kept mocking the K15 million that was billed for the event.

Just to demonstrate how haphazard the preparations were, while the
competition was still on - and having realised that it would be past dusk before the charade would end - the organisers came on stage and started setting up lighting, something that would have been done at the time the stage was being constructed.

In the end, I was not surprised that one band disputed our judgment that its performance was ‘below par’ because it played in the dark.

Then there was the question of the poor output of the equipment which made voices hoarser than the normal voice of the artist. Or, in a number of instances, the bass guitar would eclipse all other instruments leading to a cacophony of disorganised noise.

I wonder why a competition worth K15 million could fail to hire top-class equipment like that of the calibre of the Mibawa Open Air Music Equipment or indeed the one belonging to Mr. Entertainers Promotion.

It is clear that due to lack of good quality equipment, competing bands that brought other elements like Nyau, Beni and other traditional dancers managed to distract better musical judgement from the audience. In the end, a commendable initiative from Chibuku Products was reduced to be reduced as ‘one of those things’ that have failed to promote the growth of music in Malawi.

The idea of throwing light on talent that is hidden in dark corners of
the country for us all to see and appreciate is really what the local
music industry badly needs. However, when badly done, we should not allow ourselves to be shut up for fear of scaring away the potential sponsors.

If Chibuku Products Limited and MUM think of putting K15 million to good use, they need to be well organised. They should not be afraid to approach those that have music equipment that matter for the sake of the competition. After all, it is going to be a musical competition.

When Nigeria invades Malawi

I am not even in doubt; we are musically under heavy attack from Nigerians. All, if not most, vehicles in public transport system have the dominance of Nigerian music.

There have been funny names and titles from this West African country where musical artists have come on the scene and left the local music lovers none-the-wiser.

It all started with artists like D'banj real name ‘Dapo Daniel Oyebanjo’ Nigeria’s pop duo, P-Square of Peter and Paul Okoye as well as Flavour (Chinedu Okoli) it was more like one on those once off thing.

But lately with the mergence on the scene of more Naija artists, as they call it there, like Mcgalaxy with tracks like 'Skeme', Udoka Chigozie Oku a.k.a Selebobo who has featured J. Matin in a remix track called ‘Yoyo’.

There is also Enetimi Alfred Odom better known by his stage name Timaya who has done a track famously known as ‘Shake your Bum Bum’, Nwanchukwu Ozioko, (a.k.a Vast) is one half of the popular singing duo, Bracket whose other member is Obumneme Ali a.k.a. Smash. Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun known by his stage name Wizkid

Of all the names above one that seem to have taken control is the son of a Billionaire business magnet David Adedeji Adeleke popularly called Davido with tracks like Skelewu, Aye, and Gobe which are all over places that use music in Malawi, of course except Churches but not Christian weddings.

The Nigerian beat has become the heart beat of most entertainment activities in Malawi and their music were popularised by sound tracks in the films.

Of course Shemu Joya has tried to use local music by Agorroso in his films Seasons of Life and The Last Fishing Boat but what I am talking about is having a group of musical compatriots who would do music that will have a recognisable element to be referred to as Nigerian genre for example.

In a country like Malawi, you will have San B coming up with his own thing and calls it ‘Honjo’ and Atumwi will call theirs ‘Sendeza’. The African Representatives to the 2008 World Music Crossroads festival, the Boys from Mzuzu ‘The Body, Mind and Soul’ will call theirs ‘Voodoojazz’. Tay Grin, Nyau Music.

When Malawians musicians claim that they have come up with their own genre, are they fair to themselves?

Ben Mankhamba has tried to do a fusion of traditional dances with western instruments and called it Beni, Mwinoghe, Vimbudza. You see, our quest for a fixed and well established Malawian genre, has been tedious at times; the other day Lucius Banda told us that we were there with his ‘Zulu Woman’ beat.

Edgar and Davis thought a beat like ‘Kale-Kale’ was it; so were the sounds that emerged from the Lhomwe belt of the likes of Alan Namoko and Chimvu River Jazz Band and Michael Mukhito Phiri. Wambali Mkandawire has never called what he plays anything else other than African Jazz whatever this means.

Peter Mawanga and a certain sector of the industry believe he has cracked the elusive code to establish the much sort after Malawian genre with his type of music; but the response has only fascinated the ear of those that can read music.

Daniel Kachamba and his brother Macdonald are said to have been playing ‘Kwera’ music which musical historians claim was born right here in Malawi during the Ndiche Mwalare/Alick Nkhata days.

They claim when Malawians were descending down South Africa in the 1940/50s they took with them the ‘Kwera’ music which the South Africans took as their own and perfected it and became a springboard that has helped them established different genres that are still recognizable as South African.

Now when you hear Ademwiche by Fikisa you do not even want to be told that what you are listening to is a Malawian beat even with the presence of modern instrumentation.

This is clear that this is a traditional beat. But like a chewed bubblegum, where is it?

This is an argument I have ever made in the past, but point here today is why Nigerian music has taken control of all our entertainment joints.

Why is it that when it ripples within your earshot it is easily recognisable as Nigerian music?

Malawi’s Radio Presenters

I have ever said that I have problems calling Malawi radio presenters Disc Jockeys or fondly shortened to DJs based on the knowledge that I have of who a DJ is and what the radio presenters who call themselves DJs do.

Nonetheless, today I am not bothered with whatever names, titles, ranks, designations or positions radio presenters bestow upon themselves. I am here to wonder aloud if these people know their role to make Malawi music what it needs to become.

Forget about the question which one is the Malawi music. But one statement that I have to register from the onset is that Malawian Radio presenters or Disc Jockeys as they love calling themselves are a huge disappointment.

This is not because of the way they live their lives with their spouses and other extramarital activities as it were, but this is to the choices they make when playing music on the radios.

I have no problems with a radio like MBC Radio II or Capital FM who have declared that they are bent at promoting music, which is music. Meaning the foreign music all of us strive to emulate.

However, radio stations like Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Matindi FM and other religiously inclined broadcasters their interests has been cast around locally produced and sang music, call it gospel or secular.

The general complaint is that we have talent when it comes to music and musicians. We also have outlets that suit us but fail to satisfy us all.

Back to the radio presenters, the positions these dudes hold is very privileged and in some countries like Zambia they have used it massively to promote their local music. Someone was telling me there was a time when a decree was imposed where all media outlets in the country were asked to only play Zambian music; I doubt its truthfulness though.

Not that I am suggesting that we do likewise in the country; because we risk clamping down sources where we can learn from.

In that way, we will not have anywhere to assess ourselves as a country to see if we are indeed doing what we should be doing as a musical nation or whether or not we are stepping on the same spot or moving either forward or backward.

However, given that we also impose a similar decree, do you see ourselves achieving anything? Considering that even when the radio presenters have the opportunity to play our local music, others creating programmes that have local music as the only input it still raises a number of questions when you see how these radio presenters comport themselves.

You find that they will stick to a track or an album of a musician who everyone who has an ear for music is condemning due to his or her mediocre feat and yet the so called DJ will be heaping praises that you who is listening fail to see its justification.

In the process, the questions of corrupt radio presenters which has ever come up in this regard pops up again.

While other presenters will do likewise due to naivety, others largely seem to have a hidden interest that is not even well hidden…
If the Malawi music has to grow and glow, its fate, to an extent, also lies in the hands of these people.

Radio promoters or DJs, as they would like me to call them, are promoters of sorts. If they play bad music on their respective radio dials, then it has to be on the back of trying to point at weaknesses in our artists’ music.

May be it is high time radio station started deliberate programmes that look at a particular song or singer and critique their way of performing and final music production.

Patriotism comes in many ways, if presenters give us quality music we promote quality products from Malawi, which can bring us forex before we know it, not to mention catapulting the artist to international stardom.

Next we try to look at what makes one a DJ.