Dan Lu’s publicity stunts overdose

Sometimes the restraint to talk about ‘below the belt’ actions or howlers by music artists engulf me so much that I let it pass at the risk of either glorifying it by any mention on this space or ultimately missing out an opportunity to speak my mind.

But Lyrical Pen is there for these musicians and any wayward traits observed in the artists’ conduct need to be stopped in its track by opining on its merits and demerits.

Dan Lufani, the urban Afro-pop star is a talented artiste. No contest over this fact. He has proven through and through that he is one artist endowed with flair to dish songs that massage the auditory wits of the most hard-to-please music lovers.

It has become so difficult to ignore him; this is why every time he posts a picture kissing a ‘bared’ belly of his pregnant wife on Facebook; tongues engage a top gear and start wagging.

While entertainment experts lately consider posts of this shocking nature as a true ploy to draw attention and plop up their following and presence as part of publicity stunts, Dan Lufani’s latest exploits in Ireland clearly showed that he lacks guidance in order to only court beneficial controversy or publicity.

When you look at what Lufani’s PR team tried to come up with in order to palliate the controversy he courted while in Ireland, it is clear that it was a shoddy work because those doing it lacked skills and the dirt that Dan sprinkled on his professional fabric was just too much to be washed.

Some titbits that make up the subsequent statement says Dan Lufani tried to avoid meeting or being photographed with his ex. There is a half-naked woman that did not only pose with Dan Lu but they also hugged each other and yet the statement says he never touched her.

My take is that all this is a botched up job. To begin with, there are artists like Tay Grin who are an attraction to a bevy of beautiful girls but he will tactfully stay away from his female fans without being rude. He will either pose with the female fans in a group without being too touchy or he will pose with one fan but in a manner that clearly shows the boundaries. In other words he does not pose with fans in a compromising manner. This is called being smart and a sign of restrain which is a virtue eluding most artistes.

We can be all what we want as entertainers but the moment we decide to commit to a matrimonial acquaintance we need to behave like it because we stop only living for us.

Many talented artists have ‘strangulated’ their careers before it blossomed to beneficial levels because of the way they behave both in private and public life.

Somehow the actions of some of these artists have a bearing on their parents, siblings and not to mention spouses. Much as the artist would therefore desire to behave in a certain way that will make them enjoy all the trappings that go with this life, there are those people that wear this shame that should make artists cautious before they act.

There is always a limit to how much controversy one can use to get attention and publicity. If one is so careless that he becomes the topic of discussion on social media but in an all negative manner and a reference of ridicule to his spouse and family then it’s time to sit down and reflect.

I know many artists in Malawi adore Diamond Platnumz for his musical exploits as well as off stage stunts with beautiful women. But believe you me; lately he has started losing track and focus because he went off the rail.

It is crucial for artists to always play it smart and avoid being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.     

             

Nsaku: From analogue to digital

Charles Nsaku is a musician that the young ‘urban’ age can not relate to; at least this is according to my submission.

Nsaku emerged on the scene from a very different Balaka route, but it was Balaka nonetheless.

A wealthy business person had started a band which he called Mwizalero Band in Balaka and that’s where he cut his professional teeth.

If you ask me, I will put Nsaku with a special generation of musicians who brought a special wind of music direction in the country. The Generation marshalled by Sir Paul Banda.

Paul’s younger brother Lucius prides himself as one who at one point or the other hosted many popular musicians when he established his Zembani Band and in the process helping to begin careers of Mlaka Maliro, Paul Chaphuka(Late), Billy Kaunda, Coss Chiwalo, Wendy Harawa, Emma Masauko, Enort Mbandambanda, Charles Nsaku etcetera.

But I put them in one music generation and of all those that emerged from this generation, only Lucius Banda can confidently declare that he is indeed moving with time. He has survived the tides and has responded to the present day demand. In my own words, I can say he has managed to migrate from analogue to digital.

It has been a process that has taken longer than one would anticipate. But one just needs to the listen to Lucius albums that he has hauled from past to the present including the present one rightly called ‘Thank You’.

Pardon my digression; I want to talk about Charles Nsaku. His choice of migration from analogue to digital was a little bit uncharacteristic and proven not to be in compatible with the system.

Being someone who has been around, especially when he established his band called ‘Ali ku Town Sounds’ many artists claim to have gone through his hands via the band including the current big names like Skeffa Chimoto.

Now, in an effort to return the favour, sometime last year Skeffa decided to hold a joint show with his mentor Nsaku at Wakawaka. The mistake that was made was to still use the obsolete ‘windows’ into the present advanced sophisticated operating system. You know issues of incompatibility.

Nsaku was still using the language he used to tell the fans he was performing before 15 years ago; still tried ‘Ankolo Pansi pa Bedi’, ‘Makaniki’, ‘Economy’, ‘Ndiphike Nyemba’, etcetera, oh God, it just could not click.

He really tried hard but it was apparent that most of the youthful patrons that had come for the show only waited for Skeffa as they could not identify themselves with the tracks of the old. No wonder those of old age responded with gusto and worse still the turnout was not one that is associated with Skeffa Chimoto, meaning even the old ones could be counted with the fingers of just one hand.  

One thing is now clear; either Nsaku has to retain his niche market that has fallen for his music over the time or he has to adjust and adapt to the market demand.

At his time, musicians used to make a lot of money by selling cassette albums through OG Issah music distribution system. Now this is system is no longer relevant.

Not even CDs are an attraction as with the advent of digital production and piracy of course; people carry all the lifetime albums of an artist in just one singe CD or a memory stick in the name of MP3. 

MP3 or MPEG Media layer III was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as a means of compressing a sound sequence into a very small file, to enable digital storage and transmission.

What has to happen now is even a change to the approach of Nsaku music. The studio work has to be different from what he used to do. Now people popularise music that has been well done and this advertises for one’s upcoming live shows. This is where the musicians are currently mining their gold.

Unless Nsaku takes a drastic shift in his approach, he will be best suited to perform in our museums.

Lucius Banda has managed to avoid this by appealing to the present as well. When he plays his music people of different generations still know he is their own. One clever way that Lucius has managed to do to achieve this is to circumvent the issue of analogue and meet half way down with digital all the time. He has always adroitly moved with the pace. He has his place in all the generations. He has even co-opted into his album productions all youthfull musicians of the moment through collaborations among others.

If for example Joseph Nangalembe was to come back to perform today, it will be folly for him to expect to have a pull that he was commanding in his time with the performance of the old which was also meant for the audience of then.

Nsaku has been in the wilderness for so long, his comeback cannot be on the basis of riding on his ghost. On the said day, he even tried to bring along his younger brother Dave. Apart from the dreadlocks Dave is sporting now, he was just the same old one; energetic on stage yes, but with the same style that appealed to the old folks.

Sorry guys, times have changed, move with it if you still want to matter in the current Malawi music scenario.

Malawi 0 – Zambia 4

By the look of things, the line up alone would tell you a different story. A story that would include a full line up Malawian side against a Zambian side that had one representative and you would wrongly think the Lusaka influence would pale into insignificance.

Lucius Banda, Lulu, Maskal, Piksy, Dan Lufani, Wendy Harawa and of course The Blacks made the Malawi team while only The Organised Family duo represented Zambia. You would say Malawi had an upper hand.

But the reality on the ground is that Malawi tumbled miserably. Whereas Malawi brought quantity, Zambia brought quality. Whereas Malawi brought noise and erratic over-dramatisation, the Zambian duo, which was ironically backed by a Malawian Mizati Band, provided the entertainment that was spell binding to the thousands that thronged the Robins Park last weekend.

Malawi’s biggest culprit was Maskal. He failed the Malawi team as if this was his first show; in other words he displayed irresolute qualities of a debutant. He had no idea what level to start his song with. He started on a high note and ended up stepping himself all over.

Listening to his CDs one cannot help it but appreciate that Maskal is a good act when it comes to singing, but on this day he resorted to shouting.

To an extent, Lulu also helped to condemn the Malawi team to the category of mediocrity.

I don’t know what has come over him, to start with. He is sporting a new hair style; long hairs that did not do badly, given who he is. He was putting on a shining tar-gray suit but he kept on trying to fiddle with his slacks pockets with the freer hand as the other was holding on to a microphone, which was distracting as those watching him were trying to fathom what it is he was trying to get from the pockets.

Then one thing came out clearly, Lulu was trying to copy Michael Jackson through his hairdo, dressing, dancing antics and how he was throwing about his vocals. I wish he had stuck to the Lulu he introduced to the public from the onset.

Lucius Banda needs to be more innovative now. Apart from his new message where he is pleading with people not to get fat – saying obesity is killing a lot of people – his stage music antics are becoming predictable and monotonous like the Black Missionaries.

Dan Lufani was poignant to himself I guess. He was more satisfied with what he was doing than taking caution of what the audience expected from him. You know that feeling when you end up with a bittersweet aftertaste? This is what Dan gave the audience. He never exactly knew where to take them.

Armstrong needs to do more. Apparently he only has one track. The rest of the music that he played provoked many to protest that he was not stirring the people that thronged Robins Park by touching where it matters most. This tells him something though, if he is the learning type. He better go back to the drawing board lest he remains a one-hit-artist.

Black Missionaries still managed to ride on the names of their dead makers; Evison Matafale and Msamude Fumulani.  There is still lack of the sting; I mean they still bring that familiar act. Who has to think for them, surely, so that they become more new and move away from the template of their forbearers?

The other person that failed the audience is Collen Ali, the so called sound engineer of the day. What is wrong with preparations for live shows in Malawi?

This other day The Black Missionaries mocked the spirits of their dead makers when they ill-prepared and spent half of the time for the memorial show in Chileka in trying to rectify faltering equipment.

Likewise even with Multichoice as the owners of the show, still the intermittent provision of service from the engineering crew and their equipment left many with sour mouths.

There was a time when Piksy was playing where the bass guitar disappeared. Luckily, because of the nature of his music he managed to keep up the temperature on the dance floor by continuing doing some clowning around with rhyming lyrics bordering on sexual inference from his songs.   

This is what failed The Blacks when they were faced with a similar situation. Apart from Anjiru filling the speakers with sweet nothings, they lost out on a number of patrons some of whom decided enough was enough and decided to call it a day.

This was so because before The Blacks the Zambian duo of the Orga Family terrorised the dance floor when jerked patrons appreciating things as they unfolded from their seats to stand up and try break and twist a tendon or two. They felt Orga Family had compensated them enough.

If local artist were around to watch their counterparts, I guess they learnt a lesson or two of what it means to master the art of making the audience feed from your palm.

Feedback:drummingpen@columnist.com