Jai Banda, the entertainment addict

Close to three decades Jai Banda has made headlines in Malawi's entertainment cycles. Very few know that he is a lawyer.

I started hearing radio adverts going as 'I am not a doctor, I am not a soldier, I am not a lawyer, I am just an entertainer' back in the days when Bright Nkhata and Makasu Band were hogging the spotlight in this country.

We might fault his touting the wattage of his equipment, the style of his organisation or argue that his most hyped best lighting system adds nothing to the music shows that he promotes. One thing we cannot look down upon is the fact that the country's entertainment industry owes him a lot.

There was a time that Jai never took my criticism kindly. Someone had organised a choir festival where over 30 performers were expected to perform from 7am to 7pm.

I was not reluctant to talk about the music equipment owned by ‘Mr. Entertainer’ himself.

My argument then was that equipment is like human beings when it comes to getting tired. Equipment cannot perform at its full capacity for six non-stop hours without showing some fatigue.

Main instruments that project quality output are supposed to come with substitutes. I had observed during this particular show that at around 6pm when 

The Ndirande Anglican Voices were taking to the stage, the equipment had lost their sharpness and was sounding hoarse and tired. The performance had to be stopped briefly.

The next day Jai extend an invitation to me to go and appreciate how much he can afford all what I had talked about.

Basically I brought this aspect just to show you how passionate Jai is to music. 

You cannot be doubting his love for the industry when you consider the list that he has been involved with having grown up within the neighbourhood that legendary Oliver Mtukudzi lived In Zimbabwe.

Just to mention but a few Jai has worked with States Samangaya and Police Orchestra, Ethel Kamwendo Banda, Ben Michael, MBC Band, Evison Matafale, Billy Kaunda, Lucius Banda. He continues to work with the Black Missionaries and all the modern great.

Having sacrificed his time to the local industry at the expense of his family, Jai decided not to just surrender and leave the stage as he concedes that years of sleepless nights are now catching up with him and he can now feel it all through.

He has decided to give the entertainment industry his own son Tonderai to take it from where he would have left off. Ever since Tonderai started I have continuously seen Jai still taking charge. It clearly shows as there might not be much take home rewards, it is very clear that his addiction to the entertainment industry is more of a blessing that it is supposed to be otherwise.

I once commented about John Nthakomwa of the Mibawa Entertainment that he is one investor that the Malawi music industry desires his replication.

Within a short time yes Nthakomwa has invested immensely in the industry. Jai's contributions might not be seen in the same light as what Mibawa has achieved in a very short period of time.

More of what Jai has achieved cannot be measured. It cannot be touched. It cannot be compared. He has done great to the industry at the time when no one ever took a serious thought about the entertainment industry.

He emerged at the time when people used to associate it with Chamba smokers. The musicians at the time were only called when it suited the corporate world. Once their end was achieved the musicians could be dumped and they cared less what their lives would turn out to be until the next time when their services would be required again.

For Jai, he has always been the all-weather friend to the industry and for that this the column makes him the inaugural recipient of its life time achiever award.

Not every musician should own a studio

One other reason why Malawi music industry will remain stagnant is the lack of vision of those in the system.

Every musician in Malawi hopes one day s/he will own a studio. Every music producer, every studio sound technician hopes to become a musician one day. 

Every ‘bouncer’ at a drinking joint where music is played with‘chest-cavity fracturing’ intensity hopes to be a musician one day. Everyone who has an elder brother, a cousin, a father, a sister or a mother who is a musician desire to follow the same footpath; and while others have managed to stand out by making the same footfalls as they trod along, others have terribly tumbled.

Every musician in Malawi, once s/he releases an album wants to become a band owner, forget the fact that they are yet to own a mere guitar string.

But look here, the reason musical calling is called an industry is because one cannot be a musician, a producer, a studio engineer/sound technician, a videographer, choreographer, a promoter, a music sales and marketing executive and a musical event manager.

Unless the industry learns how to divide labour, forget ever hogging the international music limelight.

There are just too much ‘jungle’ approaches in as far as the undertakings of the players in the country’s music industry are concerned. Of course I know of some few who have earned fame as musicians in the country like Lulu, having started as studio sound technicians and producers, but it does not mean all can be the same or endowed with the same gift.

Do you know what is compromised at the end? It is talent and quality.  

You look at a music maestro like Wambali Mkandawire; because he understands how the industry operates, he has never established his own studio because as a believer of good music quality he knows what is at stake. He knows where he is best. It’s like in a football match; you cannot be coach, technical director, defender, midfielder, winger and attacker at the same time.  

You look at artists, too numerous to mention, who upon recording a single album or track fetched a run-down computer and started recording their music as well as of others of like mind in a shack that has no sound proof or anything closer to elements required to create a music recording studio environment.

One has to think deep to come up with lyrics and its accompanying melodies and if this is your calling don’t be greedy to force your way into other areas.

The sketchy journey is that one has to go into the studio after the first stage explained above where they need to arrange how, for example, the drum beat will be thumping out, besides the backing vocals not to mention the guitars, synthesizers etc. Afterwards they have to design the sleeve covers of the album or single, that’s if they are ambitious, and later take it to radio stations and newspapers for publicity.

If that is not already overwhelming, they have to borrow their in-law’s car, friend’s speakers and go on the street to start selling their music by playing it using the improvised PA system.

Meanwhile, they will also be positioning a non-professional video camera somewhere in their living room and ask their sisters and cousins to start mimicking their compositions with an aim of recording  a music video and once with this low quality video in their hands the process re-starts.

How does that explain the aspect of managing of the artists’ creative skills, to begin with? What about nurturing talent through the passage of time. It’s not every day that one chalks envious accolades as someone that produces a musician who has managed to hit platinum. It’s not every Jim and Jill that can be Robert Kelly.

If you look at all this messy way of conducting business, how do you expect the Malawi music industry to progress?

Then there is the question of the guiding law on how the Malawi music industry can ‘live’ and ‘survive’. What guiding principles can it follow? How do we divide labour? What is the industry’s road map and who draws it? Unless we answer these and many more relevant questions, we are doomed to exist as a shameful music industry.

Can Teveta promote Music?

I have talked about this issue albeit differently before but I now pose the question: can Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education Authority (Teveta) do something about music?

Like I have said time and time again, there has never been one single trade that has generated youthful interest in Malawi at any given time than music.

It all began with the advent of multiparty system of government around 1993.

It is a shame that government has not realised how to work something out this, institutions have come and gone all in the name of representing the interest of the youth in the country, including the establishment of the so called National Youth Council which has only succeeded in promoting promiscuity among the youth!

When our founding father Hastings Kamuzu Banda was structuring our education system, he created technical colleges which were supposed to offer vocational training. These now fall under the Teveta system.

In the wisdom of the time, students have been carved to become artisans in trades like Carpentry and Joinery, Brick Laying, Painting and Decoration, Plumbing, Motor Vehicle Mechanic, Auto-electrician, Electricians, General fitters etc.

If we look at these trades critically, we would realise that it was meant to build the country. Take for construction of a government office structure or workshop. First to be on the ground would be brick layers before technicians that had mastered carpentry and joinery, then plumbers and electricians would appear on the scene before those in painting and decoration.

What was also happening was that once these graduates have completed a course, they would be given a tool box with which they will use to start small-scale workshops or joined established institutions.

Just like a house, a song is also built with the involvement of different skills.

The technical colleges under Teveta have to start with the elementary lessons in music in the first year, while in the second year, learners can choose who they want to become.

Guitarists, drummers, saxophonists, trombonists, percussionists, keyboardists or pianists should be one group while the other group should concentrate on music production, the third on music engineering in terms of studio recording while the other group should dwell on marketing.

Imagine, if Teveta graduates in music were to be given start-up equipment after their courses, believe you me, we would not have been talking of mediocre music that dominates our market.

There is one major challenge that technical college students face which is the competition from ‘bush’ artisans.

There are bush mechanics, bush carpenters etc. These are people who are accomplished at doing their work in particular trades, when they have never been inside a classroom. The same challenge would still be faced even when music was to be introduced in the technical colleges.

Nonetheless, this is the best way to assist the youth; considering that even initiatives like Youth Enterprise Development Fund are borne out of political whims and, therefore, have no plan on how best to execute them.

Seriously, government has to make use of Bachelor of Arts graduates from constituent colleges of the University of Malawi who major in music but do not know what to do next with their acquired knowledge.

If government would invest in music, it would be surprised that many youth-related challenges would be reduced because the youth would have the chance to study something for which they have a passion and, like Jamaica, Malawi could start exporting music.

Teveta, please conduct a feasibility study to prove me wrong. I insist there is need for this trade in this country.