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Tlokwe Sehume Biography

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6 January 2002 No Comment

Tlokwe Sehume is one of South Africa’s most diverse African contemporary and classical musicians. As well as being a visual artist, Tlokwe has mastered the art of songwriting, song composition, guitar, mbira, mvet, flute, percussion and vocals.

As a youngster Sehume grew up in Pretoria. His close-knit family was all musically oriented and it was only a matter of time before this rubbed off on the young Tlokwe. At the age of ten he was already taking great interest in his grandfather’s brass band, but the first instrument that really made an impression on him was the bongos. Playing with them lead to Tlokwe developing his style as a percussionist.

The first group that came from this was many years later in 1985 – Medu. With the same name and essential core, Medu has been going strong, regardless of various line-up changes. Tlokwe had studied musicology at university but left when they started teaching him about Beethoven and Bach. He pursued his interests and went on to teach himself all the instruments played on Naga Ya Fsa.

Medu is essentially a live band. Although a 7-piece band, they are equally good at performing as a quartet or a quintet. Their performances are visually appealing too, incorporating elements of an African dance known as Dinaka, which originates from the Pedi speaking people. The music played by these people in the hostels was a way of entertaining themselves and remaining linked to their culture. Through this music Dinaka originated.
Tlokwe hopes to move in a more versatile and diverse direction with his live performances, incorporating different musical genres into the band’s repertoire – including mbanqanga, jazz and percussion-driven “mmino wa thaba” which means “music of the mountains” – a name that Tlokwe’s fans have given to his music.

Naga Ya Fsa was originally released in 1995. Now, six years later, the record is re-introduced to the public with new recordings and new tracks as well as some of the original recordings.
All the tracks on the record were composed by Tlokwe himself. Considering himself in part to be a certain voice of the community, the songs are all reflections of his experiences growing up in a once turbulent political climate. Many of the topics and issues dealt with on the record are reflections of the public’s opinion at the time they were composed. There is a certain amount of anger, sadness, mourning and then again, extreme happiness and peace in the record. A mixed-bag of emotions all strung together beautifully in an array of African languages including Pedi, Zulu, Ki-Swahili and Shangaan. Tlokwe has also developed a nameless dialect of his own where he strings certain syllables together in order for the listener to derive his own emotion and meaning from the track.

With so many years behind him as a musician, it’s ironic that Naga Ya Fsa is the only album Medu has actually released.
“There are two reasons, Tlokwe says, It cost a lot of money to release a record and fund it out of your own pocket – also I think I was ahead of record companies with my style – they couldn’t find a place in the market for it at the time”.
This did not stop Tlokwe from self-financing and distributing the record at gigs and performances, jazz get-togethers and any other outlet that he could find.

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