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// Gito Baloi
© D.R.
Gito Baloi
There were few more affable and discreet musicians in South Africa than 39-year-old Gito Baloi. My prevailing image of the dreadlocked artist was one of him cradling his second daughter in his home in Kensington just months after her mother Erika gave birth. Gito’s paternal instincts were highly-tuned to the needs of his two girls, but this did not stop him from continuing a brilliant career among South Africa’s jazz and world music circles. A musician’s musician, the multi-instrumentalist had been part of the founding trio that established the fusion group Tananas in 1988. Their seven albums and globetrotting concert trails brought them international renown as one of Africa’s most innovative bands. As the Real World label put it the trio had “an earthly style of eclectically uniformed percussions and breathing, beating guitars to incorporate the evocative voice of Gito”. It was a style that the singer-composer never lost in his subsequent solo career. His four solo albums had lyrics that reflected the social and cultural realities of both the wartorn Mozambique he left behind in 1981 and the nascent rainbow society of South Africa.
Gito never forgot the homeland he had to flee nor its music heritage. In his lyrics he wrote of the destruction of values during the 16-year-long civil war and called on his people to return to traditional principles of inter-communal support and respect. As we hear in the interview I did with him in 1997, the return of the prodigal son to Maputo was a moving and important one (see interview). It is a sad and terrible irony that an artist who had survived the lions of Kruger Park and the prejudices of apartheid South Africa to establish himself in the cut-throat business of music in Johannesburg, should be cut down by street thugs in the city he so loved and which so appreciated his multi-layered works.
Daniel Brown
// ALSO
- Gito Baloi, Johannesburg 1997
- Paris, May 2000
- Miriam Makeba dies
- Interview Bongo Maffin
- Busi Mhlongo – Urban Zulu & Queen of Maskanda 1947 -2010
- Hugh Masekela and The Mahotella Queens - UK tour November 2010
- Celebrating Sanctuary, Programme
- World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures, World Festival of Black Arts And Cultures
- Toumani Diabaté, Toumani Diabaté - My mission is to play
// DISCOGRAPHY
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Ekaya (Album)// LINKS
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