Ismael Lo: Balladeer Lion of Teranga
- Details
- Parent Category: Kampala One Articles
- Category: Music
- Published on Friday, 03 February 2012 10:10
- Written by Moses Serugo
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It would have made better business sense for Joel Sebunjo to bring in a more commercially viable artiste like Youssou N’Dour for his annual Diplomat’s Tour now that the latter’s bid for the Senegalese presidency has been thwarted. Sebunjo’s first choice for the January 27, 2012 do was Baaba Maal; he of the “yele Senegalese music called yele” fame. Maal’s musical pedigree also includes performing at the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Concert in London in 2008. Ismael Lo came as an afterthought and going by the racial mix of the patrons at the Kampala Serena Hotel concert that night, Lo’s music is definitely the delight of expatriate palates.
And yet if locals had been curious enough to go for the concert (the post-festive season credit crunch aside), they would have been pleasantly surprised at Lo’s musical attributes. It is not everyday that you find an artiste that can multitask over three musical instruments; voice, guitar and harmonica. And it is an indictment on our so-called petit bourgeoisie who include “corporates” to only patronise artistes with whom they are familiar. N’Dour would have packed the Serena on account of 7 Seconds while Maal would have baited Ugandan patrons on account of Yele.
But that is not to say Lo is a non-entity. He performed at Hotel African in 2005 courtesy of Alliance Francaise and those whose memories can rewind back to the mid-90s should remember his music video to the song Dibi Dibi Rek that played quit a bit on the late Mike Makamazibu’s Music Africa show. It is the one in which a damsel garbed up in Arabic garb transcends sand dunes in a desert with cutaways of Ismael Lo crooning “dibi dibi rek, a-a-a-a dibi dibi rek/ A-a-a-a dibi dibi rek”. Those that took a chance on Lo and forked out the UGX70, 000 ticket price left quite impressed that this unassuming Senegalese balladeer can hold his own even with just a four-piece band. In fact if one were to peel away musical theatrics and pay attention to talent, Lo’s repertoire is finer than his two more familiar Senegalese musical compatriots.
And Lo was of course in a far bigger league than our own Sebunjo. Lo was very much at ease juggling between his designer acoustic guitar and the harmonica where Sebunjo sounded rather derivative, his lean frame almost buckling under the weight of that monstrous Kora he loves to play. Lo’s set turned out to be the perfect sun-downer to a hot Kampala day despite coming onto stage at 10.30pm. Needless to say, it was Sebunjo’s drummer that stole the prodigy’s thunder during his 90-minute set of mostly griot ethno-singing imitations.
Lo was in the meantime quintessential, with no pretentions or hang-ups. From the opening track about the union that was Sene-Gambia, Lo had the audience captive when he appeared solo blowing into a harmonica supported by his neck while strumming the guitar on the slow tempo Tadieu Bone. Soon we were all singing along to the song’s outro “wole… wole… wole…” He did not have to prompt the audience to sing along to his signature hit Dibi Dibi Rek. He had won the sceptics over thanks to his musical ambidexterity. It was quite obvious that this Teranga lion prefers to croon than roar.
MOSES SERUGO ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )