Artist Profiles: Gito Baloi

Gito Baloi Gito Baloi has played and sung music for as long as he can remember. Surrounded by the traditional music of his extended family – Nyanja as well as Shangaan – he spent his earliest years exploring sounds with the aid of discarded paraffin tins, reeds and anything he could lay his hands on. His first public performances, playing on a borrowed bass guitar, helped to support his family in a war-torn Mozambique.

Gito was inspired by Mozambican musicians like Hortensia Langa, Fani Mfumo and Orchestra Marabenta, he traveled with a band called Afro 78, from Maputo to Nampula, Ilha de Mozambique to Beira and Angoche.

Gito’s turning point came in 1986 when traveling extensively throughout South Africa with the group Pongolo. After performing in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town with Pongolo, Gito performed with Mzwaki Mbuli during his resistance concerts which toured many outlying townships and ghettos. This led to the recording of 2 albums, “Change is Pain” in 1986 and “Unbroken Spirit” in 1989.

In 1987 Gito performed with Kenyan musician Simba Morri and this led to the recording of the album “Was sa Mata”. During 1988 Gito Baloi, Steve Newman and Ian Herman formed a collaboration which they named Tananas. This band made several live performances in Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, France, Sweden and Japan. Out of Tananas’s brief four year history came four highly acclaimed albums: Tananas, Spiral, Time and Orchestra Mundo.

1992 saw Gito back in France, where he was invited to record and perform with renowned African musicians, Zairian Pablo and Malian Askia Modibo. In addition to extensive performances around the country, Gito co-ordinated the formation of two bands namely Skabenga and Somewhere Else. Continuing in this direction, 1993 and 1994 was spent on numerous performances and recording sessions with a variety of South African musicians, culminating in a tour as supporting artist to Sting.

In 1996, Gito as part of Tananas won the “Best Contemporary Jazz Band Award” at the prestigious South African FNB Awards. In the same year, in conjunction with the cream of South African talent, Gito released his first full solo album Ekaya. Locally the first single shot onto charts nation wide and achieved a top slot of #2 on Radio Metro. The Gito Baloi Band traveled to perform at many destinations around Southern Africa, including Gito’s home town of Maputo. Gito also continued to contribute to other musician’s work by playing on the albums of South African, Anton Goosen and Koffi from the Ivory Coast. After touring France with his own band, Gito toured Mozambique with Swiss musician Peter Giger and his project Family of Percussion.

In June of 1996 he produced Durban based Landscape Prayers’ second album Bush Telegraph. The Creative Arts Foundation funded a collaboration between Gito and Jason Armstrong to compose 6 works during August and September, this led to the two musicians recording and distributing Desert Voices independently. After supporting Tracy Chapman in October, Gito began working on his new album Na Ku Randza. It was released in conjunction with the Human Rights Day concert staged at the Mega Music Warehouse in March 1997.

In 1999, Gito created a collective named the African Gypsies, which performed at WOMAD in Australia. Back in South Africa, he joined his former bandmates at Tananas for a reunion. The result was Seed.

What started off as a one off gig at a very over crowded Bassline Club, resulted in a serious collaboration of international musicians. Steve Newman & Gito Baloi of Tananas joined forces with vocalist Wendy Oldfield. Korean/Canadian Violinist Julia entered the picture at WOMAD: Benoni 2000. She arrived with violin in case and asked Steve Newman if she could join his workshop. Steve having never seen Julia before welcomed the jam. Percussionist/rapper Elad Neeman had been coming in and out of South Africa. Based in Israel, he traveled the world to participate in world music projects. Together this 5-piece line up produced ambient world music. Mondetta released an album, It’s a Small World (Sheer Sound), on September 27th of 2001.

In October of 2001, Gito Baloi released his third solo album, Herbs and Roots, with Sheer Sound. In 2003 he collaborated with Nibs van der Spuy.

Gito Baloi was murdered. He was shot in the neck by two men who opened fire on him on Sunday, April 3rd, 2004. The attackers took his wallet. The 39-year-old musician was returning home after performing at the Lucit Candle Garden in Pretoria.

A posthumous album titled “Beyond” was released in 2008, with all of its proceeds benefiting the Gito Baloi Memorial Trust that was set up to support Baloi’s children.

Discography:

Ekaya (PolyGram, 1995)
Desert Voices (1996)
Na Ku Randza (Sheer Sound, 1997)
Herbs & Roots (Sheer Sound, 2002)
Sweet-Thorn (Greenhouse Music, 2004)
Beyond (2008)

with Tananas:

Tananas (Celluloid, 1988)
Spiral (Sonet, 1990)
Time (Gallo Music, 1992)
Orchestra Mundo (Gallo Record Company, 1994)
Seed (Epic, 1999)
Alive In Jo’burg (Epic, 2001)

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.