It is rather challenging for me to put in words the appreciation and admiration of Tlokwe Sehume's music. Factually his genre is described as “Mmino wa Thaba”, or music of the mountain' which is without a doubt music that journeys you into the wild, with therapeutic melodies of mountain birds here and complete variety of sounds emitted by wild animals there. It as an ancient sound inspired by African spirituality, which denudes a connection to the African lineage and ancestors.
Tlokwe Sehume visiting my studio early 2020
Speaking to a James Mahlokwane of
IOL Sehume punctuates his genre as a genre 'deeply rooted in African spirituality and inspired by the true connection Africans have with their ancestors'. From this statement one deduces the Pan-Africanism or Black Consciousness Sehume ascribes to.
Tlokwe Sehume, his daughter Mpotseng Makgopa Sehume and band members performing at Joburg Theater in 2019
Personally, Sehume's music has made my artistic journey or my time spent in the studio on a creative mode joyously remarkable. His music takes me to places I never knew existed (an imaginative place of mind's liberation), you could say into trance, yes. I have created works, people regarded as masterpieces, as a result. I have no control of what's to happen on my canvases. The feeling cannot be put in words but could be decoded from my pieces.
So honoured to have had a privilege of meeting and chatting to Tlokwe Sehume after his live performance. Thanks to my brother Leshoka Legate for introducing me to the indigenous jazz music! (Facebook Post 2013)
I was first introduced to his music by eldest brother Leshoka Legate (who collects African and Diaspora music like he's getting paid to do so) many years ago through an album called
Naga Ya Fsa and I never stopped loving his music since. The reasons I enjoy his music are of manifolds, but to avoid long explanations I'd say it is because I can relate easily to the language in his lyrics, which is of course delivered mostly in poetic Sepedi language of my people. I had a privilege of attending one of his many concerts 7 years ago at the Soweto Theater which happened around the annual commemoration of African Union, simply dubbed Africa Month which is in May. This concert was one of the best treats of live music performances in my life. This particular performance afforded me the opportunity to experience in the totality of his art the necessary if momentarily illussions of order which gave me courage to strive for greatness. After all, "the ultimate meaning in art" wrote John Unterecker in 1959 "both meaning of literary and symbol and that of greater symbol the work of art itself - is a joint achievement of artist and audience."
Sehume Tlokwe, Minor Recital at SACM (South African College of Music), University of Cape Town, June 2019. Pic by Ncebakazi Mnukwana of the Mpondomise Clan kwaBomvana.
As the artist (Sehume) pounds into his symbol of all richness he can summon, so does he takes a word or musical instrument and derives the world from it. From the musical note, the intelligent (a trained ear) audience brings all of the pasts he has been able to gather back into himself. This is the kind of space his music positions me in. He takes me back to those days when I hunted birds as a little boy not for fun but for relish - around the Ramathope mountains neighboring Makotopong village because a spiritually poetic music cannot be understood with a rich memory like the older school of painting appeals to a tradition.
“It is not music we just make for the sake of making music because you have instruments; even the drums we use have to be very specific so that the sound produced means something more than just what you hear with your ears, "Sehume told Mahlokwane
Additional information on Tlokwe Sehume from Orbit website:
One of the country’s most diverse and conceptual musicians cum artists is undoubtedly Tlokwe Sehume. His music is spiritual with a thrust on both indigenous African classical culture and instruments. He says of his music “its music of the day before yesterday for a people of the day after tomorrow”—Mmino wa thaba —Music of the mountains.
A perfectionist by nature , his work reaches out to the top end of any market- a world- music aficionados dream, spiritual and meaty to the very last drum beat.
Composer, arranger , producer , director , poet , vocalist and multi-instrumentalist par excellence, Tlokwe combines his musical skills with the natural talent that is showcased through his playing of a myriad of classical and contemporary instruments , mostly indigenous. Tlokwe is adept at playing dipela (mbira), lekope(jaw-harp), mvet, meropa ya Afrika , percussions, guitar, flute, keyboards ,double bass—all instrumental in bringing his socially aware messages to life, through song.
Sehume also teaches Arts& Culture students in Gauteng schools to craft indigenous African classical music instruments.
Influences for Tlokwe’s work all stem from the rich land that is Africa – Always an artist/ teacher with a bold approach , Tlokwe is not afraid to address political and social topics through his music and guiding people more to enlightened opinions. His first two albums spawned hits that reached the very core of mankind—songs with handsome depth and flowing rhythms
A common thread of all these albums is the African spirituality which he is a part of and which he brings to his music and always advocates that most of our people seem to have lost and maybe even why our situation as people of African descent seem to be so elusive and out of our control because we have abandoned our African ancestral lineage for devotion to foreign traditions.
A brief history
- Tlokwe grew up in Pretoria and studied Musicology at university
- He has performed and collaborated with some of the country’s top musicians including Vusi Mahlasela , Pops Mohammed , McCoy Mrubata , Zim Mgqawanaand Hugh Masekela
- His first album Naga Ya Fsa won the SAMA Award for Best African Jazz Album in 2001 and he received a further nominations for his second album Ba Utlwile
- His third album, a collection of live performances is called Mmino wa Thaba
- His last two albums were recorded in Europe , Konsert in Koln was recorded in Germany, Stadtgarten in Koln and the second was recorded in Oslo, Norway
- He has toured India , Cameroon , Hungary , Spain, France ,Mali,Germany,Norway, Italy etc
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