Gwen Ansell on Sipho Gumede, Best Producer nominee
`IT’S funny,” says bassman Sipho Gumede on the phone line from Durban, “the industry is only checking me as a producer now, when I’ve been a professional musician for 26 years.”
Gumede is commenting on his nomination at this year’s Sama awards for Best Producer for his work on his album Ubuntu (B&W). The album has two other nominations: in the categories Best Contemporary Jazz and the shockingly pass Best Adult Contemporary Music in a language other than Afrikaans or English.
Gumede used to be best-known as bass player, composer and arranger with South Africa’s premier fusion group, Sakhile. Since Sakhile’s breakup, he’s been involved with a variety of projects, including last year’s Grahamstown collaboration with vocalist Busi Mhlongo, and works with percussionist Mabi Thobejane.
Even in the Sakhile days, he says, he was making an input on the production side. Or trying to. “All the time you were writing stuff, and making suggestions about production, and then the producer brought in by the record company would take it off in a different direction. One day I just sat down and decided: “No, man. The best thing is to do it for myself.”
Gumede describes his approach as a visual one. “You’re trying to paint a picture so the song can come to life for the listener. You have to think about how the sound of each individual instrument can add its own colour to what you’ve written.”
Does he make much use of the technical enhancements the new digital sound desks can add to those colours? “The technical stuff is a challenge. I keep saying one day I’ll conquer it – but then there are new developments so in the studio you’re learning every day. And now you have so much scope, you have to be careful not to over-use the technology, so the music begins to sound plastic. The challenge today is to make full use of the desk, but still maintain that warm live voice in the music.”
Gumede thinks he met that challenge most successfully on the album’s title track. “It was like planting and growing a jungle, with all those voices doing different things, yet still coming through with their individuality as singers.”
He also acknowledges his company, B&W, has contributed to the album’s quality. “I had the budget to play around with my ideas, gather together the artists I wanted, and take the time I needed.”
Yet while Gumede welcomes the Samas as long-overdue recognition for South Africa’s indigenous musicians, he feels the awards still have a way to go. “I’m glad they’re beginning to add new categories for music that’s out of the mainstream. There still isn’t full recognition for the richness and variety of South African music that’s out there, so I hope they continue in this direction. The judging’s important too – and there still aren’t enough people in the top ranks of the mainstream music industry and media who really know about our music.”