Exactly 10 years to the day since the death in Paris of Gerard Sekoto, now widely recognised as the country’s premier pioneer painter, the artist has been rediscovered for a completely different reason. This time round he is creating excitement among music lovers who have been introduced to his haunting Afro-fusion jazz compositions, which were recently discovered in an old suitcase at the South African National Gallery. Performed for the first time at a function hosted by the Gerard Sekoto Foundation and the Pretoria Alliance Française at the Pretoria art museum on March 20, these songs, which incorporate an element of French chansons de la rue (songs of the street), had languished undiscovered for more than five years. They had lain in a storeroom at the Cape Town gallery ever since Sekoto’s estate was returned to South Africa from Paris, where he had lived in exile from 1947 until his death on March 20 1993. Some of these songs had been published in Paris by Les Editions Musicales in 1956 — a fact previously unknown to his biographer, Barbara Lindop.
Sekoto performed these works in L’Eschelle de Jacob, a smoky jazz dive on the Left Bank, and although it was well known that he had been musical and had performed in clubs to help support his often poverty-stricken life as an artist, the discovery of his music and lyrics last year by Lindop came as a “great surprise”.Lindop’s acclaimed 1989 biography of Sekoto — the first major biography of a black South African painter — put the artist on the map. Last year his famous oil painting The Song of the Pick was sold for R550 000, setting a national record for a work by a local black artist. Lindop said the discovery of Sekoto’s music was “astonishing”, because despite the intensive research she has conducted on the artist during his life and since his death, she had no idea of the existence of the hand-written sheet music. “It took at least five years for his estate to be settled. These songs are part of the legacy left by Sekoto to South Africa. Up until last year they were in an old suitcase of his personal effects, kept at the South African National Gallery. I was starting to work on an exhibition of all the paintings and drawings that were returned from Paris. This exhibition was originally intended to travel South Africa. Now it has been decided that these things will be exhibited in a permanent Sekoto gallery to be housed in the new Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.”
Lindop, who can read music, found the discovery particularly exciting. “When I came across the music, I sat down at the piano and started picking out the tunes he had scored. Immediately, I could see that some of these songs were very appealing.”I believe that in some ways Sekoto was perhaps more of a musician than an artist, the way he expressed himself verbally and in his poetry. And his use of harmonic colour in his paintings speaks to one of a supremely musical individual. This is not surprising. His earliest musical influences were experienced with his missionary parents. This can be seen in his music, which almost has a hymnal quality — simple tunes that can be easily remembered and sung,” she said. By chance, Lindop, who became a close friend of Sekoto during his life, heard pianist and vocalist Dimpie Tshabalala playing at the Back o’ the Moon club in Gold Reef City. She knew he was the right person to play and sing Sekoto’s music, as she thought he sounded very much like Sekoto. Soon, with the addition of Bheki Mbatha on trombone, singer Charmaine Kweyama, lead guitarist Ntokozo Zungu, Mzwandile David on accordion, Abel Maleka on percussion and the celebrated Isaac Mtshali on drums, the group was formed and Sekoto’s music came alive once more.
Mtshali, who has toured with Paul Simon, says Sekoto’s compositions are “pure gold”. The group have called themselves the Blue Heads in honour of Sekoto’s famous series of predominantly blue portraits based on a drawing of Miriam Makeba.The group started rehearsing late last year, arranging and expanding the 26 useable songs into the form they have now taken. Where French-type melodies had been written by Sekoto to accompany English lyrics, French lyrics, an approximate and appropriate translation of the English words, were added to expand the song. This is where Lindop called for help. “I called on Gary Ralfe, CEO of De Beers, one of our main sponsors, to help us with this. He has a brilliant command of French and it took ages to complete the songs. We then had to find a singer who could sing French and were fortunate to add Stanley Mwamba, who comes from the Congo,” she said.In the same way, Zulu lyrics were added by Tshabalala and Mbatha. Some of Sekoto’s compositions express a nostalgic longing for the Africa of his memory. Songs such as Igoli, Africa, Zondi and Tula Tula place Sekoto very much as an African, while Since Love Went Away, Paree Is Always Parree and Angelina My Darling, remind one a little of Edith Piaf or Charles Aznavour.
Through the involvement of its CEO, Judy Nwokedi, the Blue Heads have been adopted by the SABC as a corporate responsibility project and it has donated the use of its state-of-the-art rehearsal rooms. Lindop, as manager of the group and as a trustee of the Gerard Sekoto Foundation, is now seeking sponsorship so the Blue Heads can record a CD.