Caroline Uliwa went to see Swiss Jazz artiste Joy Frempong, popularly known as OY, perform in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
During the week of Sauti za Busara (this year held on February 13-16,) a number of foreign musicians find their way to Zanzibar’s Stone Town via Dar es Salaam, where they perform as a sort of warm up.
This year saw the arrival of Swiss Jazz performer Joy Frempong, popularly known as OY. She had a curtain-raising performance at the Triniti Bar in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam on February 11.
She was accompanied by her producer Marcel Blatti also known as Lleluja-Ha. Both artistes are natives of Switzerland and the show was sponsored by the Swiss embassy in Dar and Swiss Air. The proceeds of the show went to Busara Promotions — the organisation behind Sauti za Busara festival.
Sound hitches delayed the show by 30 minutes. The first curtain raiser was Vitalis Maembe, who performed with the Farm 17 band. Maembe, a Tanzanian Afro folk fusion singer from Bagamoyo, gave a scintillating performance.
The musical arrangement and the lyrics in Kiswahili, Kifipa and Kimakonde were quite an interesting blend. Maembe is also a music teacher and the Farm 17 band he performed with consists of his students, including his son, who plays the bass guitar.
OY performed next and started with, No I don’t snore, an oration, accompanied by the sound effects she makes by using different microphones and a deep voice.
Lleluja-Ha the drummer was dressed in peculiar regalia consisting of a free flowing kaftan also known as dera in Swahili and a hat with a fake beard that covered half his eyes.
At some point OY offered a free CD to the first audience member to get on the stage and dance with her. OY’s music style seems to be a fusion of storytelling lyrics in short epics from the Book of Proverbs and African sayings which she says she learnt during her travels to West and South Africa.
The songs are mostly in English, while some are laced with a Ghanaian accent. OY has Ghanaian, Swiss and French blood. She displays a sense of humour in her performances. In one song, she talks about how her hair is a pain to comb, but she’s told by her “African mothers” that this pain is to prepare her for the pain of giving birth later in life.
In another song, she sings that “Life is like a mobile phone, your unit come, your unit go, and when you done, that is you go, your credit finish then you will leave…” The last song is a thank you note: “Big-up to the children I will bear one day in the future maybe, just in case... many, many beautiful people of this country Africa, oh oh ay sorry it’s not a country, it’s a continent ok anyway it’s a rich and blessed continent…”
Her music features only her voice and the drummer, with a lot of improvisation that can be termed as experimental jazz, with a bit of hip-hop and techno.
Lleluja-Ha, who helped OY produce this album, started off as a drummer and composer for several indie bands.
“I started playing the drum when I was nine years old. I quit drumming 10 years ago but I only drum in this band with OY. I now focus on songwritting, composing and singing,” he said.
OY speaks French, English, Spanish and German. She currently lives in Berlin where Lleluja-Ha also resides. Last year, she was signed to Crammed Disc Records, a recording label from Belgium.
“They have a global network so it was a pleasant surprise. I was with a smaller label, Creek Records, before,” said OY.
OY and Lleluja-Ha met in music school years before they worked together on the No Problem Salon album. “I went to Hochschule der Kunste Bern, which is a traditional jazz school; it’s the first autonomous jazz school in Europe. Now it’s more official, with the integration of the classical department of theatre. So now it has lots of exchange students and young teachers who experiment,” said OY.
