Thrrr phaaa! Thrrr phaaa!
If you’ve heard this over a melodic sound of a guitar, then you know the legendary man behind the strings.
No jazz festival was without the song reminiscent of a warmly home somewhere in the North and no uncle did not want it to play at a family gathering.
Whenever his songs would go on, a harmonised story was guaranteed to blast out.
The same is promised on Valentine’s Day as he is set to launch his newest album Pelong, 24 years after he began his solo career.
Loosely translated as “In the heart”, the album boasts nine songs which are inspired by the journey of life.
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Speaking to Drum, the jazz legend says he cooked the album during covid-19.
“During covid, I realised that I need to be writing a lot of new music because my investment is actually in music and its composure. At the same time, I realised that I might not be able to bring out all the music I was hoping people could hear coming from me due to situations like covid and the pandemics. I felt like almost every two years, I need to bring out my experiences and the things I want to share with the public in music.”
Selaelo’s last album was released in 2020 and was titled “8 colours of the rainbow”.
With this love offering, he took advantage of the silence that came with covid.
“We were very much quiet during covid, not talking to a lot of people; we were talking to ourselves, reflecting on ourselves. Everybody was trying to share love and kindness with everybody, that’s how the album was centred around ‘pelong’ which is what’s in the heart.”
He adds that the project’s main theme is love and every dynamic it presents.
Like a journey, the album starts with the nostalgic love that he received as a child from his grandparents and his memories with his great grandmother.
“Songs in this album expresses love as experienced from childhood, love as experienced through adulthood and love as experienced through personal relationships. From the first song to the last one, there is a thread of this essence,” he says as he explains the reason Valentine’s Day was chosen to be the day for the launch.
The first song is in fact laced with the melody of a lullaby that his great grandmother used to sing to him as a baby whenever he was edgy and frightened.
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In the second song though, he reflects on the love he shared with his mother.
“The following song is BoMma Barile. I searched and found that internationally, there are five songs around the world that are titled ‘Mama said’ so it’s more like that. At the same time, I used the song also to answer what a lot of ladies from other tribes wondered about which is the fact that if a Pedi man says ‘BoMma Barile’, you can never tell them anything else.”
Although he wrote all the songs in the album, he collaborated with upcoming artists which he has been mentoring under his One Country Foundation.
“I have been finding and mentoring new artists that I have now featured, as a way of exposing them to the public and launching their music careers. The title track Pelong, features Tshego Rakgoale from Polokwane, Ga-Mothiba. Also featured in the album is a fantastic young singer from Seshego named Doyen and lastly Mahlatse Tshesane from Sekhukhune,” explains Selaelo.
The album will be launched over a special Valentine's dinner at Level Seven restaurant and sky bar in Kempton Park at a charger of R2 850 per couple.
Selaelo will also be joining Jeffrey Osborne on stage for her Gauteng leg of his international tour at SunBet Arena and Emperors Palace later on in the year.
