12 Apr 2017

Legendary South African guitarist, Selaelo Selota, who also made a living through mining gold before he hit the big leagues, is set to kick start this year’s Mascom Live Sessions alongside Botswana’s very own dynamite, Lizibo on April 28 at BotswanaCraft.

In an interview, managing director of Botswanacraft, Oliver Groth said tickets cost P250 and are available in advance at Botswanacraft.

“Tickets are already up for sale and we encourage people to buy them before the event as we hardly ever have any left on the day of the show,” he said.

He indicated that this time around they took their fans’ concerns into consideration with regards to having the same artistes perform year in and year out at the live sessions.

“So, we decided to bring Selaelo Selota, who is a smooth jazz guitarist and highly regarded in South Africa,” he said, adding that the show would be a nice, relaxed show to kick start this year’s live sessions.

Selota, who at one point was married to South African songstress Judith Sephuma, has seven studio albums under his belt and his debut album Painted Faces is credited with paving a way for him.

Since the release of his debut album, Selota has rapidly earned the recognition of his peers, music critics, and perhaps most importantly, thousands of music fans around the continent for his beautiful composition and his incendiary live performance, igniting the stage and the hearts of a lot of fans around the continent with every performance.

Selato’s international reputation also grew in leaps and bounds as he has shared the stage with several international stars including Jonathan Butler, Bob James, Kirk Whalum and Richard Bona.

His second album offering released in 2002, Enchanted Gardens, which went platinum selling more than 60 000 copies in South Africa is an 11-track album that continued the intelligent afro jazz thread that the songwriter wove so beautifully on

Painted Faces, only this time stepping harder on the creative pedal to turn the new record into one of the must-have afro jazz purchases of 2002 and well into a timeless collector’s item.

Some of his other albums include The Azanian Songbook, Lapeng Laka, Stories Lived & Told, The Essential and The Promise.

Afro jazz fans can expect some of his crowd favourite songs such as Thrr…Phaa!, Ma Modiegi, Baya Ndipatha-Patha, Le Ile Kae, A Poem for Celia, Seshego and many more.

For his part, the man tasked with opening the stage for this South African heavyweight, Lizibo said he could not wait to rub shoulders with Selota and would also be eager to put in a stellar performance.

“It will be a huge honour for me to open up for this legend,” he said, indicating that his set would be in three sets; Spiritual, dance and to remind Batswana how to love each other.

“My fans should expect nothing short of amazing and I try to always give my all and show what people I am made of,” he said.

Groth encouraged revellers to come on time for the show that starts at 8pm sharp. ENDS