Kaz Kasozi’s 7 groovy musical chapters
Rashidah Namulondo and Kaz Kasozi perform at Goethe-Zentrum/Alliance Française de Kampala Gardens on Thursday. Photos by Edgar Batte
What you need to know:
Additionally, our band, Blue Sugarcane, consists of 7 guys,” explained Kasozi
On a cold Thursday evening at Goethe-Zentrum/Alliance Française de Kampala Gardens, the supremely talented instrumentalists who performed, gave the audience at The Kaz Kasozi 7Project: Chapter IV: Gravity, the fourth edition in his 7projects, a sumptuous feast of musical styles.
Kasozi got funky with his electric lead guitar, which did more talking and produced more melody than he actually bellowed in the microphone.
His brilliance and phenomenal skills on the guitar offered a unique sensitive and expressive style as he gave a feel of an acoustic and classical touch on his songs like Nsonyiwa Baby, Destiny, Get Off My case, Abataka, Mama Webale, Kampala City, among others.
To brighten up the event, he invited on stage Rashidah Namulondo, who brought smiles to the revellers over the interesting poems she recited before jazz performer Michael Kitanda came and filled the venue with his saxophone sound feel.
As the night fell, Kasozi was joined by Ernest Otim on the bass, Gerald Mbuya on drums, Kenneth Komagum on keyboards, Timothy Nabulwa on the trumpet, Brian Mulindwa on the flute and Herbert Kiggundu on the trombone, who constructed his songs carefully showcasing strength while serving the greater good of the band as a whole.
With the fourth edition done and gone, you might want to be part of one of the remaining three, not just to enjoy but to appreciate the fines of artistry mastery that is Kaz Kasozi.
Kasozi’s 7 concept
“I looked at the fact that in most conventional music scales, there are 7 notes but from these few notes, so much music can be made, so many genres, emotions and textures. That was the original seed of the concept before I expanded it to wider themes in life and nature. Additionally, our band, Blue Sugarcane, consists of 7 guys,” explained Kasozi. The band wanted to explore the number 7 concept as far as possible through their songs. Kasozi looked at the big significance of the number 7 in biblical tales, the 7 colours of the rainbow, the 7 days in the week, 7 directions, 7 modes in basic modal music, 7 arts and sciences, and many other aspects.
