Freshly Ground to wine with city fans

Blankets, wine and the sound Freshly Ground’s mixture of Kwela, traditional SA folk music, Jazz and Indie rock will set the tone for the 8th editon of Tusker Lager’s Blankets and Wine at the Uganda Museum tomorrow.

The band, formed in early 2002, is made up of seven talented and diverse musicians from South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Fronted by the diminutive but dynamic Zolani Mahola, the band exudes a live performance energy that has been the bedrock of their success. Lead singer Mahola is well known for her sweet vocals, which blend with the rhythmic upbeat and melodic African beats.

Since 2002, the band has released four albums; Jika Jika (2003), Nomvula (2004), Ma’ Cheri (2007), Radio Africa (2010) and Take me to the Dance (2012).

Their most famous collaboration was with Shakira for the Fifa 2010 World Cup theme song, Waka Waka. They performed the song at the pre-tournament kick-off concert in Soweto on June 10, 2010.

Speaking of Take me to the Dance, which took a decade in the making, Mahola says: “We all wrote individually and then brought the ideas together, with the help of a fantastic US producer, Steve Berlin. We then built a makeshift studio in the Karoo town of Prince Albert, inside an old theatre where we locked ourselves away from everything for two weeks and recorded the album.”

She reveals that what makes their music distinctive from the rest of South African musicians is the fact that they do blend a lot of musical styles and love to make people dance and smile.

Awards won
2006. Won the MTV Europe Music Awards in the category of Best African Act. This Award, according to music.org.za, placed the band firmly on the international music map.
2008. Won the Channel O Music Video Awards for Best African, Southern accolade for the single, Pot Belly.
2007. Their album, Ma’ Cheri won three South Africa Music Awards: Album of the Year, Best Adult Contemporary Album: English, and Best Engineer.

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