Indigenous instrumentalist, Tlokwe Sehume will be performing at the Afrikan Freedom Station, 41 5th Avenue, Westdene, Johannesburg at 8pm on October 15.

Live – The Village Square, a collaborative creation that marriages spoken word (recital), music and dance, is being hosted in association with Concerts SA.

South African Music Awards (SAMAs)-winning Tlokwe describes the project as “an audio-visual presentation exploits the spirituality of some of the music of the rural village communities through an interpretation of the ‘energy’ of some of the ‎African Classical music. This is called ‘music of the day before yesterday for a people of the day after tomorrow.”

Tlokwe is one of South Africa’s most diverse African contemporary and classical musicians. As well as being a visual artist, Tlokwe has mastered the art of song-writing, song composition, guitar, mbira, mvet, flute, percussion and vocals.

He incorporates different musical genres in his repertoire – including mbanqanga, jazz and percussion-driven “mmino wa thaba” which means “music of the mountains” – a name that Tlokwe’s fans have given to his music.

At the age of ten he was taking great interest in his grandfather’s brass band, but the first instrument that really made an impression on him was the bongos. Playing with them lead to Tlokwe developing his style as a percussionist. The first group that came from this was many years later in 1985 – Medu.

Tlokwe had studied musicology at university but left when they started teaching him about Beethoven and Bach. He pursued his interests and went on to teach himself numerous instruments played.

In 1995 he released his debut album Naga ya Fsa (The country is in turmoil), which was re-released in 2000 by Gallo to a South African Music Awards acclaim, winning the Best Northern Sotho album in traditional jazz category.

Tlokwe later added two albums on the rack: Ba Utlwile and Mnino wa Thaba in Concert, a collection of live performances from his first two albums. Ba Utliwe almost got him to the podium again with two nominations at the 2003 SAMAs. In 2007 he released his fourth album and latest to date, Serunya.

He has performed in Asia, West Africa, East Europe, France, Italy and Germany.

Tickets are R50. Phone: 073 852 5149 or email kwena@xivumbeko.co.za