Exactly twenty years ago this Saturday, our most famous citizen in the world arrived for his homecoming concert. On Sunday the documentary movie Under African Skies will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in celebration of twenty five years of the monumental Graceland album. Amid whispers of a reunion tour, Botsalo Ntuane shoots the breeze with Bra John as the legendary guitarist reminisces about his life and times with Paul Simon.
21 January 1992: On this balmy evening, straight from campus, I was in a Ditshupo Hall pulsating with an ecstatic crowd of revelers as Born At The Right Time, the Paul Simon concert tour finally reached Gaborone. Jiving to a selection of famous hits in a slick, top drawer performance, many in the audience had eyes only for the bearded, bespectacled guitar player on stage left. When Simon introduced his huge band the loudest roar greeted the man nowadays known affectionately as Bra John. He had finally come home after years on the road with one of the most iconic of America’s cultural figures. The homecoming show was preceded by close to 140 concerts and by that time Bra John was the most famous Motswana in the world; who had been to more countries and cities than any person from his country before. He had graced arenas many a muso can only dream about and every evening before the curtain came down he was introduced as the man from Francistown, Botswana. Long before Mpule Kwelagobe won Miss Universe and Amantle Montsho took gold at the World Athletics Championships, the only Motswana with a universal brand was Bra John. The Gaborone concert was put on as homage to this guitarist who gave a new edge to the captivating world music sounds of a singer who had broken new ground with his seminal Graceland album. A sixties superstar in the heyday of folk-rock with Art Garfunkel, they had topped the charts with hits like Mrs Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water and others. But when the eighties arrived Simon had hit a creative cul-de-sac. Fading into commercial oblivion, popular lore has it that in 1984 he was handed a tape of Gumboots: Accordion Jive Hits Volume 2 which unique sounds fascinated him so much that he embarked on a pilgrimage to South Africa to record a new album inspired by this vibrant township music. The creative juices started flowing again and in collaboration with the best local musicians, the genius in him came up with the fusion of sounds that would change Bra John’s life forever and take him to lands far and near. I first heard Graceland in 1988. The sounds were familiar with echoes of the mbaqanga music common at village parties and Radio Botswana back then. But sung to English lyrics by a white man, and given a different texture and groove, I was blown over. So were 16 million other people who would over time buy this album which Time magazine rates among the top 100 of all time. Graceland would take the Grammy for album of the year in 1987 and a year later take the honours for the title track. I reckon that in my life I have listened to songs from Graceland more than any other piece of music. Every time without fail, the poetic word play, wistful vocal delivery and eclectic musical influences rooted in Southern Africa always send a tingle of wonderment up the spine. Though in these parts Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes was the popular pick, my all time favourites are Boy in the Bubble, and of course I Know What I Know powered by General MD Shirinda and his Gaza Sisters. The songs, so familiar yet so intriguing with their cross pollination of influences have enthralled many a music lover over the years. Released in 1986, and recorded a year earlier this year marks the silver jubilee of Graceland. In commemoration, a series of events are lined up to mark an epochal moment in the history of popular music. Without a doubt for all those fans in whose minds Graceland still plays and for whom the album contains some of the best music ever made, 2012 is set to tweak the buds of nostalgia and revive fond memories. Fond memories indeed because Bra John treasures lots of them. Although not part of the studio recording of Graceland, he was an integral part of the live ensemble including the 1987 show in Harare documented in Graceland; The African Concert. Back during the United Nations cultural boycott, Harare, sophisticated and world wise was the hub of choice for international stars not permitted to play in apartheid South Africa. We are shooting the breeze at Bra John’s home in Phiring, a quiet middle class suburb in the city. I am here to chat about this coming Saturday which will mark exactly twenty years to the day of his triumphant home coming concert. Bra John does not live in opulence.
His residence is not grandiose. Plot 15431 off Sefako Crescent is the modest home of a man whose talents enabled him to share the spotlight with the great and the fabled in popular music. As we stroll down memory lane Bra John stares in the distance and narrates the story of how he ended up sharing the stage with the great Paul Simon. At that time he was part of Caiphus Semenya’s Buwa musical which toured Africa. Also involved was Hugh Masekela. The latter he had met during his time in exile in Botswana when Kalahari, a top notch local outfit of which Bra John was a key member, was roped in as a backing group. As cross border incursions by the apartheid regime targeting exiles intensified, Masekela left for London with the band. Subsequently they joined Buwa on a sojourn from the British capital and when its run ended in Zimbabwe, Masekela informed Bra John that Paul Simon wished to work with them on the Graceland tour. Simon had seen Bra John playing a couple times, including one Masekela show in New York.
Back to London they went for rehearsals which took six months before they got on the road. For two years the Graceland tour went all over the world. Bra John was now an international troubadour and the country of his origin was being mentioned to people who previously had never heard of it. When Bra John speaks about Simon, the respect and admiration is profound. He describes the American songsmith as a deep thinker; a humble man with a pleasant and outgoing personality. He considers Simon a brother. For the philosopher singer from Queens, New York there is not an ounce of the haughtiness associated with international superstars. A team builder, he makes time on tour to socialize with his multi cultural band mates and Bra John and him have gone for meals together in top restaurants all over the world. I ask him if he has Simon’s number, and without a moment’s hesitation Bra John answers in the affirmative. He whips out his handset and declares he can call Simon anytime. Two years later, when Graceland completed its run in the American summer of ‘89 Simon went back to the studio to record Rhythm Of The Saints, this time exploring afro Brazilian music in his quest to push the boundaries of what was possible in blending world music with western influences. In between Graceland shows, Bra John who did not take part in the studio recording was music director for Miriam Makeba, then based in Belgium. During their stint together a memorable performance he remembers is in South Korea for the opening ceremony of the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Then the call came from Paul Simon. The new album, though not on a par with Graceland was another critical and commercial success all the same and it was time to hit the road with Born At The Right Time tour. The set list would draw from an inventory of music from Graceland, old classics and Rhythm of the Saints. They kicked off early January 1991 in Tacoma, Washington state, continued through Canada, Europe, the Far East, Brazil, Australia and finally Mexico City in December before the music returned to its roots on January 10 1992 at Ellis Park in Joburg. All along Bra John was there holding his place on stage left with Vincent Nguini, the guitarist from Cameroon as his neighbour. This tour was much bigger than Graceland and it went to more countries, played to a lot more cities and larger crowds. For a second time Bra John was on an odyssey around the world, to places none of his people had ever been to.
Once more he was the most famous Motswana on God’s green earth. Such was the amount of travelling that Bra John thinks he changed passports every two to three years at various Botswana missions abroad. It is remarkable to note that of the band that backed Simon on Graceland, only four of them, Tony Cedras, Ray Phiri, Barney Rachabane and Bra John himself were selected to join Born At The Right Time. He explains this by saying the quartet gave Simon a certain sound which was only possible through their combined playing. So how did the tour find its way to Botswana? Often homesick, Bra John says when the South African leg was announced he went up to Simon and asked if his home country could be included as well. Ever the gracious man he agreed and management got the contact details of some local promoters and through the assistance of his sister Ausi Getrude Selolwane , arrangements were made. A guitarist is not loquacious like a singer or dancer, and Bra John strains to explain his emotions the night he was introduced by Simon to his home crowd. To illustrate how he felt, the Concert In Central Park on 15 August 1991 where they played close to a million fans with more watching the broadcast on HBO comes as a handy prop. Acknowledging it was a once in a lifetime experience, Bra John says it cannot, however beat that night twenty years ago when the adulation of his people made him the happiest man on earth. He had earned the respect of his people and it was a feeling like no other. Living out of a suitcase and forever on the road, a man makes friends and though all the band was like family, his soul mates were pianist Richard Tee and multi instrumentalist Tony Cedras. In December 1992, Born At The Right Time wrapped up in Montevideo, Uruguay. For about two more years he stayed in America. As a reputable side man there were plenty of jobs he could take up but the lure of home was becoming irresistible. A modest personality not prone to name dropping even when he reserves all bragging rights, in a matter of fact tone he tells me, “well one time we did a series of charity concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York and afterwards we all went for a party at Simon’s penthouse near Central Park and while having a chat with Sting and his wife feeling to come home overcame me.’ Bra John says by their standards it was a normal party crowd. He remembers Bobby Mcferrin was there. So was Barbra Streisand, Liza Minelli, Don Johnson of Miami Vice television drama and other celebrities. ‘We were all having a ball and in the middle of the conversation I told Sting; at the end of the month I am packing my bags and going home’.
Sting was at a loss for words and wanted to know why Bra John would want to return home. I said to him ‘ I am f…g tired, I’m getting out of this town’. Now when he explains it Bra John says he wanted a return to humanity. He wanted to be ‘ human, see the sun rise and set and smell the rain on the brown earth ‘, ‘I wanted to be able to say hello to a neighbor and ask after their health without seeming to poke my nose into private affairs’. In New York when you greet a stranger in a lift they take offence and you have to apologize for displaying your humanity’. Had he stayed on much longer he might have lost it. Back home he is happy with himself spiritually, surrounded by relatives and friends. If a man confesses to times when he would walk out of his apartment and shout out different Setswana names to complete strangers in the hope that one of them would respond, then clearly it was time to come home. On his return he played with Hugh Masekela for years, commuting from Gabs to shows in South Africa. Due to some fallout which is yet to be fully disclosed, they have parted ways after close to three decades together. Now Bra John nurtures young talent in Botswana. He jams with local acts and is a popular figure on the music circuit. In a surprising revelation for an internationally acclaimed musician, he informs me that he rears cattle and goats out in Barolong district where his beloved wife originates. Now a youngish sixty six years old, he also plants crops and is not happy that one financial institution rejected his application for a loan to acquire a new plough. I joke that we should do a documentary film to shock his jet set celebrity friends when they see him at the farm ploughing and tending to his goats and cattle. Towards the end of our chat, I ask him if he is a dollar millionaire given his years overseas playing with Paul Simon and others. Laughing, he shakes his head and says had he recorded and published music, he would be one.
Right now he is comfortable and his wife, for whom he professes deep respect and love because she takes care of him, runs the family business. Three cars are parked in the yard. Pointing to the house, he says it was bought with money he earned from his music career. He has another house in Francistown, his hometown where his dad was a famous musician, politician and sportsman. It was his father Blackie who was part of the group that agitated for Seretse Khama’s return home. As a boy he was at Francistown railway station when the Khama family came down from Bulawayo where their flight had landed from their exile home in Britain. I ask him if he is aware that the year 2012 will be full of Graceland related activities to which he joyfully recalls the reunion in July/ August 2011 in Joburg where the band together with Simon played an intimate invitation-only show at the SABC studios. They were so happy to see one another. For my part I am elated when he tells me they even managed to bring out from deep rural Lesotho, old man Forere Motloheloa of the group Tau ea Matseka, the original accordion virtuoso on Boy In The Bubble; in my estimation the mother of all songs on Graceland. I tell a beaming Bra John that this Sunday, a documentary celebrating the 25th anniversary of Graceland, which will include the Joburg reunion, is set to premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. As for a tour, no, he says, there hasn’t been word yet. But in one of their phone chats with Simon, they had touched on the subject. It is a Thursday, we just had a drizzle and the time is 12:19 at Plot 15431 off Sefako Crescent. The phone in the house rings. What I am going to say is true. This uncanny coincidence happened right before me. Done with the call which he takes by the kitchen window, I hear snatches of the conversation. As he joins me he is all smiles and walks with a jaunt. Lo and behold on the phone was Mma Selolwane calling from their office. She has just received an email from Paul Simon’s people. They want Bra John to fly to New York for rehearsals in June. Then it’s off to London for the first show at Hyde Park. I take my leave from Plot 15431 accompanied by old man Forere Motloheloa’s wicked accordion driving Boy In The Bubble in my cd player. Twenty five years later it’s Graceland once again.
