My Freedom Hall Experience!! | Tuke's Quest

My Freedom Hall Experience!!

Hello People!

I haven't really done a music related post since the Kaline one which is kind of bad as I'm always discovering new musicians.

I attended Freedom Hall at Bogobiri on Friday the 20th and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wondering why I haven't been for one in the 11 months since I moved back. It's an amazing avenue/platform for skilled musicians and spoken word artists to show their talent and mingle with like minded people.

It happens every Thursday at Freedom Park and on Friday at Bogobiri from 7 till 10 (No African Time).

The reason I went is because it was advertised that Yemi Sax would be there and you know how much I love my Saxophonists. If you don't know then read about the night I met Mike Aremu here. I got there and I didn't see him so I asked Tope Sadiq who runs it if Yemi Sax was coming, he said he came the day before, at Freedom Park and they had an amazing time. I was kind of disappointed because I really really love seeing Saxophonists live, nevertheless, I had a good time.

The thing about me is, I analyse musicians, especially when I see them live. From their outfit, to their facial expressions, the way they hold their instrument and their ability to interact with the audience, I note it all. I can be a pretty harsh judge, I have high standards when it comes to live music so I'm only going to talk about my 3 favourite oneS.

My favourite performer of the night was Isaac Geralds. I had never heard of him before yesterday but apparently he was on Project Fame (Season 4). I now realise that he was featured on our stories, a website my friend, Ify started that I contribute to. I'll describe him/his personality as a mix of Sean Kingston, Kenan (from Kenan and Kel) and then a Nigerian twist.
He's a natural and I think more people need to know about him. I love the way he adlibs and the fact that he understands music. He mentioned the word Pentatonic and not everyone knows what a Pentatonic scale is. He was also doing that Call and Response thing with his guitarist and his vocal range is very wide. You can check out his interview with Ify here and listen to some of his songs too. Let me know what you think.

There was spoken word too and I feel like spoken word is either a hit or a miss. Donna was definitely a HIT. Her piece was about how everyone had a dream as a child and it made me question whether I was living mine. She spoke about the fire within her and even though she is an oil and gas lawyer and has been for 13 years, she is a poet too and she always will be.
The night ended with a guy called Sesi /Sefi playing the guitar. His dressing alone was enough reason to pay attention. He wore a kente-like buba and sokoto and he had an igbo-chief cap on his head. He sounded A LOT like Bez and it was obvious that the guy has bonded with his guitar. He moved seamlessly and very quickly from one chord to the next and I really enjoyed the musical journey he took us on.

The backing band was Amazing!! Especially the drummer and the guy on the keys. At uni, my friend, Oguan, used to add Africa Magic sound effects to performances and the guy on the keys did it just like him. At some point during the night, people were asked to give an original thought and a lot of sensible things were said about Nigeria and the state of the country at the moment.

I didn't plan to blog about this or I would have taken pictures to accompany my words (I understand the importance of a visual perspective). Nevertheless, I realised at the end of the event that more people need to know about it. I don't think my words express the depth of some of the performances so turn up next week and get a feel for yourself of the Freedom Hall Experience.

Kudos to Tope Sadiq who organises this, he's a very interesting and talented guy and here's a video of him speaking at TedX Lagos.

Oh yeah, follow them on Twitter and listen to them on igroove radio for more updates.

Toodles
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