Artist Profile: Pops Mohamed

Описание: I first met Pops Mohamed in Cape Town in 2006 when I hired him to play on my soundtrack for ‘Without The King’ - a doc about the kingdom of Swaziland, as it was known at the time. He played the bow, the mbira, the flute, and a few other things. But what I’d never seen a South African play before was a Kora which he brought and played brilliantly.

However, what really stood out for me about Pops was what a great collaborator he was. It was as though the man disappeared into the music. The ego became engulfed by the art. And that is the legacy of Pops Mohamed. He is a musician without judgement and with an incredible curiosity. He has traversed more musical styles than possibly any musician I’ve ever met. And his impressive discography is ample witness to that.

I was fortunate enough to be able to have filmed this wonderful conversation with Pops in March 2022 in Boksburg, which is adjacent to Benoni where Pops and I were both born and bred. This is a fascinating sit-down with one of South Africa’s most treasured musical icons that touches on all things music, culture, art and travel.

00:00 Intro Play In
00:25 Introduction
01:59 Beginnings - Dorkay House
02:29 The Shadows
03:49 Start exploring indigenous instruments
05:19 Influences
07:45 Kalahari and the San mouth bow
09:41 Performance
10:39 Zawose Kalimba
12:00 Mbira vs Kalimba
13:35 Karimba
14:54 Performance
16:29 This melody that I’m playing…
17:39 Performance continues
19:23 Explaining the tuning
20:08 The Kalimba
20:33 Performance Kalimba
24:10 What the song means
24:56 Pentatonic tuning
25:20 Performance
27:59 With only five notes - what the song means
29:05 Travelling
30:14 The Sanza
32:01 Performance
33:12 Kind of bluesy
34:58 I’ll give you a little lesson
35:35 Performance
36:52 The musical bow
39:00 Performance bow
40:51 How it got it’s name
42:06 Tuning
42:48 I’m making a new bow - the Swati bow
45:35 Performance
46:32 Fitting a machine head
47:14 Your career - Robert Trunz and the MELT label
50:16 My first albums - recording with the San in the Kalahari
52:32 Where the fusion comes from
53:50 Reaching a younger generation
55:17 Performance
57:22 Wrap up