Ntaba and the Stone
Cape Town, South Africa, 5 Jan '08
Ntaba Vellem's face cracks into a wide, gap-toothed smile. Life has recently been the stuff of dreams for this blind musician from Macassar and his band The Stone. A year ago he was playing at Greenmarket Square, today he and his band have produced their first CD, appropriately called Too Long Travelling.
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It has been a long, hard road for this talented singer, song writer and musician who left his home town of East London for Cape Town at the age of 17. And it was only his strong Christian faith that kept him going when he suddenly and inexplicably lost his sight in 1990.
"I want to give hope to people through my music," he says, softly fingering his acoustic guitar that he has been playing for over twenty years.
His talent was spotted by Kelly Schlesinger of the Drum Caf? when she heard him playing at Greenmarket Square. She thought Ntaba and his band The Stone deserved a chance to make a CD and persuaded Al Paton of Urban Mix Studios to work on the project.
A year down the line, the result is an exciting full album of original songs from Ntaba, lead singer on acoustic guitar, Sidney Cita on electric guitar and back-up singers Sisana Vellem, Atwell Masupa and Laura Dondashe.
Al Paton, who produced and recorded the CD, describes their sound as a fusion of reggae and Afro-pop with overtones of Bob Marley - feel-good dance music.
The whole project has been a funded by the generosity of several businesses and individuals, including Drum Caf?, Urban Mix Studios and 321Zero who did the photography and the CD booklet design.
Now Ntaba and the Stone are hoping that their first CD will be the start of something big for a talented group of disadvantaged musicians.
If you would like to buy a copy of the album, or would like to help in any way, click here to contact us.
Words: Lesley Paton
Photos & Cover design: Michel Dei-Cont
