Born on the 4th. of September 1969, in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia,
Mass Lowe grew up in the compound at Hardington Street where Ballet Afrique,
The Gambia's then premier performing cultural group trained. It was watching
the group train that sowed the first seeds of artistic interest in the young
Mass.
Mass attended French school in a country where the official language and
language of tuition is English. At the school, he played a local
one-stringed instrument called the "tukusi ngalam". He was so popular that
the school started charging 10 bututs per head to watch him. He was given
lunch money out of the proceeds whilst the rest of the money was put in the
school's social fund. He won the school's Best Entertainer award every year
during his time at the school.
At his tender age, he started following Gambian bands such as Gelewarr and
Ifangbondi (formerly Super Eagles Band) and Senegalese bands such as Youssou
Ndour's Super Etoile and No. 1 around. This got him into a lot of trouble
and he got beaten and locked out on numerous occasions because he came from
a religious family where playing music was taboo.
After passing the high school entry examinations, Mass continued his
education in Kaolack, Senegal. Because the music industry was much more
developed in Senegal, he eventually found his way to Dakar, Senegal's
capital. He soon quit school and started following Youssou Ndour's Super
Etoile around full time on their tours throughout Senegal.
Mass came back home to The Gambia in 1987 where he joined the Saint
Augustine's High School Band as lead singer even though he was not a student
at the school. The band released a track called "My Sister" the same year
which became an immediate hit. The band was immediately contracted to
perform on a weekly basis at Oasis Night Club, one of Banjul's then most
popular night clubs. It was whilst at Oasis that Mass made a name for
himself.
Mass left the Saint Augustine's High School Band together with brothers Pa
and Lie Jobe and Kebba Taylor, all sons of Gambian pioneer Super Eagles Band
musicians and formed a group called Kadugi which meant "The Word" in Wollof.
In 1989, Mass together with the three musicians joined another band called
Xam Xam Band, one of the country's premier "Mbalax" (the popular musical
style played in Senegal and Gambia) groups. Xam Xam in Wollof means
knowledge.
Mass went back to Dakar in 1991 to develop his musical knowledge and career.
He returned to The Gambia in 1993, got four musicians from Xam Xam Band and
formed his own band called Mass Lowe and the Xam Xam Band. He released the
album "Nice Boy" in 1995 which was produced by Kerewan Sounds' Ousman
Ceesay. "Nice Boy" made Mass Lowe and the Xam Xam Band a household name in
The Gambia. Mass released the album "Kosso Kosso" in 1997 which became even
bigger than "Nice Boy".
A big Ghanaian producer and promoter, Fusaina Diagba, who took among others
Manu Dibango and Angelique Kidjo to Ghana, happened to be in The Gambia and
attended one of Mass' concerts and was so impressed that he invited him to
Ghana's biggest music festival, the Emancipation Day Celebrations in 1998.
Mass performed at the National Theatre together with Osibisa, Rita Marley
and other big artists. He was noticed at this festival by Ivorian superstar
Alpha Blondy's promoter who was so impressed that he invited him to a
festival organised in the Ivory Coast by Alpha Blondy's Blondy Productions
where he impressively performed.
Mass was contracted in May 1999 by the cigarette company Benson & Hedges to
do a country-wide promotional tour. The tour was very impressive and the
West Africa representative for the company flew from England to witness the
tour's climax at Arch 22 in Banjul. The tour's success was reflected in the
upsurge in the popularity of Benson & Hedges cigarettes in The Gambia.
In June 1999, FTI Touristik, one of Germany's biggest tour operators
specialising in African tours, contracted Mass to perform at Arch 22 in
Banjul to promote their newly established Gambia branch. Among the
dignitaries who graced the occasion was the Mayor of Banjul. The show was
attended by over 5, 000 people, no small feat in such a tiny country.
Mass was contracted in August 1999 to perform for the Organisation of
Gambians in Sweden at their annual Gambian Cultural Week in Stockholm where
he drew a crowd never witnessed since the Cultural Week's inception.
Mass has currently completed three albums the first of which he plans to
release soon.
For more information about Mass Lowe, visit his homepage at:
http://w1.853.telia.com/~u85309245
Nice Surfing!
Buharry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
