CELEBRATED afro-jazz musician Willom Tight has had one of his songs chosen as the title track for an Australian movie Road to Freedom Peak.
Entertainment Reporter
Off his upcoming album Manifesto, this could easily mark the musician’s return to stardom after years of under-achievement.
This follows his signing of a recording contract with South Africa-based record label, Shamiso Music and Entertainment, last year which saw him recording the 15-track album to be released later this month.
The song, African Paradox, which features the legendary Salif Keita, will be the official soundtrack to the movie which will be released in March.
In an interview with NewsDay, Tight said he was proud to have gone international.
“I am happy to have been signed with the same label that put me in the limelight during the early years of my career before they moved to South Africa,” he said.
“I am really excited to have gone international. I mean locally I have done it; I have rubbed shoulders with the best, Oliver Mtukudzi included.
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“It was high time I tasted the international market and thanks to Shamiso, I have made it.”
Tight said he still could not believe he had worked with one of the best on the continent in a song that has already opened new doors for him.
“I still think I am dreaming. I never imagined I could ever do a song with an artiste of Salif Keita’s calibre.
“I am still overwhelmed considering the fact that the song has not yet been finished, but already, it has been selected for a movie that tells our story as Africans.”
Road to Freedom Peak is a tale of an extraordinary friendship between Jonathan Okwir, a young former child soldier and Corrin Varady, an Australian journalist (Huffington Post) and academic (London School of Economics), who set up an educational charity 10 years ago for former child soldiers.
Together, they travel through the former war zone of Northern Uganda to tell the story of children lucky enough to have escaped the clutches of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Okwir was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda when he was 10-years-old and forced to train as a child soldier.
Tight said he would travel and perform with Salif Keita in Australia in March for the première.
On his album, Tight has worked with various celebrated names on the international music scene, among them Speedy of Bongo Maffin, jazz guitarist Maxwell Vidima Musopero (Gang of Instruments) and legendary producer Sifiso Mbebe.
