Death of Geoffrey Oryema

I'm reading on the website of Radio France International (RFI) that the great Ugandan musician, Geoffrey Oryema has died at the age of 65. No further details for the present.

 

Décès du musicien Geoffrey Oryema, voix émouvante de l'exil africain - RFI

 

Le chanteur Geoffrey Oryema est mort

 

The “African Leonard Cohen”.

 

I saw Geoffrey Oryema at Womadalaide (Womad in Adelaide Australia) way back in 1995.

As is often the case, the music played live was much better than on the CDs.

I got a CD single of The River signed by Geoffrey.

One memory is him walking past me in the crowd and being surprised by how tall he was and that he was smoking what looked like the biggest joint I had ever seen.

I'll be playing his CDs tonight with a glass of wine (or two) to remember him.

 

Oh damn I love his albums. RIP.

 

I'm disappointed that there are so few who know Geoffrey's music and thus this topic is not getting much attention.

I've now drunk my wine and listened to all that I have of his music.

Both Exile (1990) and Beat the Border (1993) have some strong touches of the Gabriel sound. I got to know this music from these CDs before I saw Geoffrey preform at Womadalaide (I think he did two performances and I saw both). So my memory of him was of a more live and African, but still prog sound. So it was a bit strange to hear the Gabriel influences in these CDs which perhaps I've not played since I saw him perform live.

Though I've not played his music for perhaps two decades I still remember the songs and very much enjoyed playing these CDs again.

I also played the CD single of The River - which I got signed by him - and this includes a lovely version of Suzanne by Leonard Cohen.

Finally I played Night to Night (1996) which I had bought that year, but as I had to unwrap it to play tonight I can be sure I've never played before.

This was very different - African but with a prog sensibility that didn't have a Gabriel feel. It was only after playing most of it that I looked at the booklet and saw that the musicians are all different, and that some of the band were writers and co-writers of many of the songs. I'm looking forward to giving this CD some more listens over the next few weeks to get to know it better.

RIP Geoffrey.

 

Oh man...I was just listening to Exile.

Great artist and the real deal.

RIP Geoffrey

 

MUSIQUE. La voix d’or de Geoffrey Oryema s’est éteinte

 

Uganda music icon Geoffrey Oryema dies in France - The Ugandan