Hot Box Chelmsford, 8 Jun 2025
GASPER NALI is a not-so-traditional babatoni player from the small town of *Nkhata Bay* on the shores of Lake Malawi. The babatoni is an African one-string home-made 3-metre long bass guitar, and with a stick and an empty beer bottle, together with a cow skin kick drum and catchy melodies, he creates the most amazing and danceable original Afro Beats possible!
Gasper’s unique style of Kwela music has received an extraordinary amount of online attention after a video of him playing by the lake shore went viral with over 20 million views. He has been featured by CNN and in the documentary ‘Deep Roots Malawi’, jammed with Joss Stone, appeared on Wired for Sound – Malawi, remixed by Aroop Roy for Sol Power Sounds and been played by Iggy Pop on BBC 6! His debut album, Abale Ndikuwuzeni, roughly translates to ‘People, I want to tell you’. It is a fitting title as Gasper’s songs, all sung in the Malawi national language of Chichewa, talk about life and strife in the country, often including social issues such as the rich and the poor, child marriages etc.
Gasper will also release his new record “Chule Chule Iwe” to coincide with his UK tour.
As well as playing in Gasper’s new band, Edinburgh based solo artist LUHANGAH will be supporting, whose music spans many genres and styles from heavy reggae to what he calls ‘Voodjaz’ – traditional Malawian rhythms with a jazzy feel.
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