OBASE ABOLI: The Cameroonian Musician With Style

Biography:

Obase Aboli. © Olalekan Oduntan

Masango Obase-Aboli Namolongo (19 May 1991) is a Cameroonian born Chromatic (double 22 keys) Xylophone Virtuoso, Contemporary Pan African musician, motivational singer, song writer, composer, and musicpreneur. Unlike a lot of musicians, he wasn't born into music family because he was more of a footballer than a musician through out most of his childhood. 

Obase Aboli. © Olalekan Oduntan

Obase Aboli. © Olalekan Oduntan

He later moved to Bishop Rogan Minor Seminary where he was introduced to and taught classical music as a subject. Obase-Aboli was still more of a footballer than a musician but was soon discovered in his fourth year as a Xylophone virtuoso. He became the number one Xylophonist for the school and music prefect for the remaining part of his years. It was during this time that he composed his first classical piece and got his first musical award for the best conductor in an all catholic schools choral competition. While in the university, Obase-Aboli continued with his choral/classical music prowess and was music director for several choirs. 

CAREER: 

Obase-Aboli later moved to Abu Dhabi where he got the opportunity to take an Introductory Course in Jazz at the New York University Abu Dhabi. This piqued his interest in jazz music which he has gone ahead to exploit. During the same period, he was asked to act as a French - English translator for the Xylophone maestro  Fode Lasanna Diabate from Mali, who had visited NYUAD with the Kronos Quartet on their "50 for the future" collaboration. This was a turning point in his career. 

Obase Aboli. © Olalekan Oduntan

He plays Jazz along side several genre of music from the African continent including, Amekoko, Makosa, Agbadja, Rhumba and many more.

While in Abu Dhabi, Obase-Aboli was a member of the Blue Fever Jazz A Capella and the Abu Dhabi National Symphony Ochestra. Obase-Aboli was invited to give a Ted talk at the 2015 TedX NYUAD (which clashed with his concert where he had to do a vocal back up for Andrea Bocelli) where he spoke about his musical Journey. He was also invited to play percussion at the 2015 National Autism Day Abu Dhabi and has then been a self proclaimed ambassador to kids suffering from Autism and other difficult complications. 

Obase Aboli. © Olalekan Oduntan

With great ambition to exploit African Rhythms,  he later moved to Ghana in 2016 where he has been exploiting Ghanaian High life and other African genre of music. 

In May 2017, he released his first album titled "Etapo" 

He launched a massive five face project in 2019 titled the  "Ujhasuma Africa" project which included;

1. Ujhasuma Africa Album (2nd Album) 

2. Ujhasuma Africa Music Festival  

3. Ujhasuma Africa Arts Project

4. Ujhasuma Africa Book Launch

5. Ujhasuma Africa Poetry/Spoken Word 

Apart from the Xylophone, Obase-Aboli plays the Acoustic Guitar, Piano, the Atentebe and other African Percussion Instruments. Obase-Aboli has worked with Salif Keita and Les Ambasadeur du Hotel Bamako from Mali, the Kronos Quartet, Just a Band from Kenya, Lassana Diabate from Mali, Amboley Jedu Blay, Bessa Simons, and Aka Blay from Ghana and many more. 

Discography:

Title:                                 Album Details              

Etapo:                               Released May 19 2017

Ujhasuma Africa:           To Be Released 29 May 2021

In conclusion, Obase Aboli is a talented young man full of a lot of musical prowess and ideas. And he is an artiste to watch out for because the heaven is his limit. Hopefully, we wish to do a musical collaborative project together in the years to come. Here is wishing Obase Aboli a very successful carrier in his chosen artistic journey.

His Contacts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/obaseaboli?s=09

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf1XG1WT0lj0EpaQnc04ISA

Copyrights: © Olalekan Oduntan 2020