January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
The music teacher who’s writing his own tunes
The 11-track CD, called After all this Time…, has just been released by Khadijo, who is the part of the Chewstick Band.
Khadijo, whose real name is Otis Gibbs, plays the piano, congas and xylophone.
Originally from St. Croix, Khadijo is now a music teacher at Harrington Sound. He began playing the piano at age five.
“I was forced into it because my mother actually wanted me to play piano. She said, ‘You need to do something besides just school.’ I didn’t really want to do it, but when someone told me, ‘Yeah, you can make money from it’ that’s when I really got serious about it,” he said.
“By the time I got into college I picked up conga and xylophone. Piano is my main instrument because that is the primary instrument I started with and that is the one I got my degree in, in Piano Studies.
“The congas I picked up along the way by hanging out with friends outside of the regular music academic scene.”
When he moved to Bermuda with his wife Keisha in 2004, he joined the Sunday night sessions at Chewstick and became part of the Chewstick band, mainly playing the congas.
The entire time, he continued to work towards producing his own CD.
He said, “I wrote sketches down, just musical ideas and things that popped into my head. I would just jot ideas down in a little notebook, and then after a while, I would come and put it together, just sit down with my music and my keyboard, and bring it out.”
The CD itself reflects his love of acid jazz. He said: “I like different types of jazz music, but now that I have an idea of what jazz is and how it’s progressing, I like the modern feel of it now.
“This acid jazz thing is the zone I’m in right now. Acid jazz has a blend of other different things, mainly hip-hop, funk and stuff like that. It started to evolve and now it’s evolved into a major part of jazz.”
After all this time… will be on sale at Chewstick every Sunday night or by calling Khadijo at 737-8713 or emailing [email protected]. For a sample of the CD visit www.chewstick.com[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.