A TOUCH OF LOITA JAZZ

Blantyre, Malawi - Monday, 3rd November 2003

BY FRANK PHIRI

IT WAS a first in the country's corporate circles that I have seen a managing director do what most MDs and CEOs would not do, playing jazz for his clients.

Last Thursday Loita Bank Managing Director Jerome Bissay got down to some serious business, but this time it was not behind a desk with a laptop and restless phone in front of him….

Instead Bissay seem to have replaced the laptop with a guitar from which he plucked a number of jazz pieces to rekindle a sense of nostalgia that got most of the patrons humming and shaking their hands in between sips of jazzy cocktail which were part of the theme for the evening.

Jerome Bissay of Loita Investment Bank

Bissay's performance marked the climax of the evening come soon after the usual ‘speeches' and salutations that can sometimes get on the nerves of guests and reporters alike when they come ‘empty'.

When everybody thought he had walked in front to unpack what looked like a gift for the ‘best' customer of the year. Bissay took out a guitar and started to jazz up the audience.

Supported by Blantyre's own jazz masters, the Mellow Tones, the MD played a number of jazz hits, but the notable was an old Cannonball Adderley hit ‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' which attracted a loud applause from the clients that included top figures in the country corporate circles.  

The Mellow Tones, featuring Blantyre-based music mentor Wyndham Checbamba, and other regulars such as Isaac Mkukupa and Don Mleoga did not disappoint and backed Bissay very well even though the group never rehearsed!

For Bissay, playing jazz at BSC could be a test to see if his fingers are not getting rusty. The man, who hails from Cameroon, trained to play jazz in France where he went to University at Glenoble and Aixen-Province. In fact he paid his tuition from playing jazz, which he learnt at Jazz Centre in Glenoble.

The Loita boss said he was a seasoned drummer, jazz harmonist and bass guitar wizard. He has also curtain raised for Jamaica's thought provoking reggae maestro Peter Tosh as well as awards winning jazz and blues artists such as Luther Allison and Cameroonian Maou Dibango.

(Yousef S. Bazian; Jerome Bissay & N. Justin Chinyanta of The Loita Group)

Bissay's performance made other bosses change their mind about what it really means to give treat to customer and boost their corporate image.

This is just fantastic . Its my first time to see a top boss entertain his clients with personal talent; said Gerard Ganizani Finance Director at Celtel.

Many patrons gave events planner Jeri Gomonda of Access Professionals a thumb up for transforming Blantyre Sports Club into a jazz bowl in line with the theme of the evening.

“It's my first time to prepare a jazz event for a client and I did not expect it would have so much impact,” she said.