DEATH has again stretched its dreaded hand, taking with it Don Canta (above), a musician that colleagues, friends and fans will remember as jolly, talented and stylish.Don Canta died on Saturday at Mulago Hospital in Kampala after losing the battle to pneumonia.Afrigo Band fans that throng Club Obligatto, along Bombo Road, every Friday and Saturday will miss the 37-year-old electrifying performer who has been identified as Congolese much as he is Ugandan like his band leader, Moses Matovu. His versatility created the doubt because he sang Franco Luambo Boureau’s Makambo Ezali Boureau, just like a native speaker of Lingala and French. On stage, he would mime country legendaries like Jim Reeves and Kenny Rogers live, and then take fans to another musical journey to Mali to have the stirring musical taste of Salif Keïta, and still remind old timers of Sammy Kasule with one of his personal favourites, Asante. That is just how good Canta was.Born in 1975, Canta cut his musical teeth at 17, in 1992 when he started performing with Tony Ssengo’s Badindas Band. He reached out to musical fans in his career that spans well over 20 years, at concerts, with other bands like Simba Ngoma, Crossroads Band, Waka Waka Band before finding a home in Afrigo Band in 2000. Recently, he has been playing with Code 9 and Uganda’s all-boy band, Barbed Wire Thong, endearing himself to the current generation of music lovers.Agencies
