Milo and All That Jazz: The Golden Era of Salone Music

In Milo and all that Jazz Doctor Kitty Fadlu Deen has commemorated the well renowned Geraldo Pino and all the most talented and brilliant of Sierra Leone's astonishing array of musicians from Dr Oloh and his band Milo Jazz., S.E.Rogie, Ebenezer Calender through to the bands of the 1960's and 1970s, the SL Police Female Dance Band, Francis Fuster, Bunny Mack, into the 1980's which gave us King Masco and Steady Bongo, right through to the players of the 1990's. Milo and all that Jazz is not just a fascinating book, but one that has been meticulously researched and elegantly written. Above all it is an important book for a country which has so often been slow to recognize, record and applaud its own achievements. Kitty Fadlu Deen demonstrates in this remarkable book that, though a small country, Sierra Leone boasts a powerful voice that moves to its own distinctive beat.

A graduate of University College Dublin and the University of York, Dr. Kitty Fadlu-Deen who was born in Singapore, has been a music educator in Sierra Leone since 1970. Her years as lecturer of Music at Women Teachers College and Head of Performing Arts at Milton Margai College of Education encouraged her to co-found the Ballanta Academy of Music in 1995 where she continues to teach and motivate musicians to aspire to greater heights. She lives in Freetown with her husband Alhaji Dr. A.T.Fadlu-Deen. They have four children and six grandchildren. Sierra Leoneans have an innate talent for music and it is hoped that her research will show how this particular generation developed it so that future generations may be inspired to take ownership and pride in their unique musical legacy.