Word: mbira
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...school, no food." And from his 1998 hit Todii, a question, originally about aids, but now so relevant to all of the country's crises, whether political, economic, natural or spiritual: "What shall we do?" In Zimbabwe, the answer has always been to make music. Traditionally, the mbira (thumb piano) was used to summon spirits for help. Music was also Zimbabwe's oral newspaper, and the sung editorials often spurred action. In the '70s, when Ian Smith's whites-only government ruled what was then Rhodesia, says Mapfumo, "music inspired youngsters to fight that oppressive regime." Zimbabwe is independent...
...heard - on tapes copied until they're frayed, on short-wave radio, in bars and beerhalls. "Ministers had better listen," says Tsodzo. "Musicians are voicing what the people are saying." Mapfumo's latest album, Toi Toi, was released three weeks ago in Zimbabwe. The sounds are familiar - melodic mbira, twangy guitars, Big Band brass. The name comes from a type of protest music, but Mapfumo's manager, Cuthbert Chiromo, says Toi Toi is "more reflective, less political." Not apolitical - this is Mapfumo, after all. The biggest buzz among the fans is about the track Timothy. The song censures a fool...
...became more interested in local music, eventually synthesizing his two interests into a new, entirely Zimbabwean sound that was called Chimurenga music after the historic name of the liberation struggle. This music uses traditional elements, but transposes them onto more Western instruments; thus the rolling 6/8 rhythms of the mbira, or thumb piano, become arpeggiated guitar patterns, and the high-pitched shakers are replaced with energetic high-hat work. Mapfumo’s band, the appropriately named Blacks Unlimited, usually numbers around 20, with guitarists, an energetic horn section, mbira players, percussionists and a barrage of backing girls deliver...