2010 has been declared as the year for the Rapprochement of Cultures by UNESCO and it is with commendable accomplishments that the arts community will witness the launch of a Taku & Tru Bantu video at the Zimbabwe German Society on the 1st of October in Milton Park Harare, starting 6pm. The video is for the song Chikuru Rudo from Taku's 2009 album “Dzimwe Nguva”.
Taku is a contemporary Nyunga player Revitalising is another word for this UNESCO declaration and Taku is on top of this activity with his Mbira. Coming from a recent two week stint in Germany were the video was shot and edited, Taku has worked with many artists from different art disciplines and backgrounds in an effort that has placed the Nyunga Mbira in the lime light on and off the performing stage. In the months leading to the 2010 World Cup, he worked with Sebede & Willom in the Hinde Kinde project tour of SADC. At HIFA he led widely rare reviewed performances with the Roosevelt Girls Band in Schools Program.
The song “Chikuru Rudo” calls for “true love” as a solution to love problems (HIV & AIDS) in a Zimbabwe littered with socio-economic problems that has seen a million people dying with a sizable number of children becoming orphans on a daily basis. The video was shot in Munster Germany and was directed by Yulia Vaitkun from Belarus, edited & produced by Solar Net Int with Andrzej as the artistic director. Taku worked on the script.
The launch is free and all are welcome!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Monday, January 12, 2009
Alliance Francaise hosts Mbira Jam Jam “The BIG BLEND”, “explorations, diversity in fusion & outcomes”
2009 brings a whole new movement and experience on the Mbira scene in Zimbabwe. The Mbira Society Zimbabwe starts of a new monthly programme at Alliance Francaise theatre every last Wednesday of the month from 17:30hrs to 1900hrs. Initiated as a platform and space to explore Mbira music through performances, discussions and visual aids, The “Jam Jam Project” will run on monthly themes for 2009 with the January theme being “the BIG BLEND”.
The Big Blend performance will be led by Ethno Tru Bantu, a young talented ethno-centric band that plays highly percussive music accompanied by marimba rhythms and Mbira melodies popularly termed “Mbira-rimba connection”. Ethno Tru Bantu features Taku Mafika on Nyunga Nyunga Mbira, Coach Martin on Soprano Marimba, Rumbi Tapfuma playing her Djembe Drum and Ras Edie on Recorder and Percussions jamming with a trio of Miss Sapphire playing Violin, Vusa Mtunzi on Sax and Victor playing piano. The group will explore how diverse the Mbira instrument is, showcasing possible fusions and outcomes that result from all these instruments jamming together. The performance will then be open to artists with their instruments who can show case various instrument combinations and different playing skills to produce a better and different sound, thus creating a ‘big blend’ sound.
“The event is open to all artists, Mbira enthusiasts, researchers and anyone with a feel for new things or change, the aim being to promote creativity, diversity and interaction among musicians and even the audience”, said Takunda Mafika, who leads Ethno Tru Bantu.
The Mbira Society Zimbabwe is a membership based organisation providing performance platforms, resources and opportunities for those who love the Mbira instrument and those who see the potential in the music
Monday, September 3, 2007
Nyunga Nyunga mbira, Popular with the Youth
Mbira music, Zimbabwe’s most popular music genre internationally, has had its ups and down partly due to the stigmas instilled by colonialism and the influence foreign music on the local market. Credit goes to Thomas Mapfumo and the Mbira Dzenhariras for keeping the sound alive for this music brand. Now, however, the genre has been given a new lease of life through the nyunga nyunga mbira. One just needs to walk around town or visit music venues where youth are performing such as the BOCAPA Xposure programme at the Book Cafe, to see the popularity of this instrument with the youth.
Mozambican in origin, the mbira was brought to Zimbabwe by Jege Tapera in the late sixties and was then modified at Kwanengoma College of African Music (now United College of Music) in Bulawayo with the aid of Andrew Tracy (ethnomusicologist). Dumisani Mararire, lecturer in USA between 1972 and 1990, popularized this instrument through establishing a system of notation and performances. His daughter, Chiwoniso, has since performed at many festivals around the world and at local mbira festivals, successfully establishing the nyunga nyunga as a competitive instrument. Chiwoniso’s fusion of traditional songs with English lyrics has rendered the instrument irresistible to the youth and her live performances are packed with revelers of different ages dancing to nyunga music. Many young mbira bands like Tru Bantu Kru, Nyunga Masters, Kakuwe to mention a few, have established themselves in music circles by playing this instrument. Most of them have progressed very well in talent shows in and around Harare like BOCAPA Xposure, Music Crossroads and even the A- Academy. This has been a positive move for the mbira genre, not only is the music preserved but with the youth, it has been modified, fused with other music forms, ensuring its survival, development and thus realising its full potential. This mbira is now taught in schools, universities and other various music institutions. It is easily accessible as it is for sale in many music shops.
Although an nyunga nyunga mbira is similar in construction to the Mbira Dzevadzimu, it varies in the number of keys and manuals as well as the fingering techniques. On the other hand, nyunga nyunga has no ritual connotations to Zimbabweans.
Says one youth ‘I mean I like to learn how to play the mbira and I like the music but the fact that my friends will think that I have ancestral spirits with me just puts me off’. One cannot associate it to any traditional ceremony or activity, which is probably one main reason why the youth of today try to identify themselves with instrument.
‘We need not to stigmatize this instrument, we are only nailing the coffin by continued labeling of local music genres to ritual activities’ says Takunda Mafika, musicologist and an nyunga nyunga player.
Warara Jefinias
Mozambican in origin, the mbira was brought to Zimbabwe by Jege Tapera in the late sixties and was then modified at Kwanengoma College of African Music (now United College of Music) in Bulawayo with the aid of Andrew Tracy (ethnomusicologist). Dumisani Mararire, lecturer in USA between 1972 and 1990, popularized this instrument through establishing a system of notation and performances. His daughter, Chiwoniso, has since performed at many festivals around the world and at local mbira festivals, successfully establishing the nyunga nyunga as a competitive instrument. Chiwoniso’s fusion of traditional songs with English lyrics has rendered the instrument irresistible to the youth and her live performances are packed with revelers of different ages dancing to nyunga music. Many young mbira bands like Tru Bantu Kru, Nyunga Masters, Kakuwe to mention a few, have established themselves in music circles by playing this instrument. Most of them have progressed very well in talent shows in and around Harare like BOCAPA Xposure, Music Crossroads and even the A- Academy. This has been a positive move for the mbira genre, not only is the music preserved but with the youth, it has been modified, fused with other music forms, ensuring its survival, development and thus realising its full potential. This mbira is now taught in schools, universities and other various music institutions. It is easily accessible as it is for sale in many music shops.
Although an nyunga nyunga mbira is similar in construction to the Mbira Dzevadzimu, it varies in the number of keys and manuals as well as the fingering techniques. On the other hand, nyunga nyunga has no ritual connotations to Zimbabweans.
Says one youth ‘I mean I like to learn how to play the mbira and I like the music but the fact that my friends will think that I have ancestral spirits with me just puts me off’. One cannot associate it to any traditional ceremony or activity, which is probably one main reason why the youth of today try to identify themselves with instrument.
‘We need not to stigmatize this instrument, we are only nailing the coffin by continued labeling of local music genres to ritual activities’ says Takunda Mafika, musicologist and an nyunga nyunga player.
Warara Jefinias
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