Rob Burrell Unplugged / Mann Friday: A night of acoustic tunes

In Zimbabwe for a couple of weeks Rob Burrell surfaces to host a night of acoustic tunes of Mann Friday music, including tracks of their new album Trainrides and Radio Play.

All proceeds from this event go to the Harare Children’s Home.

When: Friday, 11 January 2013
Time: 6:30pm … show starts at 7pm
Where: Tristan’s Bar, 14 Aintree Road, Highlands, Harare

Entrance: $10, and we encourage you to bring some clothes to donate

Special Feature! A cap signed by the members of Cold Play will be auctioned.

Food and drink available.

Come, listen and support a good cause.

Songs to feed, love, nurture and grow a stranded baby Little Swift to:

1)    Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
2)    People Help the People – Birdy
3)    Fire and Rain – Birdy
4)    You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
5)    Taylor  – Jack Johnson
6)    Roxie – Chicago
7)    Mame – Robert Preston
8)    Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
9)    Weather With You – Crowded House
10)  Anything could happen

A press release just received; get their music Now!

Mann Friday have been holed up most of this year recording their fifth studio album in the UK – Trainrides and Radio Play – and as it launches this weekend on iTunes and other download portals, the Zim-linked rockers have thought of a Christmas treat for their fans back home. Up until Christmas Day, the entire album will be downloadable, for free, from http://mannfriday.com/zimbo – a distinct address that will only let you access the album if you are browsing from a Zimbabwean IP Address.

Catching up with frontman Rob Burrell on the giveaway – “We’ve been working pretty hard on this record and are so excited for people to hear it. As we gear up for releases online and in retail stores in Europe and South Africa in 2013 we felt it would be really great to let Zimbabweans have easy access to these new tracks. Zim has poured a huge amount of inspiration into all our songs, and we’d love to give something back this Christmas.”

Download the full album now: http://www.mannfriday.com/zimbo

Over the five years since inception Sistaz Open Mic has witnessed many success stories of Zimbabwean women artists who have come out of their shell to share their art with the world.  It has largely become a scouting ground for corporate and civic organisations who seek to engage young and upcoming women artists in their programming.  Pictured above is Nancy ‘Blackheat’ Mkondyo on trumpet, a spoken word artist who now fronts the band Blackheat, they play a fusion of poetry with mbira and other traditional sounds.

Sistaz Open Mic happening this Sat 8 Sept, Book Cafe from 2-5pm.

Being a fan of classic movies especially those featuring big bands, swing, jazz and dance I couldn’t miss the opportunity to watch the Jazz Tap Ensemble at HIFA. The ensemble was established in 1979 by three dancers and three musicians. They have shared the stage with such tap legends as Savion Glover and Gregory Hines.

Tap dance originated in the 1800s, and has its roots in African-American dancing and Irish step dancing. It is believed to have arisen in minstrel shows which gained popularity at that time where white performers would satirize southern african-americans dances, and black performers in blackface would imitate the white performers imitating black dances. Likewise Jazz is also born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. Both art forms are quintessentially American, and symbols of the beauty that can overcome a painful past.

Music is a big business and it has transformed people’s lives the world over.  In western countries by just producing one good album it can change one’s fortunes for the rest of his/her life. Media plays an important role in promoting artists music and with bad media publicity it can also destroy an artist’s career. Here in Zimbabwe our own local music artists, especially the urban grooves artists rely on the media to promote their music and some of them enjoy massive airplay on the state broadcasting stations. The rise in popularity for urban grooves was mainly spearheaded by the introduction of 75% local content on national radio stations by the then Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo a couple of years ago.  To some local artists it was a blessing to them since competition from foreign music was reduced. However to some artists after rising to stardom their names now appear in the history book for the wrong reasons.

The lyrics of the music composed by these urban grooves artists has attracted a huge following especially amongst the youth. The message in the music is usually associated with love, cash and the ghetto lifestyle. Instead of promoting their music through good publicity, recently it has become the opposite. After starting on a positive note most of these young artists have attracted bad publicity to their music by trying to live the life they sing about in their songs. Some may say the problem starts when these young artists try to merge our local culture with the western culture in their music thereby creating an identity crisis.  Zimbabwe has been blessed with many young talented musicians but most of them have gone quiet after failing to handle fame. The toll of a celebrity lifestyle has proved to be a heavy burden with many young artists falling by the wayside through drugs, prostitution, alcohol abuse and unprofessional contact.

Piracy is also taking its share of problems for these music artists resulting in many of them singing for peanuts. In trying to increase popularity in the hope of pushing music sales some local artists are now using media for the wrong reasons. A couple of a years ago a creative and promising young artist was sentenced to do community service after being found in possession of marijuana and as if this was not enough the same young man could not keep his microphone in his pants as he went around impregnating many girls. After singing so much about money and a high expensive lifestyle another local artist made headlines recently when his sex video was leaked to the press. With this kind of behavior and bad publicity it will take a very long time for our local artists to separate their private life from their public one.