PAMBERI TRUST PRESS RELEASE: Immediate release

‘Hokoyo naChi’ at Book Cafe
Saturday 11 June, 8pm
The Book Café, Harare

On Saturday 11 June The Book Café welcomes the return of Zimbabwe mbira star Chiwoniso Maraire, taking up the prime spot every Saturday from mid-June, to the delight of her fans.

Born into music and forged in the fires of Africa and the world over the last two decades, the feisty artist now enjoys the freedom to explore every corner of her musical being, from pure mbira magic with long-time acoustic ensemble Vibe Culture, to new electric fusions with rock, blues, and a rainbow of genres, in collaboration with various artists.

Those lucky to have caught Chi’s collaboration with artists from Togo, Cameroon, Korea and Japan in the November 2010 ‘Suki Africa’ Tour will have had a taste of the power of such musical diversity.  Zimbabweans also witnessed her HIFA collaboration with Dutch rock group Moke, which later led to her appearance at the Netherlands’ Freedom Festival where she performed both solo and with others, to an audience of some 160,000 people.  Back home, Chiwoniso continues a colourful collaboration with the popular Victor Kunonga, which again wowed audiences recently at the May Castle Tankard.

What she’ll be bringing to the stage is an open embrace to these and all music styles, spiced with impromptu fusions and surprise guests – in the words of songwriter Carole King, ‘an ever-changing view’.   Saturday nights at Book Café promise to be an exciting series of unforgettable experiences, each one unique, free flowing and unfettered, anchored only by the mesmerizing voice and mbira of Chiwoniso.

Chiwoniso is by no means a new-comer to the Book Café stage, having performed as a little-known artist in the famous Monday Open Mic back in her early years, and later claiming the Tuesday night slot before stepping out into the international arena.  Since then she has graced Book Café and Mannenberg stages between many tours.

This Saturday marks the start of a new season of world-class music at Book Café with Chiwoniso, ‘a bright new star in Africa’ and ‘an icon in Zimbabwe music today’.

Their performance began with a spoken word piece recited by TJ Dema from Botswana, whose first line ‘my dream for Africa’ made me feel that I was going to be impressed. Sonic Slam Chorus is a cross genre collaboration that had been kept alive for several months on the internet before their five days of rehearsal at the Festival. The group members include slam poets TJ Dema and Dickson; Norwegian composer and vocalist Cecilie Giskemo, fellow Norwegian guitar maestro Asbjoern Lerheim, Saxophonist Vee Mukarati, Jazz vocalist Prudence Katomene-Mbofana and drummer Blessing Muparutsa.

The chorus performed five pieces, blending Jazz and spoken word in their performance. They explored diverse themes including Africa’s destiny, the contentious relationship between a father and child, and moving on to describe the ill-fated love a beautiful girl has for a mischievous rebel.

I was impressed, but not by the Chrous as a whole. Sonic Slam Chorus is an obviously well thought out concept. TJ Dema and Dickson are the stars of the performance, their words being well written and therefore powerful and emotive. In particular, TJ uses attention grabbing lyricism, and delicate changes in cadence to deliver the emotion of her words. Unfortunately Prudence does not sing in this act, providing only backing vocals for the performances, which is a pity because she is a force to be reckoned with on the local Jazz scene. Parts vocal portion of the show seemed too lengthy and elaborate, overpowering the subtleties of the spoken word making it inaudible at times.

Watch part of their performance here.

Victor Kunonga invites Sam Mataure & Enock Piroro

Victor Kunonga, the legendary afro jazz maestro calls on his highly gifted friends and jazz spitfires – Sam Mataure (drums) and Enock Piroro (bass guitar) for an enthralling afro Jam session, packed with the unexpected.

Bring your dancing shoes!

Alliance Francaise, 328 Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Harare
Friday 21 January 2011
8pm till late.
CC: $10
For more information contact: Tsungi Zvobgo on 0774 433 209 or email tsungiz [at] gmail [dot] com

Okay so it’s official. Freshlyground have been banned from performing in Zimbabwe next month because of their Chicken to Change video. I know it’s official because I saw it on ZA News. Those puppets don’t lie.

Meanwhile, I’ve just made the Freshlyground Chicken to Change song my ringtone. Maybe now I’ll look forward to people phoning me . . .

You can download the ringtone here.

In our newsletter yesterday, we shared a story from the Mail & Guardian about the new Freshlyground video “Chicken to Change” which Bev Clark blogged about last week.

According to TimesLive:

Top local band Freshlyground have added a cheeky spin to the music video of their latest single, Chicken to Change, as they challenge Zimbabwean president Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s leadership. In the song, lead singer Zolani Mahola sings about what a noble “supernova” Mugabe was, but then says that somewhere along the way, he fell.

One subscriber shared some of her reflections in response:

First impulsive comment: Freshly Ground will never be allowed into Zimbabwe now or ever for as long as the chicken hasn’t changed!

Reflective Comment: Powerful metaphor that speaks for all silent Zimbos . . . WE NEED CHANGE! It’s a pity we can never be bold enough to CHANGE THE CHICKEN . . .

An after thought: The non-chicken party may consider adopting this as their counter jingle to the chicken jingles we so tired off listening to on national radio. It surely would top the charts!

Two friends and I entered Harare’s Got Talent on Saturday night, with a pantomime dance performance of Kenny Roger’s The Gambler. We were last minute cowboys, really. It started off as a joke, a bit of a dare one evening, but suddenly there were Auditions. And rehearsals. An official run through. A compulsory warm up. And a Performance.

My co-workers were quite game about our “board room” [read foyer] getting taken over for a rehearsal space. One of them even got roped into writing up our blocking, and taking notes on our props list. I was a bit worried our land lord would come and investigate, but 17 “know when to hold ‘em” choruses later we were still safe.

The blocking document was titled The Meddle, and included things like:

• J and A do the hop
• J shoots A
• A plays tambourine
• A and J show their aces
• Chorus: Go crazy
• A shoots K

And the props included:

• Bottle stick
• Cards
• 2 x Guns
• 3 x Cowboy hats

The show took place at Harare’s Rep’s Theatre – like the snap of the marquis above, it’s shabby on the outside, well meaning enough, on the inside, but stuck in the same bygone era that Harare’s post offices and government buildings seem to still be in.

There were a good 45 acts or so – a motley assortment of novices and veterans, across a range of ages and talents. I overheard one dancer ask another why there were so many singers. I overheard one musician ask another why non musicians were in the show. The people who knew they were neither singers nor dancers knew better than to posit why their numbers were so low. They were the only people I overheard asking – why are we here again? Go figure.

In the end, guitarist singer and song writer Christessa took second place, and Mumbai Jackson [think Bollywood meets Thriller] won first prize, with a three-person dance to original choreography. In the process, scores of people got first hand experience with the behind the behind the scenes elements of a performance – the tension and off stage drama, as well as the gritty, unglamourous sweat and frustration that it takes to pull something like that off. And the audience of 400 or so got exposed to performers they’ll be hoping to see more of in future, and others – like the last minute cowboys – that they’ll know they want to avoid.