Mbira Club Relaunched in Zimbabwe
THE once popular Mbira Club has been relaunched after being inactive for a year.
Every Wednesday night starting today the Club will put up mbira performances at the jazz nightspot Sophiatown (ex Club Mambo) in Borrowdale.
The new venue adds a welcome variety to mbira nightlife in Harare.
Two bands Kakuwe, led by songstress and mbira player Hope Masike, and Tru Bantu are slated for the opening night.
Kakuwe plays a beautiful fusion of mbira, recorder, Djembe and bass guitar.
The other group, Tru Bantu, led by Midlands State University music graduate Taku Mafika, has very interesting vocal arrangements and are definitely a new mbira sound.
The group also has Rumbidzai Tapfuma who is superbon the congas, no mean feat for a lady.
“We decided to create space where we could showcase mbira musicians who are trying to do something new with their music.
“It is our way of challenging young mbira musicians not only to follow in the footsteps of the great ones, but to add something new to what those before them have already created,” says Mbira Centre director Albert Chimedza.
“Sophiatown is a melting pot of sophisticated music for the discerning and mature listener and the Mbira Club fits perfectly in to the scheme of things,” said Oppah Moyo, Sophiatown’s general manager.
The weekly showcase will feature various mbira groups in rotation.
Gonamombe is the resident band on Mbira Club night at Sophiatown jazz club.
[Via The Herald]
