|
Shona Music
Shona music is the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. There are several different types of traditional Shona music including mbira, singing, hosho and drumming. Very often, this music will be accompanied by dancing, and participation by the audience. In Shona music, there is little distinction between the performer and the audience, both are often actively involved in the music-making, and both are important in the religious ceremonies where Shona music is often heard. Mbira The mbira is a traditional instrument of the Shona People often used in religious ceremonies. There are several different varieties of mbira including the mbira dzavadzimu and mbira nyunga nyunga. Shona music is well known as representative of mbira ("thumb piano") music. The performer of the " kushaura" (lead mbira part) often acts also as the lead vocalist, selecting a known melody or mbira pattern to accompany selected lyrics, usually a phrase or a few lines of text which are then commented upon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect of all human societies, a cultural universal. While scholars agree that music is defined by a few specific elements, there is no consensus on their precise definitions. The creation of music is commonly divided into musical composition, musical improvisation, and musical performance, though the topic itself extends into academic disciplines, criticism, philosophy, and psychology. Music may be performed or improvised using a vast range of instruments, including the human voice. In some musical contexts, a performance or composition may be to some extent improvised. For instance, in Hindustani classical music, the performer plays spontaneously while following a partially defined structure and using characteristic motifs. In modal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Berry
Chris Berry is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He plays the mbira (thumb piano) and the ngoma drum, from the Shona people of Southern Africa. His records with the band Panjea have gone platinum in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He has released over a dozen albums; scored the soundtrack for three films; and collaborated and performed with many other artists. Early life Berry was born and raised in California, the son of author Joy Berry. He began his apprenticeship in Sebastopol, California aged 15 with drummer Titos Sompa, one of the founders of the African drum and dance scene on the West Coast of the U.S. Career Travelling with Sompa, he moved to Africa aged 19. Originally arriving in Congo’s Brazzaville, his fascination of Zimbabwean mbira music led him to Zimbabwe’s capital Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 mill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chiwoniso Maraire
Chiwoniso Maraire (5 March 1976 – 24 July 2013) was a Zimbabwean singer, songwriter, and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music. She was the daughter of Zimbabwean mbira master and teacher Dumisani Maraire (and former officer in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Sports and Culture in the early 1980s). Describing the mbira, an instrument traditionally used by male musicians, she said, "It is like a large xylophone. It is everywhere in Africa under different names: sanza, kalimba, etc. For us in Zimbabwe it is the name for many string instruments. There are many kinds of mbiras. The one that I play is called the ''nyunga nyunga'', which means sparkle-sparkle." Biography Born in 1976 in Olympia, Washington, where her father had moved his family, ''The song bird'' spent the first seven years of her life in the US. She spent a portion of her high school years attending The Northwest School in Seattle, Washington. When she moved back to Zimbabwe she attended Mutare Girls' High School and too ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chartwell Dutiro
Chartwell Shorayi Dutiro (1957 – 2019) was a Zimbabwean musician, who started playing mbira when he was four years old at the protected village, Kagande; about two hours drive from Harare, where his family was moved by the Salvation Army missionaries during the Chimurenga. Even though the missionaries had banned traditional music, he learned to play from his brother and other village elders. His mother also encouraged him through her singing of traditional songs. As a teenager Chartwell moved to the capital, Harare, and became saxophonist with the Salvation Army band. A little later, in 1986, he joined the world-famous band Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks Unlimited. Touring the world for eight years with that band, he was their arranger, mbira player and saxophonist. From 1994 until his death in 2019, Chartwell based himself in Britain where he continued to teach and play mbira. Chartwell had academic qualifications in music, including a degree in Ethnomusicology from SOAS in Lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erica Azim
Erica Kundidzora Azim is a musician based in Berkeley, California, who is associated with a not-for-profit organisation. Recordings ''Mbira - Healing Music of Zimbabwe'' The Relaxation Company ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ... CD, 2000 ''Mbira Dreams'' The Relaxation Company CD 3261 and cassette, 1996 "Nyama musango" on ''Belief: A Collection of World Sacred Music'' Beliefnet CD 1001, 2000 "Mwanangu" on ''Mama’s Lullaby and Mother Earth Lullaby'' Ellipsis Arts CDs 4291 and 4293, March 2001 and 2002 "Nyama musango" (background for Peter Matthiesen reading from "Sand Rivers") on ''The Naturalists'' Audio Literature, 1997 with Forward Kwenda: ''Forward Kwenda - Svikiro: Meditations of an Mbira Master'' Shanachie CD 64095, 1997 (extensive liner notes by Eri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephat Mujuru
Ephat Mujuru (1950–2001), was a Zimbabwean musician, one of the 20th century's finest players of the mbira, a traditional instrument of the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe. Allmusic biography/ref> Biography Although Mujuru played all of Zimbabwe's five types of mbira, he specialty was the '' mbira dzavadzimu''. Ephat Mujuru was raised in a small village in Manicaland, near the Mozambican border, and was taught to play the mbira by his grandfather, Muchatera Mujuru. Muchatera was a medium for one of the most important ancestor spirits in Shona cosmology, Chaminuka. Showing clear talent for the rigours of mbira training, Ephat advanced quickly, playing his first possession ceremony when he was just ten. At his Rhodesian-run Catholic school, young Mujuru's teachers told him that to play mbira was a "sin against God." This irritated Muchatera so much that he withdrew his grandson and sent him to school in an African township outside the capital, Salisbury, present day Harare. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dumisani Maraire
Abraham Dumisani Maraire (27 December 1944 – 25 November 1999), known to friends as "Dumi", was a master performer of the ''mbira'', a traditional instrument of the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe. He specialized in the form of ''mbira'' called ''nyunga nyunga'', as well as the Zimbabwean marimba. He introduced Zimbabwean music to North America, initiating a flourishing of Zimbabwean music in the Pacific Northwest that continues into the 21st century.John Ross, "Dumisani Maraire", ''Seattle Metropolitan'', December 2008, p. 76. Dumi is credited for his famous 1–15 number notation used on the ''nyunga nyunga'' mbira and for notating the song "Chemutengure" on the ''nyunga nyunga'' mbira. The song "Chemutengure" is used to teach mbira learners the technique of playing the instrument. Biography Dumi was born in Mutare, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He began learning music from family members, and later at the college of music in Bulawayo. Maraire taught from 1968 through 1972 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chimurenga
''Chimurenga'' is a word in the Shona language. The Ndebele equivalent, though not as widely used since the majority of Zimbabweans are Shona speaking, is ''Umvukela'', meaning "revolutionary struggle" or uprising. In specific historical terms, it also refers to the Ndebele and Shona insurrections against administration of the British South Africa Company during the late 1890s—the Second Matabele War, or First ''Chimurenga''—and the war fought between African nationalist guerrillas and the predominantly white Rhodesian government during the 1960s and 1970s—the Rhodesian Bush War, or Second ''Chimurenga''/''Imvukela''. The concept is also occasionally used in reference to the land reform programme undertaken by the Government of Zimbabwe since 2000, which some call a Third ''Chimurenga''. Proponents of land reform regard it as the final phase in what they hold to be the liberation of Zimbabwe through economic and agrarian reforms intended to empower indigenous people, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Mtukudzi
Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi (22 September 1952 – 23 January 2019) was a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist, human rights activist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Southern Africa Region. Career Mtukudzi grew up in Highfield, a poor neighborhood in Salisbury (modern-day Harare) in Southern Rhodesia. He began performing in 1977 when he joined the Wagon Wheels, a band that also featured Thomas Mapfumo and fellow guitarist James Chimombe. They were given the rare opportunity by Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo, an African nationalist and music promotor, who provided money and resources to the group. He allowed them to perform at Club Mutanga (Pungwe) which, at the time, was the only night club available for blacks under Rhodesia's policy of segregation. Their single ''Dzandimomotera'' went gold and Tuku's first album followed, which was also a major success. Mtukudzi was also a contributor to Mahube, Southern Africa's "supergroup". With his husky voice, Mtukudzi became th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stella Chiweshe
Stella Chiweshe (also Stella Rambisai Chiweshe, Stella Rambisai Chiweshe Nekati, Mbuya Stella Chiweshe, or Stella Nekati Chiweshe; 8 July 1946 – 20 January 2023) was a Zimbabwean musician. She was known internationally for her singing and playing of the mbira dzavadzimu, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. She was one of few female players, and learned to play from 1966 to 1969, when other women did not. Biography Chiweshe was born on 8 July 1946 in Mujumi Village in Mhondoro. She learned to play the mbira from 1966 to 1969, at a time when there were social taboos against women playing the instrument, as well as colonial British prohibitions on cultural activities. She was taught by her great-uncle, after being refused by many teachers. During this period Chiweshe also performed forbidden Shona spiritual ceremonies. During the 1970s her music supported nationalist and women's rights causes. Her career as a recording artist began in 1974 with the relea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Mapfumo
Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo (born July 3, 1945) is a musician nicknamed "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" (the praise name of his clan in the Shona language) for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. He both created and made popular Chimurenga music, and his slow-moving style and distinctive voice is instantly recognisable to Zimbabweans. Mapfumo was imprisoned without charges under the white-dominated regime of Rhodesia, and he was hounded by the Mugabe government of Zimbabwe that succeeded it. He lived in exile in the United States for two decades, and in April 2018, returned to Zimbabwe for the first time since 2005 to perform a concert. Biography Mapfumo was born in 1945 in Marondera, Mashonaland East, a town southeast of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, though at the time the capital was called Salisbury and the country was a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
