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Recent Reviews
Various Artists Shona Mbira Music Nonesuch Explorer, 1977
Nonesuch, 2002

The CD reissue of the Nonesuch Explorer series---beginning with the 12 Africa volumes in August, 2002---is an event of great significance. When these recordings were first circulated in the 1970s, they gave many people---including some who would then devote careers and lives to world music---their first exposure to global traditional sounds. For me, the three Zimbabwe releases of Shona mbira music, two of them recorded by Paul Berliner, were particularly important, and all these years later they still sound fantastic, especially this volume featuring the group Mhuri yekwaRwizi (Family of Chief Rwizi) and its sensational leader and vocalist Mude Hakurotwi. Mude's singing inspired and influenced the young Thomas Mapfumo, and among these 10 tracks are at least four traditional Shona pieces that later became the basis for songs by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited.

When Berliner made these historic recordings in the Highfield neighborhood of what was then Salisbury, Mapfumo had yet to begin recording his "chimurenga" songs, Zimbabwe was nearly a decade from winning its hard fought independence, and over here, Nixon was president and the word "afropop" had yet to be coined. In Southern Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was then known, mbira music was surging in popularity in the cities as part of a rising nationalist mood. But what strikes me listening these recordings all these years later is the timelessness of mbira music. This music links Zimbabweans to their ancient past, especially through its use in spirit possession ceremonies. A quarter century after we first heard it, the music links many of us to a less distant past, but the effect is still profound.

On a strictly musical level, there is still no better introduction to mbira music than these rich and beautiful recordings. The volume begins with three renditions of the central piece in the mbira repertoire, "Nhemamusasa." In the first short excerpt, the two mbiras are completely separated allowing you to plainly identify the notes in each part---the waltz-like part on the left, and the rolling triplets on the right---before the hosho shaker comes in and merges them into a single, complex rhythm. The third version is a complete, 11-minute performance, allowing Mude's voice to soar into other worlds. On "Nyamaropa Yekutanga," the one track actually recorded at a bira ceremony, we hear Mude engaging in different manners of traditional Shona singing: the high, breaking wail of huro, the low, cyclic humming of mahon'era, and the staccato poetry of kudeketera. There is also the clapping and foot stomping of an all out Shona party, and amid the excitement, you can make out the voice of the late mbira master Ephat Mujuru.

The variety of settings and manners of recording is a benefit here. There are two versions of the song "Taireva," the second being particularly intimate, focusing on the mbiras and relegating the relentless rhythm of the hosho to the far background. During some pieces, voices move around, sometimes close to the microphone, sometimes far away. These imperfections constantly remind us that we are eavesdropping on life here, and it is a privilege indeed, for these are brilliant musicians living out their cultural destiny with passionate immediacy under dire and difficult circumstances.


Contributed by Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org