Few Afropop bands have risen as fast and fallen as tragically as Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys. While other Harare groups struggled to meld borrowed and indigenous musical elements, this young quintet seemed to nail it from the moment they started in the heady days after the country's 1980 independence. Their early records, Shabini and Tsvimbodzemoto, crystallized the breakneck jit sound, but also showed that the group could condense a nine-minute Zairean rumba/soukous extravaganza into just three, and slam out jive to rival Soweto's finest. Tight players, sweet singers and natural composers, the Bhundus captured the freshness of the new Zimbabwe, and frontman Biggie Tembo and lead guitarist Rise Kagona delivered irresistable live energy and charisma.

Within a few years, the band moved to Scotland, where they worked clubs throughout the U.K. and effectively broke the new Zimbabwe sound internationally. Their subsequent records awkwardly incorporated English lyrics and lacked the freshness of their first work, but the group's live energy sustained them.

After touring Europe and America repeatedly though, the Bhundus suffered the bitter defection of front man Biggie Tembo in 1990. The next year, bassist David Mankaba died after publicly announcing he suffered from AIDS. The remaining Bhundus recorded two more records. But after keyboard man and composer Shakie Kangwena also died in 1994, this pioneering band seemed to have reached the end of its long, wild road. The remaining founder, singer and guitarist Rise Kagona, maintains a contemporary version of the Bhundu Boys.