\n| Bhundu Boys<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Book: Music Rocking Zimbabwe<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAuthor: Fred Zindi<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\nPublisher: Zindisc (2014)<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\nISBN: 1-77905-138-8 <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Music, that mellow breeze which refreshes nations, decodes the language of the heart and makes one blood of a racially profiled globe, is at the core of Zimbabwean culture. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Through dark days, music is a moody companion for the children of tribulation, and when colour, vista and melody flare up, music courses delight around the passcodes of the soul.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Surprisingly, for a site of vast cultural wealth and staggering genius, there is no tradition of critical reception to match Zimbabwean music.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Prof. Fred Zindi and Joyce Jenje-Makwenda are among the few authorities who have worked extensively to broker critical posterity for local music.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi has written several books on local music, notably \u201cRoots Rocking in Zimbabwe\u201d, \u201cThe Pop Music Workbook\u201d, \u201cMusic yeZimbabwe\u201d and \u201cMusic Rocking from Zimbabwe\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n And now the afro-sporting music encyclopedia and Herald columnist has dropped his seventh publication entitled \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d is a comprehensive account of Zimbabwe\u2019s musical tradition from old school, beginning at the mid-century township renaissance, to the present, controversially dubbed the bubblegum generation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The book is nothing like most academic titles on the arts whose winding preambles promise no immediate relation to the subject. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n This is a considerable merit, as most books from universities are tedious put-offs, at best offering occasional gems in a mass of generic history and hardly navigable jargon.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi\u2019s clarity and authority is fit to the task at hand, with anecdotes, touches of humour and crazy hyperboles like \u201ca bassline which could stop an elephant dead in its tracks\u201d speeding up the flip-mode.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Steve Makoni\u2019s response to \u201cHatichina Wekutamba Naye\u201d, RUNN Family\u2019s tribute track for Samora Machel: \u201cOh please! Are you the same age with Samora to want to play with him?\u201d is one of these comic moments.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n On the other hand, episodes such as Biggie Tembo\u2019s juggling of stand-up comedy, straight whisky and pastoral studies after being booted out of the internationally acclaimed Bhundu Boys border on tragedy. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The book opens with a brief clarification of jargon and a snap outline of musical dispensations, particularly in the West from the Rennaisance to pop music, represented by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and others, a phase which concurs with the emergence of popular recording artists in Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The musically uninitiated thus equipped with an understanding of basics such as melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre and texture, Zindi reverts to the heart of the matter: the exclusively Zimbabwean musical experience.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although Zindi sets out to put together a comprehensive guide to Zimbabwean music for academic purposes, the most interesting, incidentally the longest, section of the book is Zindi\u2019s profiles of the great Zimbabwean musicians.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi redeems a vast expanse of Zimbabwe\u2019s music dynasties from an extinction phase. Local researchers have not done much to set against posterity the creative wealth of early Zimbabwean music.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n A random search on the Internet returns a massive inventory of biography and research on the musicians of other regions but so little, at least in academic cast, on Zimbabwe\u2019s musical strivings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi significantly plugs the void, rewinding in time to capture the exploits of Zimbabwean artists from as far back as the 1930s. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The featured artists are not racially compartmentalised because, as Zindi metaphorically observes elsewhere, the melody of the piano is in black and the white keys alike.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi suggests that music was a necessary function of human existence since the beginning of time but tentatively highlights the 14th century as the period when traditional musical instruments such as the chipendani, hosho, hwamanda and chigufe are said to have been in evidence locally.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zimbabwe\u2019s musical boom begins in earnest between the 1940s and 1960s when the likes of Laina Mataka, Dorothy Masuka, Mura Nyaruka, Sam Matambo, Susan Chenjerai, Safirio Madzikatire and Zexie Manatsa emerge.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFrom the 1940s to the 1950s, Zimbabwean traditional music had a basic rhythm known as tsava-tsava,\u201d Zindi recalls. \u201cMost urban young people would get together at community centres to learn to play the saxophone, the banjo or the rhythm.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n These amateur ventures, says Zindi, led to trios who played the tsava-tsava rhythm, their mergers with choirs facilitating the rise of Zimbabwe\u2019s earliest pop bands.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zimbabwean music assumed a cosmopolitan resume in the 1960s when tsava-tsava cross-pollinated with rhumba, cha-cha-cha, smanje-manje and other influences. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi references the Harare Mambo Band\u2019s ability to play jit, kwela, reggae, soul, sungura, rock, rhumba, traditional and mbaqanga in one performance as an example of the subsisting diversity of local music.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n He places the breakthrough of sungura, arguably Zimbabwe\u2019s most popular music genre, in the early 1980s, with exponents such as the Sungura Boys featuring notables Ephraim Joe, John Chibadura, Simon and Naison Chimbetu and Mitchell Jambo and the equally star-studded Khiama Boys featuring Nicholas Zakaria, Alick Macheso and System Tazvida.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi extensively profiles the foremost acts of Zimbabwean music across the genres including Leonard Zhakata, Charles Charamba, Bhundu Boys, Four Brothers, Ilanga, Mokoomba, Oliver Mtukudzi, Leonard Dembo, Pied Pipers, Alick Macheso and Jah Prayzah. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi might have done a better job had he provided more close-up detail and allowed us to hear the artists in their own words, given his exclusive access to the experiences of some of the musicians.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n What he forcefully brings out, though, is the professional deficit in Zimbabwe\u2019s showbiz circuit and our deplorable failure to appreciate our own artists, factors which have conspired against Zimbabwean artists\u2019 claim to universal recognition.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Take Marshal Munhumumwe\u2019s Four Brothers. After a sustained torrent of massive hits including \u201cRugare\u201d, \u201cVimbai\u201d, \u201cZuro Chisara\u201d and the golden single of Zimbabwean Independence, \u201cMakorokoto\u201d, the Four Brothers remained poor, unable to buy their own instruments or to tour beyond Machipisa.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n The success of their record sales did not expedite their fortunes as the band was only paid 4 percent of recording royalties and 40 percent of gate-takings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ironically, it took the intervention of international promoter Stuart Lyons in 1986, and the subsequent deal with Cooking Vinyl for the group to taste commercial success.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n BBC\u2019s John Peel would later champion the Four Brothers as \u201cthe world\u2019s number one band\u201d and flaunt \u201cPasi Pano Pane Zviyedzo\u201d as one of the best records of all time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi indicts Zimbabwean promoters\u2019 deplorable treatment of local artists and their failure to harness homegrown talent, this starkly contrasted to their lavish handling of international artists.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sober critics would agree that most of these overrated international artists are inferior to our local talent better but, as late national hero Cde Ariston Chambati once said, if we cannot take ourselves seriously the world has no reason to take us seriously.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n This assessment applies across the creative circuit where poor sales, mediocre administration and status-oriented, hence static, critical reception threatens to sink whatever Zimbabwe has to offer in terms of talent. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n But if traffic lights are a sustained flood of red for Zimbabwean artists, then defiance and resilience were the keynote values of the few who eventually make it to the top.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zimbabwe\u2019s foremost gospel artist Charles Charamba is a case in point. Charamba struggled to land a recording deal as Gramma insisted that he ditch his disruptive blend of gospel, jit and sungura for South African rhythms in the tradition of Sipho Makabane, Rebecca Malope and Vuyo Mokoena who were then big in Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Charamba, along with Zora legend Leonard Zhakata and Zimbabwe\u2019s recent exports, Mokoomba and Jah Prayzah, is an example of the inevitable triumph of genius over the conspiracy of market forces.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zindi\u2019s important contribution to the critical canon of Zimbabwean music is, however, compromised by minor issues of accuracy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n For example, Jah Prayzah tracks \u201cDande\u201d, featuring Chiwoniso Maraire, and \u201cKumusha\u201d, featuring Somandla Ndebele, are erroneously assigned to “Sungano Yerudo” (2009) instead of \u201cNgwarira Kuparara\u201d (2011). The \u201cTsviriyo\u201d video is also mixed up with \u201cYambuka Rukova\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d is necessary resource for aspirant musicians as it provides information on procedures, rights and ethics of the music business including publishing contracts and securing promoters.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bhundu Boys Book: Music Rocking Zimbabwe Author: Fred Zindi Publisher: Zindisc (2014) ISBN: 1-77905-138-8 Music, that mellow breeze which refreshes nations, decodes the language of the heart and makes one blood of a racially profiled globe, is at the core of Zimbabwean culture. Through dark days, music is a moody companion for the children of tribulation, and when colour, vista and melody flare up, music courses delight around the passcodes of the soul. Surprisingly, for a site of vast cultural wealth and staggering genius, there is no tradition of critical reception to match Zimbabwean music. Prof. Fred Zindi and Joyce Jenje-Makwenda are among the few authorities who have worked extensively to broker critical posterity for local music. Zindi has written several books on local music, notably \u201cRoots Rocking in Zimbabwe\u201d, \u201cThe Pop Music Workbook\u201d, \u201cMusic yeZimbabwe\u201d and \u201cMusic Rocking from Zimbabwe\u201d. And now the afro-sporting music encyclopedia and Herald columnist has dropped his seventh publication entitled \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d. \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d is a comprehensive account of Zimbabwe\u2019s musical tradition from old school, beginning at the mid-century township renaissance, to the present, controversially dubbed the bubblegum generation. The book is nothing like most academic titles on the arts whose winding preambles promise no immediate relation to the subject. This is a considerable merit, as most books from universities are tedious put-offs, at best offering occasional gems in a mass of generic history and hardly navigable jargon. Zindi\u2019s clarity and authority is fit to the task at hand, with anecdotes, touches of humour and crazy hyperboles like \u201ca bassline which could stop an elephant dead in its tracks\u201d speeding up the flip-mode. Steve Makoni\u2019s response to \u201cHatichina Wekutamba Naye\u201d, RUNN Family\u2019s tribute track for Samora Machel: \u201cOh please! Are you the same age with Samora to want to play with him?\u201d is one of these comic moments. On the other hand, episodes such as Biggie Tembo\u2019s juggling of stand-up comedy, straight whisky and pastoral studies after being booted out of the internationally acclaimed Bhundu Boys border on tragedy. The book opens with a brief clarification of jargon and a snap outline of musical dispensations, particularly in the West from the Rennaisance to pop music, represented by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and others, a phase which concurs with the emergence of popular recording artists in Zimbabwe. The musically uninitiated thus equipped with an understanding of basics such as melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre and texture, Zindi reverts to the heart of the matter: the exclusively Zimbabwean musical experience. Although Zindi sets out to put together a comprehensive guide to Zimbabwean music for academic purposes, the most interesting, incidentally the longest, section of the book is Zindi\u2019s profiles of the great Zimbabwean musicians. Zindi redeems a vast expanse of Zimbabwe\u2019s music dynasties from an extinction phase. Local researchers have not done much to set against posterity the creative wealth of early Zimbabwean music. A random search on the Internet returns a massive inventory of biography and research on the musicians of other regions but so little, at least in academic cast, on Zimbabwe\u2019s musical strivings. Zindi significantly plugs the void, rewinding in time to capture the exploits of Zimbabwean artists from as far back as the 1930s. The featured artists are not racially compartmentalised because, as Zindi metaphorically observes elsewhere, the melody of the piano is in black and the white keys alike. Zindi suggests that music was a necessary function of human existence since the beginning of time but tentatively highlights the 14th century as the period when traditional musical instruments such as the chipendani, hosho, hwamanda and chigufe are said to have been in evidence locally. Zimbabwe\u2019s musical boom begins in earnest between the 1940s and 1960s when the likes of Laina Mataka, Dorothy Masuka, Mura Nyaruka, Sam Matambo, Susan Chenjerai, Safirio Madzikatire and Zexie Manatsa emerge. \u201cFrom the 1940s to the 1950s, Zimbabwean traditional music had a basic rhythm known as tsava-tsava,\u201d Zindi recalls. \u201cMost urban young people would get together at community centres to learn to play the saxophone, the banjo or the rhythm.\u201d These amateur ventures, says Zindi, led to trios who played the tsava-tsava rhythm, their mergers with choirs facilitating the rise of Zimbabwe\u2019s earliest pop bands. Zimbabwean music assumed a cosmopolitan resume in the 1960s when tsava-tsava cross-pollinated with rhumba, cha-cha-cha, smanje-manje and other influences. Zindi references the Harare Mambo Band\u2019s ability to play jit, kwela, reggae, soul, sungura, rock, rhumba, traditional and mbaqanga in one performance as an example of the subsisting diversity of local music. He places the breakthrough of sungura, arguably Zimbabwe\u2019s most popular music genre, in the early 1980s, with exponents such as the Sungura Boys featuring notables Ephraim Joe, John Chibadura, Simon and Naison Chimbetu and Mitchell Jambo and the equally star-studded Khiama Boys featuring Nicholas Zakaria, Alick Macheso and System Tazvida. Zindi extensively profiles the foremost acts of Zimbabwean music across the genres including Leonard Zhakata, Charles Charamba, Bhundu Boys, Four Brothers, Ilanga, Mokoomba, Oliver Mtukudzi, Leonard Dembo, Pied Pipers, Alick Macheso and Jah Prayzah. Zindi might have done a better job had he provided more close-up detail and allowed us to hear the artists in their own words, given his exclusive access to the experiences of some of the musicians. What he forcefully brings out, though, is the professional deficit in Zimbabwe\u2019s showbiz circuit and our deplorable failure to appreciate our own artists, factors which have conspired against Zimbabwean artists\u2019 claim to universal recognition. Take Marshal Munhumumwe\u2019s Four Brothers. After a sustained torrent of massive hits including \u201cRugare\u201d, \u201cVimbai\u201d, \u201cZuro Chisara\u201d and the golden single of Zimbabwean Independence, \u201cMakorokoto\u201d, the Four Brothers remained poor, unable to buy their own instruments or to tour beyond Machipisa. The success of their record sales did not expedite their fortunes as the band was only paid 4 percent of recording royalties and 40 percent of gate-takings. Ironically, it took the intervention of international promoter Stuart Lyons in 1986, and the subsequent deal with Cooking Vinyl for the group to taste commercial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-music"],"yoast_head":"\n Jit Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe's Music Dynasties | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jit Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe's Music Dynasties | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bhundu Boys Book: Music Rocking Zimbabwe Author: Fred Zindi Publisher: Zindisc (2014) ISBN: 1-77905-138-8 Music, that mellow breeze which refreshes nations, decodes the language of the heart and makes one blood of a racially profiled globe, is at the core of Zimbabwean culture. Through dark days, music is a moody companion for the children of tribulation, and when colour, vista and melody flare up, music courses delight around the passcodes of the soul. Surprisingly, for a site of vast cultural wealth and staggering genius, there is no tradition of critical reception to match Zimbabwean music. Prof. Fred Zindi and Joyce Jenje-Makwenda are among the few authorities who have worked extensively to broker critical posterity for local music. Zindi has written several books on local music, notably \u201cRoots Rocking in Zimbabwe\u201d, \u201cThe Pop Music Workbook\u201d, \u201cMusic yeZimbabwe\u201d and \u201cMusic Rocking from Zimbabwe\u201d. And now the afro-sporting music encyclopedia and Herald columnist has dropped his seventh publication entitled \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d. \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d is a comprehensive account of Zimbabwe\u2019s musical tradition from old school, beginning at the mid-century township renaissance, to the present, controversially dubbed the bubblegum generation. The book is nothing like most academic titles on the arts whose winding preambles promise no immediate relation to the subject. This is a considerable merit, as most books from universities are tedious put-offs, at best offering occasional gems in a mass of generic history and hardly navigable jargon. Zindi\u2019s clarity and authority is fit to the task at hand, with anecdotes, touches of humour and crazy hyperboles like \u201ca bassline which could stop an elephant dead in its tracks\u201d speeding up the flip-mode. Steve Makoni\u2019s response to \u201cHatichina Wekutamba Naye\u201d, RUNN Family\u2019s tribute track for Samora Machel: \u201cOh please! Are you the same age with Samora to want to play with him?\u201d is one of these comic moments. On the other hand, episodes such as Biggie Tembo\u2019s juggling of stand-up comedy, straight whisky and pastoral studies after being booted out of the internationally acclaimed Bhundu Boys border on tragedy. The book opens with a brief clarification of jargon and a snap outline of musical dispensations, particularly in the West from the Rennaisance to pop music, represented by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and others, a phase which concurs with the emergence of popular recording artists in Zimbabwe. The musically uninitiated thus equipped with an understanding of basics such as melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre and texture, Zindi reverts to the heart of the matter: the exclusively Zimbabwean musical experience. Although Zindi sets out to put together a comprehensive guide to Zimbabwean music for academic purposes, the most interesting, incidentally the longest, section of the book is Zindi\u2019s profiles of the great Zimbabwean musicians. Zindi redeems a vast expanse of Zimbabwe\u2019s music dynasties from an extinction phase. Local researchers have not done much to set against posterity the creative wealth of early Zimbabwean music. A random search on the Internet returns a massive inventory of biography and research on the musicians of other regions but so little, at least in academic cast, on Zimbabwe\u2019s musical strivings. Zindi significantly plugs the void, rewinding in time to capture the exploits of Zimbabwean artists from as far back as the 1930s. The featured artists are not racially compartmentalised because, as Zindi metaphorically observes elsewhere, the melody of the piano is in black and the white keys alike. Zindi suggests that music was a necessary function of human existence since the beginning of time but tentatively highlights the 14th century as the period when traditional musical instruments such as the chipendani, hosho, hwamanda and chigufe are said to have been in evidence locally. Zimbabwe\u2019s musical boom begins in earnest between the 1940s and 1960s when the likes of Laina Mataka, Dorothy Masuka, Mura Nyaruka, Sam Matambo, Susan Chenjerai, Safirio Madzikatire and Zexie Manatsa emerge. \u201cFrom the 1940s to the 1950s, Zimbabwean traditional music had a basic rhythm known as tsava-tsava,\u201d Zindi recalls. \u201cMost urban young people would get together at community centres to learn to play the saxophone, the banjo or the rhythm.\u201d These amateur ventures, says Zindi, led to trios who played the tsava-tsava rhythm, their mergers with choirs facilitating the rise of Zimbabwe\u2019s earliest pop bands. Zimbabwean music assumed a cosmopolitan resume in the 1960s when tsava-tsava cross-pollinated with rhumba, cha-cha-cha, smanje-manje and other influences. Zindi references the Harare Mambo Band\u2019s ability to play jit, kwela, reggae, soul, sungura, rock, rhumba, traditional and mbaqanga in one performance as an example of the subsisting diversity of local music. He places the breakthrough of sungura, arguably Zimbabwe\u2019s most popular music genre, in the early 1980s, with exponents such as the Sungura Boys featuring notables Ephraim Joe, John Chibadura, Simon and Naison Chimbetu and Mitchell Jambo and the equally star-studded Khiama Boys featuring Nicholas Zakaria, Alick Macheso and System Tazvida. Zindi extensively profiles the foremost acts of Zimbabwean music across the genres including Leonard Zhakata, Charles Charamba, Bhundu Boys, Four Brothers, Ilanga, Mokoomba, Oliver Mtukudzi, Leonard Dembo, Pied Pipers, Alick Macheso and Jah Prayzah. Zindi might have done a better job had he provided more close-up detail and allowed us to hear the artists in their own words, given his exclusive access to the experiences of some of the musicians. What he forcefully brings out, though, is the professional deficit in Zimbabwe\u2019s showbiz circuit and our deplorable failure to appreciate our own artists, factors which have conspired against Zimbabwean artists\u2019 claim to universal recognition. Take Marshal Munhumumwe\u2019s Four Brothers. After a sustained torrent of massive hits including \u201cRugare\u201d, \u201cVimbai\u201d, \u201cZuro Chisara\u201d and the golden single of Zimbabwean Independence, \u201cMakorokoto\u201d, the Four Brothers remained poor, unable to buy their own instruments or to tour beyond Machipisa. The success of their record sales did not expedite their fortunes as the band was only paid 4 percent of recording royalties and 40 percent of gate-takings. Ironically, it took the intervention of international promoter Stuart Lyons in 1986, and the subsequent deal with Cooking Vinyl for the group to taste commercial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T07:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-26T07:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.herald.co.zw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/BIGGIE-TEMBO.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe’s Music 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\/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jit Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe's Music Dynasties | Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jit Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe's Music Dynasties | Blockspace","og_description":"Bhundu Boys Book: Music Rocking Zimbabwe Author: Fred Zindi Publisher: Zindisc (2014) ISBN: 1-77905-138-8 Music, that mellow breeze which refreshes nations, decodes the language of the heart and makes one blood of a racially profiled globe, is at the core of Zimbabwean culture. Through dark days, music is a moody companion for the children of tribulation, and when colour, vista and melody flare up, music courses delight around the passcodes of the soul. Surprisingly, for a site of vast cultural wealth and staggering genius, there is no tradition of critical reception to match Zimbabwean music. Prof. Fred Zindi and Joyce Jenje-Makwenda are among the few authorities who have worked extensively to broker critical posterity for local music. Zindi has written several books on local music, notably \u201cRoots Rocking in Zimbabwe\u201d, \u201cThe Pop Music Workbook\u201d, \u201cMusic yeZimbabwe\u201d and \u201cMusic Rocking from Zimbabwe\u201d. And now the afro-sporting music encyclopedia and Herald columnist has dropped his seventh publication entitled \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d. \u201cMusic Rocking Zimbabwe\u201d is a comprehensive account of Zimbabwe\u2019s musical tradition from old school, beginning at the mid-century township renaissance, to the present, controversially dubbed the bubblegum generation. The book is nothing like most academic titles on the arts whose winding preambles promise no immediate relation to the subject. This is a considerable merit, as most books from universities are tedious put-offs, at best offering occasional gems in a mass of generic history and hardly navigable jargon. Zindi\u2019s clarity and authority is fit to the task at hand, with anecdotes, touches of humour and crazy hyperboles like \u201ca bassline which could stop an elephant dead in its tracks\u201d speeding up the flip-mode. Steve Makoni\u2019s response to \u201cHatichina Wekutamba Naye\u201d, RUNN Family\u2019s tribute track for Samora Machel: \u201cOh please! Are you the same age with Samora to want to play with him?\u201d is one of these comic moments. On the other hand, episodes such as Biggie Tembo\u2019s juggling of stand-up comedy, straight whisky and pastoral studies after being booted out of the internationally acclaimed Bhundu Boys border on tragedy. The book opens with a brief clarification of jargon and a snap outline of musical dispensations, particularly in the West from the Rennaisance to pop music, represented by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and others, a phase which concurs with the emergence of popular recording artists in Zimbabwe. The musically uninitiated thus equipped with an understanding of basics such as melody, rhythm, harmony, timbre and texture, Zindi reverts to the heart of the matter: the exclusively Zimbabwean musical experience. Although Zindi sets out to put together a comprehensive guide to Zimbabwean music for academic purposes, the most interesting, incidentally the longest, section of the book is Zindi\u2019s profiles of the great Zimbabwean musicians. Zindi redeems a vast expanse of Zimbabwe\u2019s music dynasties from an extinction phase. Local researchers have not done much to set against posterity the creative wealth of early Zimbabwean music. A random search on the Internet returns a massive inventory of biography and research on the musicians of other regions but so little, at least in academic cast, on Zimbabwe\u2019s musical strivings. Zindi significantly plugs the void, rewinding in time to capture the exploits of Zimbabwean artists from as far back as the 1930s. The featured artists are not racially compartmentalised because, as Zindi metaphorically observes elsewhere, the melody of the piano is in black and the white keys alike. Zindi suggests that music was a necessary function of human existence since the beginning of time but tentatively highlights the 14th century as the period when traditional musical instruments such as the chipendani, hosho, hwamanda and chigufe are said to have been in evidence locally. Zimbabwe\u2019s musical boom begins in earnest between the 1940s and 1960s when the likes of Laina Mataka, Dorothy Masuka, Mura Nyaruka, Sam Matambo, Susan Chenjerai, Safirio Madzikatire and Zexie Manatsa emerge. \u201cFrom the 1940s to the 1950s, Zimbabwean traditional music had a basic rhythm known as tsava-tsava,\u201d Zindi recalls. \u201cMost urban young people would get together at community centres to learn to play the saxophone, the banjo or the rhythm.\u201d These amateur ventures, says Zindi, led to trios who played the tsava-tsava rhythm, their mergers with choirs facilitating the rise of Zimbabwe\u2019s earliest pop bands. Zimbabwean music assumed a cosmopolitan resume in the 1960s when tsava-tsava cross-pollinated with rhumba, cha-cha-cha, smanje-manje and other influences. Zindi references the Harare Mambo Band\u2019s ability to play jit, kwela, reggae, soul, sungura, rock, rhumba, traditional and mbaqanga in one performance as an example of the subsisting diversity of local music. He places the breakthrough of sungura, arguably Zimbabwe\u2019s most popular music genre, in the early 1980s, with exponents such as the Sungura Boys featuring notables Ephraim Joe, John Chibadura, Simon and Naison Chimbetu and Mitchell Jambo and the equally star-studded Khiama Boys featuring Nicholas Zakaria, Alick Macheso and System Tazvida. Zindi extensively profiles the foremost acts of Zimbabwean music across the genres including Leonard Zhakata, Charles Charamba, Bhundu Boys, Four Brothers, Ilanga, Mokoomba, Oliver Mtukudzi, Leonard Dembo, Pied Pipers, Alick Macheso and Jah Prayzah. Zindi might have done a better job had he provided more close-up detail and allowed us to hear the artists in their own words, given his exclusive access to the experiences of some of the musicians. What he forcefully brings out, though, is the professional deficit in Zimbabwe\u2019s showbiz circuit and our deplorable failure to appreciate our own artists, factors which have conspired against Zimbabwean artists\u2019 claim to universal recognition. Take Marshal Munhumumwe\u2019s Four Brothers. After a sustained torrent of massive hits including \u201cRugare\u201d, \u201cVimbai\u201d, \u201cZuro Chisara\u201d and the golden single of Zimbabwean Independence, \u201cMakorokoto\u201d, the Four Brothers remained poor, unable to buy their own instruments or to tour beyond Machipisa. The success of their record sales did not expedite their fortunes as the band was only paid 4 percent of recording royalties and 40 percent of gate-takings. Ironically, it took the intervention of international promoter Stuart Lyons in 1986, and the subsequent deal with Cooking Vinyl for the group to taste commercial","og_url":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460","og_site_name":"Blockspace","article_published_time":"2015-08-17T07:28:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-26T07:09:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.herald.co.zw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/BIGGIE-TEMBO.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"hardsouth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hardsouth","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=460"},"author":{"name":"hardsouth","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0"},"headline":"Jit Jamming \u2013 Zimbabwe’s Music 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