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MAHUBE SOUND

Prejudice and Segregation was a curse in Southern Africa in the 1940’s and 50’s but one of the most interesting results of that racial prejudice was a musical art-form which sprang in Black African Townships on the outskirts of the cities of Harare and Bulawayo. Blacks were not allowed in white areas or theatres so they had to make their own entertainment at "Tea Parties" - so dubbed to avoid breaking the law which forbade Africans to consume "European" alcohol and prohibited them from brewing their own. But they listened to South African Kwela brought back by immigrant farm workers or labourers returning from the gold mines around Johannesburg as well as other forms of music salvaged by domestic workers from Europeans leaving the country.

As the saying goes - Nothing does an Art or a Nation so much good as letting foreigners in. During the 1950’s, that music in Black African Townships was affected and effected other sorts of music. From the fusion of Afro-Cuban Rumba rhythms to the adaption of the cool style of the "Mills Brothers" by the "City Quads" and "Epworth Theatrical Stratas" to the coupling of the marriage between Anglo-Saxon hymns with the African beat, the riffs in ragtime and flattened notes of the Blues scale. Yet from that Melting Pot and conspiracy of events, Zimbabwe has that separate cultural strand - a music of its own identity - its own way of going about things.

The ambience reverberated by this music with its tinge of Kwela, plenty of sweet riffs, African drums and percussion and over-riding sound of saxophone and melodious penny whistle -is the most understandable fusion musical - a serving from the Melting Pot. A classic example of the wanderer returning home to roost after exposure to all other forms of culture and music.

Robbie Kroeger, born of European descent in Zimbabwe, during the colonial era - but bred with Black labourers’ kids on a farm in Mutoko, North East of Harare, blends the European beat and African rhythms he grew up listening to, with that of Emmylot Ndlovu, a Black Zimbabwean who started off blowing the penny whistle as a child in the Black townships on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s second capital, Bulawayo - then graduated on to alto and tenor saxophones as he grew up. Emmylot plays alto and tenor penny whistle simultaneously.

Robbie and Emmylot have not only achieved musical unity between them and with their excursions to the 50’s, bringing the music of that era plus the cross fertilisation which has taken place in contemporary music into one album. They have drawn together people of all the colours of the rainbow, the young and the old and wooed even the most shy to the dance floor whenever they belt out these tunes to packed houses. It is the epitomy of the Melting Pot -a point of convergence of cultures and music. Their extraordinary historical album "David Livingstone and the Presumers" is so full of goodies that you can start anywhere and go in any direction with it because it is so entrancing. That takes the kind of LOVE that music brings out quicker than any other art-form.

It features USEMNCANE - "Do not cry, God is watching over you", a soothing melodious Zulu hymn riding over a bluesy and rich percussious rhythm proving that, music is music, but Robbie and Emylot working together in the mind of real talent, it can emerge as effective communication.

VURA MATAMBO - A suggestive pub or "Shabeen", (unlicenced township pub) song composed by J. Chimungawaro in 1950
On the Tune BYO RUMBA, Emmylot displays his skill on the saxophone in this fusion of Afro-Cuban sound with Zimbabwean swing.

August Musarurwa and his Bulawayo Cold Storage Sweet Rhythm Band

The tune was written by August Musarurwa, whose "Skokian" song continues to dominate international airwaves since it was made famous by Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong after he visited Zimbabwe in 1960 and played along with August and his "Bulawayo Cold Storage Sweet Rhythm Band".

The Boogie Woogie storm did not spare Zimbabwe when it swept through the continent in the 40’s. The hard schooled and going Zimbabwean musicians then, used a lot of scatting and voices to feel in the instrumental parts played in the the Big Bands in America. Robbie and Emmylot demonstrate their musical skills leaving you indecisive whether you should dance or just concentrate on listening on the Tune VAFANA VE AFRICA. (The Children of Africa.).

In a symbolic style, O TSOTSI, A country style early message written by George Sibanda in 1959 about an itinerant rural man moving up into town, expressing his fears of "Tsotsi" - the town conmen. Robbie and Emmloty bring the tune to sophisticated urban communication.

In the Title Song. HELLO DAVID - Robbie gets into a satirical mood in his composition, "David Livingstone I presume". He was shown the Water that thunders and named it after his British Queen Victoria, says Robbie tongue in cheek. A musical reflection of the large heart of sunny Zimbabwe.

In another development, a group of Southern African musicians have teamed up to collaborate in the production of an all-southern Africa traditional music album on the same lines.
George Phiri, a South Africa-based Malawian artist dealing with the project, said the album - "Rhythm of Southern Africa" - will comprise Zimbabwe’s legendary musician, Oliver Mtukudzi, South Africa’s Suthukazi Arosi and Phinda Mtya who have come together to form an outfit called ‘Mahube.’
"Our aim is to come up with original traditional hits that will transcend rhythms from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa," he said.

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