Culture Beat
With AM Kudita
This week marks the rebranding of the former column. This column going forward will be hooking you up with tidbits on the entertainment sector locally against a global backdrop.
BRYAN K and Mr Kamera
As if the Heavy Machine was not hard enough assault on our musical ears, Starbright alumni Bryan K teams up with Anashe Media Group and S.A. based music producer Tatenda Kamera in a serious urban joint titled Pamusika. The groove has a throbbing bass with subtle Latino guitar inflections. It is pure pop yet different in its design. Not the usual run of the milk faux RnB of Zimbabwe’s so called urban grooves era. No it is not a self-parody of that lionised era pf Zimbabwean music.
The ditty is somewhat a thematic continuation of Bryan K’s Heavy Machine.
These boys seem to favour the Miss Malaika sort of chick i.e. full bodied in the reference to ‘musikana akasvika’. That the track is a collaborative effort is an example of the synergy these young cats need to embrace. There is that multiplier effect in coming together.
Akon literally built his career this way.
Some will argue that there is a downside in collages especially regarding the dubious universe that that the music industry is. Ego tripping sometimes seems to be the business’ mainstay. How do we rate this Pamusika joint ?
First, Kamera didn’t put a foot wrong production wise. Bryan K is self-assured vocally and his voice powers through and anchors the groove. I don’t know, I feel like right now Bryan K is in a vocal nirvana.
Sound of soul
Next up has gotta be my brother soul and RnB man Fungai Nengare. This past week Fungai snagged the number one spot on Star FM and yes he was ecstatic over the achievement. It’s what artistes dream of, that recognition and that warm embrace from fans when your song makes it into the charts.
The song responsible for taking the prime spot is ‘Maybe It’s You’ featuring DJ Naida. Fungai has come a long way since his days as part of Kelly Rusike’s group to the acoustic nights sessions alongside Prayersoul and others.
Nengare vocally is pure RnB and he makes no apologies for who and what he is about in a society which sometimes is hypocritical about the kinds of choices artists make for themselves. If you can listen to John Legend, you can listen to Nengare.
But he is not trying to be John Legend. Nengare is clearly himself as singer, songwriter and guitarist. If ever you thought soul music is dead, think again. Maybe it’s you who out wasn’t looking or listening hard enough.
Legends concert koBulawayo
On the 26th of November all roads will lead to White City stadium as most of the name artists gather to honour bygone legends such as Majaivana and Ilanga. Great and small, the artists will converge hoping to fill the 20 000 seater stadium.
Sceptics are already ‘ascream’ over the event. Some reckon the gig is too ambitious. Maybe. But ambition is very much at home in show business. What can you do without it? Thus Nkululeko Nkala, Nkululeko Dube and Jeys Marabini have dreamed up this gig with great hopes. As far as I am concerned, nothing ventured nothing gained. Certain things can be done better next year of course. Like giving the gig an early start.
The concept is really one big jam session with many artists spanning all the genres. Back in the day Clive Malunga pioneered the Jenaguru Music Festival in which he would put all the major artists on one band stand from day till the following morning. Don’t know what became of it.
Stage: Tellers the musical
Baya penned, Memory Kumbota directed and Simon Mambazo Phiri produced Tellers musical play premieres at the Bulawayo Theatre tonight. The cast includes the likes of singer/actress Donna Ncube and poetess/singer/actress Lady Tshawe among others. Rehearsals have been going on at Nhimbe Trust premises in past few weeks.
Nhimbe Trust happens to be the ones bankrolling the play’s production. Not wishing to pre-empt the play, suffice it to say that it is a play set in a supermarket. The rest you have to discover for yourself after parting with $3. I also imagine that with the level of talent helming this gig that theatre lovers will not to be disappointed. All the key persons leading the musical are stage veterans with brands to protect.
Escape – the movie
My friend Munya CEO of TV Yangu posted an alert about the live streaming of Joe Njagu’s Escape film via Facebook. I wonder how that went. But I like the innovation. It works especially if you have ‘healthy’ bandwidth. I have reason to believe that we are getting to that day when internet will be easily accessible and cheap. Then may we stream as many movies as we wish to.
For now, it’s kinda tricky.
Parting shot
One of my privileges in this industry is to have the inside track on what’s hot and in the oven. I get audio tracks and alerts about gigs and stuff. So today I was sitting on a mixing session of music by one Sibusiso Harvey from the Growing Faith Church in Bulawayo. The brother is gospel music’s artistic truth. He is one to watch definitely. Producer prodigy Percy Mpofu of Velocity Records is handling that business and it sounds massive this far. It’s the audio of a live DVD recording and if anyone ever told you Bulawayo gospel is dead, they don’t know what they were talking about.
