Thomas Mapfumo
& the Blacks Unlimited

Zimbabwe

Thomas Mapfumo has been in bands since the age of 16. He first made a name for himself in 1972 as the leader of the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, named for the farm job Mapfumo was doing at the time. Many of that band’s best original songs were re-released in 2006 on the CD "Take One." It is a phenomenally mature collection of tunes, featuring a precise rhythm section, crisp electric guitar work, grippingly hypnotic vocals, and track after track of fantastically danceable melodies. When listening to the CD today one immediately perceives Mapfumo’s immense talent and drive. With hindsight one can also hear traces and foreshadowings of the new form of music that within just a few years became the soundtrack of the revolution against racist colonial rule in Zimbabwe.

Mapfumo was born in a rural village southeast of Harare, Zimbabwe. His family moved to the capital when he was 10. Thomas took to music at an early age, and couldn’t get enough of the sounds of American artists like Elvis Presley and Otis Redding. And yet, by the time he headed the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, he had, by transcribing the sounds of the mbira (the chief instrument of traditional Shona music) to the electric guitar, already come up with arrangements that combined Shona music with the American rock that dominated the radio waves. He also sang primarily in the Shona language, rather than in English. The result was the popular music Mapfumo called Chimurenga ("Struggle"), with its grinding tempo and pure melodies that was to take all Zimbabwe by storm.

The Chicken Run Band’s first steady gigs were at a copper mine, performing to exhausted miners at the end of their shifts. Almost right away Mapfumo's lyrics became overtly political, supporting the growing revolution against the dictatorial rule of the white minority government of Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia). In the next years Mapfumo’s abilities and reputation as a great musician kept growing, as did his following.

The government took steps to silence him, including banning his music from state radio and arresting him several times on fabricated charges. One such attempt led to mass demonstrations that eventually compelled the government to release him. The bitter fight for power ended when free elections were held in 1980 and a democratic government was installed.

Incredibly prolific, Mapfumo had throughout those years composed one great song after another, recording and performing them whenever possible. Decades later the songs, re-released on such CDs as "Hokoyo", "Chimurenga Rebel", "Chimurenga Singles", "Chimurenga Explosion" and "Spirits to Bite Our Ears", still stand out for their power, authenticity and fantastic melodies.

Mapfumo’s output did not let up in the years after. By the early 1980s he had acquired an international following, his albums "Chamunorwa" and "Ndangariro" enhancing his reputation as one of the great contemporary composers. Most of his songs, though less stridently political, still concerned social issues and poverty.

Mapfumo released the album "Corruption" in 1989. It criticized the government of Robert Mugabe, and made Mapfumo a target of frequent police harassment. Things came to a head in the late 1990s, and Mapfumo moved to the United States.

Since then Mapfumo has continued to record and tour with his backing band The Blacks Unlimited. There seems to be no limit to his ability to compose great new songs. The CDs "Gwindingwi Rine Shumba", Hondo "Manhungetunge", and "Vanhu Vatema" contain startlingly original melodies, sung in Mapfumo’s familiar baritone.

Thomas Mapfumo will be performing his 3rd Afrofest gig on Sunday evening, July 10. See you there.

Cheick Hamala Diabate

West Africa

Cheick Hamala Diabate is a world-recognized master musician and oral/musical historian. At an early age he easily mastered the ngoni, a stringed lute and ancestor to the banjo. He later learned to play the guitar from his uncle, legendary Super Rail Band guitarist Djelimady Tounkara. At 12 he was invited to the National Institute of Arts in Bamako, the capital of Mali, where he studied music, literature and theatre. Upon graduation he became a touring musician, learning from and playing with Malian musical greats Toumani Diabate (a first cousin of his), Oumou Sangare, Ali Farka Toure and Salif Keita.

Upon moving to the United States Cheick Hamala became intrigued by the resemblance between the ngoni and the American banjo, including their sharing tunings and same picking styles. He has since learned to play the banjo at a virtuoso level, collaborating, to great critical reviews, with Bela Fleck and Bob Carlin. The 2007 album of banjo duets with Carlin, From Mali to America, was nominated for a Grammy in 2007 for Best Traditional World Music Album.
 
In America he has performed at such notable venues as The Smithsonian Institute, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest and many of the top festivals across the US.

Diabate is a West African musician/historian, his songs and performances carry on the 800 year-old tradition of the griot, the storytellers of West Africa. Now residing in America, Cheick Hamala works with notable traditional African dance companies as an instructor, choreographer and performer. He also performs solo and with an ensemble that plays traditional Manding Griot instruments. His most recent album, Ake Doni Doni is a successful fusion of the traditional rhythms and vocals of his ancestors with the more electric, American sounds he has absorbed over the past decade. Whether playing solo, in a traditional trio, or rocking with his full 10-piece orchestra, Cheick Hamala always reflects the historical integrity of an important art form with a rich tradition stretching back hundreds of years.

Dizu Plaatjies and Ibuyambo

South Africa

Little in the family history of Dizu Plaatjies suggested he would have a distinguished career as a musical innovator and teacher. He was born in South Africa, his father was an African traditional healer and his mother a teacher. As a boy he developed a near obsession with percussion instruments and percussion-based music. Despite the expense and the political hardship involved – this was in apartheid-era South Africa – Dizu was able to travel throughout Southern Africa. It led him to form a reverence for traditional cultures and their ancestral practices. These he sought to mirror in the music, dance and drumming that had became his art. Back in South Africa he founded the band Amampondo, whose unique sound could combine melodies from Zimbabwe, marimbas of Mozambique, central-African choirs, and intricate percussion from all over Africa.

The band’s albums received great accolades in the western press, and in 1988 they were invited to perform at the birthday concert for the then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela, at Wembley Stadium in London, England. In the eyes of a great many viewers they stole the show. A few years later, with Mandela now the president of a free South Africa, they were made official ambassadors of South African music. Their performance at Afrofest 2000 is one of the festival’s finest ever.

After 15 years of touring Amampondo disbanded, and Dizu became a professor of music at the University of Cape Town, his extensive knowledge widely sought out by educational institutions and visiting scholars. Later, still restless, he founded Ibuyambo. Their well received 2005 self-titled CD was followed in 2008 by African Kings, a collection of traditional/spiritual songs from different African countries. Dizu and Ibuyambo have since toured Europe several times, enhancing Dizu’s reputation as one of the most original musicians in the world. Their performance at Afrofest 2011 will be their Canadian debut. A band that brings genres and widely divergent instruments together, in songs ranging from a cappella to polyphonic, while celebrating their ancestors with body paints and tribal costumes. Not to be missed!!

JP Buse

Congo

JP-BUSE is a worthy addition to the list of great singers from Congo/Zaire. JP started his career in 1978 as a singer, writer and composer in a band he co-founded with students from the University of Zaire. In 1982, he joined the legendary group "Zaiko" and updated their sound. For more than 10 years Zaiko was a leading band on the vibrant musical scene in Kinshasa, offering up a fantastic combination of rumba-soukous and Worldbeat music. In 1991 Buse moved to Canada, settling in Toronto, and experienced a life transformation which led to JP discovering another creative outlet for his love of and talent for music. The CD "Le Roi des rois" ("The King of Kings"), made for the glory of God, was released in 2001. Buse now lives and works as a born again recording artist, singing to ever-expanding audiences and exposing the Canadian public to his discography, past and present. JP Buse has undergone an inspiring musical evolution. He will take the Afrofest stage in the early evening on Sunday, July 10.

Femi Abosede & Culture Force

Nigeria

When it comes to Afrobeat bona fides, there’s no denying those of Femi Abosede. As a youth he was introduced to the great Afrobeat co-creator, outlaw and social activist Fela Kuti, and spent some time as a teenager at Fela’s famous musical/communal compound outside Lagos, Nigeria. Femi took everything in. “I learned from Fela you needed to work at your sound, to pay attention to every detail, to work out every arrangement,” he says: “And to never be afraid to speak my mind."
Passionate and outspoken, Abosede refused to be silenced by politicians or police. In the mid 1980s he left his homeland for England. Later, while in the United States, he joined the Ghanaian reggae group Culture Shock. After moving to Toronto in 1999 he formed Culture Force to play raw, pure, thumping Afrobeat. The sound, the attitude and the influences made Abosede’s debut CD No Compromise one of the best of the year. The pounding, hypnotic rhythms underlying profound social messages, sung in Abosede’s authoritative voice was top flight Afrobeat, updated to incorporate recent developments in pop, funk and jazz.
The CD won Femi several awards and got him invited to play at festivals across the eastern seaboard.
Femi’s primary instrument is the saxophone, but he doesn’t worry about being upstaged by accomplished musicians. For his Saturday night set he’ll take the stage with as big a band as has recently played Afrofest. "I feel I get a richer sound with a larger, top quality band," says Abosede: "Culture Force and the dancers create a joyful experience for the people attending my shows."

Abosede recently opened "Femi’s Place", a restaurant-club at 1812 Weston Road in Toronto. He performs there regularly, and makes it available to other performers of African music to hone and showcase their talent.

Ruth Mathiang

Sundan

RUTH MATHIANG has performing in her blood, both her parents in her native Sudan has been musicians. In Kenya in her youth she sang with local musicians in all genres, drawing particular praise when singing the songs she’d composed herself. This pattern continued after moving to Canada as a student refugee. Her debut CD "My Cry, Peace" spoke to the hardships she’d experienced during those years, but also reflected the joys and hopefulness of her life. The CD was well received critically, and led to her being invited to play in local and international events in Canada and the United States. Her follow-up CD “Butterfly” was a more confident effort in which she explored many of her favourite musical styles, including hiphop, reggae, Afrobeat and gospel. It received great praise, reviewers invariably noting Mathiang’s soaring voice, her great versatily and her ability to find intimacy even in songs intended for huge crowds. "I believe freedom is in the heart and when we let love in, freedom awaits our invitation. I sing and write about the struggle of the human heart to open and let freedom shine," she says.

The Tich Maredza Band

Zimbabwe

Legend has it that Tichaona Daniel 'Tich' Maredza arrived in Toronto in 2008 with a guitar in one hand, a drum in the other, and an mbira in his teeth. Within a year he’d formed a band, and within a few months The Tich Maredza Band were playing tight sets indoors, outdoors, in church basements and concert dancehalls throughout southern Ontario. The gigs established the band’s reputation for their fun-filled sets of upbeat songs, rooted in Zimbabwe’s traditional sounds but updated with contemporary pop influences. Tich the singer-guitarist is joined onstage by Ruben Esguerra (congas and percussion), Tichaona ‘the other Tich’ Gombiro (bass), Larry Lewis (electric guitar), and Andrew Mark (drums and mbira). Individually they are two Zimbabweans, two American expats, and a Colombian. Collectively they make up one of the best polyrhythmic drum-and-guitar ensembles around. Their songs, most of which were composed by Tich, are sung in Shona and English. They chronicle the struggles and triumphs and whimsy of everyday life and love. The band is currently honing material for a new album tentatively entitled "The Journey."

Anastasio & Zalang

Equitorial Guinea

Anastasio Bickie was born into a musical family in the tiny West African country of Equatorial Guinea. During his formative years he was exposed to the full range of music – from Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria, Zaire, even from Spain, Cuba and North America – that the coutry’s geographic and political realities enabled. These rhythms were incorporated into the traditional ‘Fang’ rhythms and melodies of the villages. Anastasio was drawn to these joyful and mysterious sounds, and thereafter there was never a question but that he would have a career in music.

In Spain in the early 1980s he formed a band called Annax, which made a name for itself with a serious of successful tours. Bickie emigrated to Canada in 1985, and in Toronto founded the band Annax Bickie and Zalang. Bickie is one of the pioneer musicians who introduced African music to Toronto in the mid 1980’s, regularly performing at such venues as the Phoenix, the El Mocambo, the Bamboo Club and Harbourfront Centre. The band recorded the albums "Harvest Time" and "Cosecha", and won an award for their breakthrough video "I Can’t Sleep".

In concert Anastasio (vocals and guitar) leads a 5-member band made up of bassist Steve Perzow, drummer Maurizio Valente, percussionist Daniel Shlagbaum, keyboardist Howard Goldbach, and lead guitarist Simon Akiroy. Together they capture that same spirit and energy that first drew Bickie to music, and put on a show that invariably draws in the audience too.