Kasahwa: Early Singles (Remastered) Stella Chiweshe

• 1 Ratidzo 03:03
• 2 Chipindura 04:15
• 3 Kasahwa 02:54
• 4 Gomoriye 03:15
• 5 Gwendurugwe 03:08
• 6 Mayaya (Pt. 1 & 2) 08:08
• 7 Musarakunze 04:22
• 8 Nhemamusasa 02:56
• Total Runtime 32:01

Info for Kasahwa: Early Singles (Remastered)

A captivating collection of early singles by the renowned Zimbabwean Mbira master and a true African music icon. The songs were mostly recorded in the 1970’s, during the buildup to the Chimurenga revolution, and were only ever released in Stella’s home country. Deep resistance & culture.

„I am a rebel,“ smiles the 70-year-old Stella Chiweshe. Her album „Kasahwa: Early Singles“ offers a fascinating introduction to the world of Mbira, with the term not only referring to the instrument, consisting of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a wooden healing tree body, but also to a musical genre – and on a much wider level, to an entire culture and deeply spiritual lifestyle, very much at the core of the young Zimbabwean nation. Mbira is an ancient mystical music which has been played for over a thousand years by the Shona people, a group which forms the vast majority of the country’s population. Mbira pervades all aspects of Shona culture, both sacred and secular. Its most important function is as a “telephone to the spirits of people, water, trees, stones and birds,” used to contact both deceased ancestors and tribal guardians, at all-night ceremonies. „Kasahwa“ is a collection of impossible-to-find early seven inches, eight cuts spanning the period from 1974 to 1983 and representing Mbira in its purest form. None of these songs has been released outside of Africa so far.

In her humble beginnings, little pointed to the fact that young Stella at sixteen would become „The Queen of Mbira“ and nothing short of a national icon. Growing up on a musical diet of white American Rock’n’Roll and Country with Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jim Reeves, and The Everly Brothers being favorites, she initially showed little interest in local traditional music. She continued to stay unimpressed when her grandparents invited a group of Mbira players from another region for an overnight ritual. It was not until two years later, that Mbira started to ring inside her head “loud and endlessly.” This overwhelming, mystical experience turned Chiweshe into an avid student of the instrument and the philosophy connected to it. But playing Mbira music was by no means a career option for women in the British colony of Rhodesia: None of the (male) musicians were willing to teach her. And, almost worse, none of the instrument makers agreed to build an instrument for a woman. Stella ended up recording her debut single „Kasahwa“ (1974), the title track of her upcoming Glitterbeat album, on a borrowed thumb piano.

It was not only observations like these which turned the free-spirited Chiweshe into an outspoken feminist.

„Kasahwa“ made Stella a local sensation with the artist at first finding it hard to cope with her newly achieved popularity. After the country had become independent in 1980, Chiweshe started to tour internationally, first as a featured soloist of the new „National Dance Company of Zimbabwe,“ and later under her own name. This quickly made her into a star, during the first international boom of African and „world music” in the late 1980’s. Zimbabwean music was then championed by fans and influential DJs including John Peel alike (Stella has recorded two of Peel’s legendary Sessions). For more than 35 years, Stella Chiweshe has crossed between Zimbabwe and Germany, where she has a second home in the city of Berlin. In the last few years, things have become a bit quiet around her, which feels unfair, since Chiweshe is still a performer of a breath-taking intensity. You can, therefore, call „Kasahwa: Early Singles,“ her first release in more than a decade, a comeback.

The brilliant new mastering by Nick Robbins from London’s Sound Mastering studio, reveals the urgency of these songs by separating the music’s key elements (Mbira, vocals, and shakers) so that they gain an almost sculptural effect.

Digitally remastered

Stella Chiweshe
Now based in Germany, Stella Chiweshe comes across as very warm and down to earth, someone who is easy and very comfortable to talk to. No wonder she is so revered in her home country where she is called Ambuya Stella Chiweshe as a sign of utmost respect. On the new album, she felt the need to include older tracks such as "Chachimurenga" (hugely popular in Zimbabwe many years ago) to connect the album even more closely with Zimbabwe, giving the home crowd something a little special. The album also includes plenty of new material, which is encouraging, despite the fact that Chiweshe admits to feeling far removed from her creative muse in Germany.

She attributes her constant need to be on stage while in Europe to the feeling that she is so far from home, that here she has less to do with her days and so her main source of comfort comes from playing. "Being in Germany is a little bit of a problem for me. It is difficult for me being away from Zimbabwe. The air is polluted and there are fewer things to do than if I was at home... I need to channel that energy by playing mbira all the time." There are currently plans in Zimbabwe to present Chiweshe with a Jenaguru award in summer, an honor that will recognize her contribution to the music scene there over the past three decades. Clive Malunga, the director of Jenaguru Music Promotions, is also working hard to secure an honorary degree in arts for her from the University of Zimbabwe, a privilege that has, in the past, gone to names such as Thomas Mapfumo.

cd cover When the young Stella Chiweshe decided to become a mbira player, there was major consternation from all of those around her. She says the women were as opposed to the idea as the men. As mbira playing was entirely within the male domain, Chiweshe spent a lot of her time surrounded by men, which led the women in her village to look on her as being "loose," as she states herself. "Men played mbira, and for me to play mbira meant that I had to sit with men on either side of me. It made the women very uncomfortable." But, without reservation, Chiweshe remains steadfast that what she went through, her pioneering force at that time, has made her stronger throughout the other areas in her life. Certainly she broke significant new ground for the likes of Virginia Mukwesha (her daughter), Chiwoniso (daughter of celebrated mbira player, the late Dumisani Maraire) and the countless other female musicians in Zimbabwe today who juggle the burden of the traditional female role in society with the need to perform and be heard.

The combination of mbira and marimba might seem relatively obvious nowadays, but Chiweshe is often credited as the first artist to actually bring the two together. She said she had been searching for a sound that had been evading her since her very first recording back in 1974. She knew what she wanted to hear but couldn't quite grasp how to make this particular sound happen. After almost ten years it clicked, and she now uses two marimbas to recreate the sound of one mbira, similar to Mapfumo's idea of reconstructing the mbira sound on guitar. Talking Mbira contains two outstanding examples of this, "Chachimurenga" and "Manja." But why is it that everything she does harps back to the fundamental sound of the mbira, and what is the universal appeal of that sound? Chiweshe firmly believes that the gentle mbira timbre is "closely related to the sound of water, something that is innately familiar to all people, and therefore the mbira is instantly memorable and comforting. It is a total form of therapy in itself." But it is the power of the spirit of the mbira that is most vital to Chiweshe, the power to override all the worries of this world and render them inconsequential by comparison, whether one is open to the idea or not. In the liner notes to Talking Mbira, Chiweshe tells touching stories of individuals who have come across the sound of mbira and suddenly lost the physical pain which has accompanied their lives, and of audience members who have been moved to tears which they feel are not even their own, tears experienced by them but coming from another source within. "People do not truly understand the strength of this power. It can take you completely by surprise." She says this is why people involved in the traditional bira ceremony remove their shoes, in order to let the full extent of the spirit move them with absolute freedom, devoid of inhibition.

When I asked her to talk about the current instability in Zimbabwe, Stella told me of a dream she once had. She dreamt that, because of all the violence, all the natural disasters and negative occurrences that are happening in our world, "the soil and the energy of the earth started to sink from a great sadness. Then, from my left came female voices, so beautiful and haunting that the earth stopped sinking. Everything happens for a reason, but I believe Zimbabwe will be okay." When listening to a voice so wise and gentle, it is hard not to believe. (Jennifer Byrne)

Booklet for Kasahwa: Early Singles (Remastered)