Oliver "Tuku" Mutukudzi has been called "The Otis Redding of Zimbbawe," a comparison that has always irritated me. Oliver Mutukudzi isn't the Otis Redding of Zimbabwe, he's the Oliver Mutikudzi of Zimbabwe - his music stands on its own, it's unique and incomparable. Moreover, these sort of analogies, well-meaning, often made by publicists and music journalists, seem really ethnocentric, as if American or European music is the baseline against which all other music is defined.
End of rant. Born in 1952, Oliver grew up in Highfield, the historic African "ghetto" of Harare (called Salisbury under Ian Smith's racist Rhodesian regime) and learned to play a homemade instrument from a book called "It's Easy to Play the Guitar." He started singing gospel music and in 1975 joined Thomas Mapfumo in the Wagon Wheels band. By the '80s, as a solo artist, he had acheived massive fame in Zimbabwe, with many best-selling singles and albums and growing popularity across Southern Africa. By the turn of the century, several international releases and tours had made Mutukudzi, along with Mapfumo, one of the two most popular Zimbabwean musicians in the world.
Here is Nzara (Kudzanayi BL 459), a 1983 release that showcases Tuku at the peak of his powers, his soulful voice soaring above inspired arrangements and a variety of styles. Enjoy!
Download Nzara as a zipped file here. I have another album by Oliver Mutukudzi, Sugar Pie, that I'll be posting soon.
8 comments:
I had started my label with the hope to release Oliver´s first LP called Ndpeiwo Zano. Unfortunately that didnt work out and I went on to release the Green Arrows first album called Chipo Chiroorwa, one of Oliver´s favourit band !
Awesome! For some reason beyond me, Oliver Mtukudzi's music from the 80s is very hard to find; much if not all of it was never released on CD. Thank you.
Ndinofara sterk kukwanisa kuunza album iyo ya Oliver. Tatenda. Ndakadzidza Chishona pa mastreets rhini ndakagara mu Harara. Handigona kunyora Chishona akanaka but my vashamwari mu Zim vachandinzwinzizwa. Pamberi na Zimbabwe. Rik "muvet" Winckelmans
Good rant!! and great music - thanks
Completely agree about making absurd comparisons among the world's artists. And thanks for the Tuku; it's one I don't have. Saw him years ago at the 9:30 Club in DC where half the room were Zimbabwean expats. A lovely night of music.
Well said sir, and thanks for the music.
What others have said: it's absurd and insulting to refer to a musician from another culture (or time) by the quick, easy and dirty method involving a musician of one's own contemporary society. I think you nailed it with your reference to its inherent ethnocentricity, not to mention the sheer idiocy of some of these comparisons. I remember when the film Amadeus was big that some PR minion proclaimed that Prince was the "Mozart of America."
Like the comment by Anonymous, I've found very little of Mutukudzi since I first began enjoying and downloading African music over the last 6 or 7 years. Mapfumo has popped up on several blogs--not so Mutukudzi, though numersou albums of his are for sale on Amazon (none of them for $1350.71). Thanks (once again) for sharing this.
I was born in 1992, and this album is too old for me, but knowing Mtukudzi and been in Zimbabwe. I wanted to hear one of his early albums I never get to hear. I can say, every song on Nzara is good; having repeated "Mukuwasha" 15 times now. This is a winner for me. Can you please upload more of Oliver Mtukudzi's early albums. Thank you for this!
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