Dendere Ngoma (Music Nest)

A promoter in Holland had booked [Spirit Talk Mbira] thinking that the band was full of African people ‘ recalls Chartwell Dutiro. ‘He was shocked to see me with white people’. Perhaps this misapprehension was fostered by the cover of this CD, which shows only Dutiro. The leader of Spirit Talk Mbira is an mbira (thumb piano) maestro, and he propelled Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited through their traditional period of 1986 to 1994. Dendere Ngoma is an album steeped in Zimbabwean tradition, sung in Shona, influenced strongly by Mapfumo’s chimurenga. But these musicians are no mere imitators. The first track, ‘Zunde’, kicks off with Shona-style guitar, but the drumming – a fine, shuffling Afro-beat – signals the individuality of the band’s vision. Throughout the album, Spirit Talk Mbira develop the mbira tradition with sensitivity, fearlessness and respect. On ‘Machangwa’ a wah-wah guitar delicately underpins Dutiro’s gasping, yodeling vocals. On ‘Huyai Muone’, the tight interplay between the guitar and bass carries all the weight of a rock band. On the haunting ‘Shumba ya Mukwashi.acoustic guitar and mbira swim through an electronic wash which would not be out of place in the post-classical work of Max Richter.

Spirit Talk Mbira assert themselves with a spirit and confidence that many Zimbabwean bands would do well to emulate.