Mashasha

Peter ‘Mashasha’ Mujuru is a Zimbab–wean bass guitarist, session musician and member of jazz group Too Open. He currently lives in the UK and this is his first solo album. It’s an ambitious project culled from sessions made primarily in London and Paris, but with additional recordings made in Harare, Cairo, Sydney, Melbourne, Tehran and Dakar. As might be expected it is a jazz and world fusion album and the diversity of the backing musicians lend plenty of different cultural flavours to the mix. Mashasha has a very pleasant voice which he has layered in order to create his own harmonies sung in the Shona language.

However, it is the exceptional instrumentation that makes this album really shine. Acoustic and electric guitars are driven along by buzzing bass lines, swirling organ and dynamic drums and percussion. Trombone and trumpet add to the jazz vibe and the notable Iranian ney (reed flute) of Davod Varzideh (of the Rumi Ensemble) gives some tracks a striking Oriental edge. One particularly outstanding track, ‘Mambakwedza’, is beautifully stripped down almost to a whisper with some inspired drumming and a vocal melody as good as Oliver Mtukudzi at his best. If Mashasha were to get a regular live band of the same calibre as the music on this album then I anticipate great things for him. This really is a refreshing and sparkling debut.