Wona Baba Maraire

Tendai ‘Baba’ Maraire is a man of credentials. As half of Shabazz Palaces, he is a Seattle hip-hopper signed to Sub Pop Records. As the son of Dumisani Maraire, an mbira (thumb piano) maestro and ethnomusicologist, he is part of a great Zimbabwean musical dynasty. These are two good reasons to pay attention to his first solo album. Only those expecting beats are likely to be disappointed. Maraire was born and raised in the US, but his knowledge of, and reverence for, Zimbabwean tradition are evident from the first chiming, buzzing mbira patterns of ‘Wedu Minanzi’. The mbira provides the backbone of Wona Baba Maraire which, with its shuffling hosho hand rattles, clapping, hand-drums and massed Shona voices, might almost pass for straight traditional material.

Wona Baba Maraire is not, however, quite the album it appears. The backing vocals of ‘Wona Maraire’, for instance, plainly draw on wider Southern African influences, while ‘Matambudziko’ is closer to gospel. But it is only when the ecstatic soul vocals of Kevin Gardner burst – quite naturally – into ‘Simukai Muwane’ that you realise how American it all is. And there is a confidence to Maraire's voice, a zest and freedom to his arrangements, that you just don't hear these days in music from Zimbabwe itself. On ‘Is She?’ he marries mbira with auto-tuned vocals – and pulls it off. In ‘Luchia’, a ‘parable’ about love, he does slip briefly into sentimentality, but in all other respects Wona Baba Maraire is a joy – an extremely refreshing experience.