Monday, December 30, 2013

1000 SONGS - DAY 304 SONG # 335

DAY 335: Music fom Zimbabwe - Tuku

Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi is probably the most widely known musician from Zimbabwe. I have loved his music since the first contact (sometimes in the 80ies). The sister of a dear friend of mine brought some records from Zimbabwe and I taped them and heard them over and over again. TUKU live! Later on, I bought some CDs by Mtukudzi in the local Weltladen ("3rd" world store run by some more or less idealistic people). Here is one beautiful song done by him, Ndakuvara (as I have no knowledge of Shona, I do not know the meaning of the word). Later on, for those who want to get more acquainted to Tuku, there is a video of his rendering of some of his songs on a KEXP session. It is great to listen to his explanations; my favourite one around 19:20: "In my culture the purpose of song is to give life and hope to the people, to heal the broken hearts, and you don’t get to sing a song when you have nothing to say” - an answer to the question whether he never makes up some "silly pop songs".



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