|
|
 |
review of Mbira releases
|
| Click Here to go back. |
The Hartford Courant, review of Mbira releases >>
THE SOUL OF MBIRA; THE AFRICAN MBIRA: MUSIC OF THE SHONA PEOPLE; SHONA MBIRA MUSIC
Various Artists
Nonesuch Records
It's not often there's a slew of new releases of mbira music, but there are three Shona mbira records among the 13 CDs of African recordings recently reissued as part of the Nonesuch Explorer series.
All three - "The Soul of Mbira," "Shona Mbira Music" and "The African Mbira: Music of the Shona People" - were originally released in the 1970s and have been unavailable on CD. Two of the three were recorded by ethnomusicologist Paul Berliner, an authority on the mbira, which is sometimes called a "thumb piano." That name doesn't really convey the majesty of the instrument, which is often used in ritual and religious settings. Mbiras are made with up to 24 metal keys affixed to a wooden sound box, and the instrument makes a warm hypnotic plinking, but it is also accompanied by the relentlessly swinging and propulsive swish of the hosho, a gourd rattle.
When played, mbiras are placed inside large gourd resonators to amplify the sound, concealing the deft finger work required to play them. The music, which is built around cyclical intersecting patterns and funky loping arpeggios, usually requires two mbira players performing together. Add the singing, and Shona mbira music can become surprisingly full. Three types of singing go with mbira music - a bassy syllabic sketching of low counterpoint to the main pattern, a high keening yodel and more declamatory improvisation. Throughout Africa, contemporary African musicians have taken up the patterns and repertoire of traditional instruments and transferred them to guitar. The music of Zimbabwean stars like Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi is based in part on the interlacing phrases of the mbira.
It's a shame that Nonesuch didn't economize by combining at least two of the recordings, since only mbira completists will require all three discs for their collection, but any of the three reissues gives a good introduction to mbira music.
- JOHN ADAMIAN
10/14/02 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
