If someone had told me that ancient African ancestors (of someone else) told them to come here and play music to help heal the suffering in the world I might be somewhat skeptical. And I’m a naïve idealist to the nth degree.

But when Chris Berry, the force behind the world beat troupe Panjea, says it, I believe him. It happened while he was studying in Zimbabwe, the first Westerner to be accepted among the elder mbira (thumb piano) masters as one of their own.

“I played for a lot of ceremonies where people would become possessed,” said Berry. “Some of the old ancestors who came back spoke to me through these people: ‘What are you doing here? There are lots of misguided people, lost and confused people, in your country. They’re killing each other there. It’s time for you to take what you’ve learned and bring it to your own country because they need it more than we need it here. That’s your job. You’re the bridge maker.’”

His own country, if you didn’t know, is the United States. He left here at the age of 18 to continue his studies with African drum master Titos Sompa, found himself in a remote village 10 days up river and simply just stayed there. Eventually he migrated to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

“I heard this mbira music,” he said, “and I saw these old women, who I could tell were from Zimbabwe, waving and saying, ‘You must come.’ After having that dream a few times I talked with the chief of the village about it, and he said, ‘Well, if you get a dream like that, you’ve got to go.’ And so I went to Zimbabwe to learn about the mbira.”

There, in that very beautiful green city situated atop a plateau in the central heart of the country, he spent a decade studying under the legendary mbira master Monderek Muchena. He also formed Panjea.

Over the intervening decade, Chris and Panjea became superstars in Southern Africa with #1 hits, stadium tours and the like. His blend of traditional rhythms, dancehall beats and inspired lyricism was a huge hit. But let’s get back to the ancestor spirits.

Chris, who is a fluent Shona (people and language of Zimbabwe) speaker, explained that “Shona peoples believe in two types of spirits. Shave spirits are most often considered to be outside or wandering spirits, and Vadzimu are ancestor spirits. Shave spirits,” he continued, “are associated with populations living outside of Shona territory and may be connected to neighboring peoples, Europeans, or even animals. Vadzimu represent all that is ideal and moral about a Shona way of life and are usually associated with recent ancestors or with more remote culture heroes whose exact genealogy has been forgotten.”

The latter, Vadzimu, are the spirits who told him to return to America.

Now you maybe wondering how a “hoodlum” from CA end up being a gwenyambira (”one whose music calls the spirits”), a distinction reserved only for those who have achieved the highest fusion of the technical and the magical in music from the elder with whom he lived and studied during his years abroad?

“I think I was twelve,” Chris explained, “and one of the guys pocketed a cassette from a local music store. That tape changed my life. It was a Fela Kuti album,” he remembered. “We started playing it and it was like I had gone home. For hours I listened to it again and again. I couldn’t stop playing it and I couldn’t stop dancing.” God bless Fela Kuti.

And Chris has stayed true to that inspiration since. He and his Zimbabwean wife Rujeko teach drumming and dance workshops, lecture, and perform. They also organize cultural tours to Zimbabwe, and offer summer workshops with drum, dance, mbira, marimba, and cultural classes through the band that has become a full-fledged non-profit institution: the Panjea Foundation for Cultural Education. “Panjea believes that through the sharing of ideas and open cultural exchanges the world can once again become a new kind of ‘Pangaea,’ united not by its physically joined continents but by its people.”

Do you see why I believe him when he talks about the Vadizmu telling him to come home?

Anyhow, now that he is back, he is preparing to unleash his powerful international musical stew upon the public at large through the release of Dancemakers (April 18th). A 12 track world beat/dance hall/reggaeton dance and consciousness raising explosion, it is an infectious album that cannot be put down. You will put it into your cd player and you will not be able to stop listening. The beats capture your heart, the genre-blending musicality captures your brain and the lyrics of songs like “Love on the Mountain,” “Why Do We” and “Every Day” will ensnare your soul. What Fela Kuti did to him years ago, Chris Berry is certain to do a new generation of budding musicians. And so the bridges are built.

“Africa is the source for almost all the popular music of the world,” Chris explained. “You can hear it in blues, rock & roll, funk, hip-hop, and jazz. I’ve just found a more direct line to the source. I’ve got the medicine, and it’s pure and strong.”
 
---By Dave Terpeny