OLIVER MTUKUDZI "Tsimba Itsoka" Heads Up

SOME OF THE GENTLEST music singer-guitarist Oliver Mtukudzi has released outside his native Zimbabwe, "Tsimba Itsoka" emphasizes rippling guitar, pattering rhythms and lilting harmonies. This Afropop flirts with lounge jazz, especially on the songs that feature the saxophone of Samson Mtukudzi, the band leader's son. For those listeners who don't understand Shona, such serenely sensuous numbers as "Kuipedza" could simply be easy listening. Even the livelier ones, such as the album-closing "Kumirira Nekumirira," are more insinuating than assertive.

Yet these tunes, and most of the others, are protest songs. Mtukudzi is no firebrand, and his lyrics don't deal in specifics -- which explains why he can still live in Zimbabwe. The American version of "Tsimba Itsoka" ("No Foot, No Footprint") lacks translations of the words, but it does offer synopses, which reveal that the song topics include gambling, laziness, exploitation and solidarity. That last message is embodied in the music, in which a dozen instruments and voices mesh in a style that's complex and immediate.