British Museum

British Museum

Mexico, yaxilan

Guatemala, flores

Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala, antigua

Melbourne, lorikeet at blackburn creek

Aida and the slaves

Italy, torino

Italy, verona

Italy, torino

Italy, springtime in torino

Italy, arcore

Italy, siena

Spain, malaga

Italy, brianza sunset

Italy, mont'isola

Italy, bergamo

Australia, southside (near bells beach)

Melbourne city

Melbourne, collingwood 3am

Melbourne, springtime in blackburn

Melbourne docks

Melbourne city

Melbourne city

Good Music for Bad Times: The Grooves of Oliver Mtukudzi

By Michael Quin

Amid Zimbabwe’s continuing economic crisis, and just over a month after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe signed a wire-tapping bill into law for surveillance of blacklisted journalists and critical organizations, it seems as crucial a time as ever to listen for what the few remaining voices of Zimbabwe have to say.

This week in Melbourne arrives Oliver Mtukudzi, an artist whose prolific career spans more than three decades and 47 recorded albums, and whose adoring fans in Zimbabwe and around the world refer to lovingly as ‘Tuku’.

Tuku began performing in the mid-1970’s as a member of the Wagon Wheels, at a time when Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia, and the people were uniting around Robert Mugabe in a struggle for independence. Times have changed, but Tuku has remained Zimbabwe’s top-selling artist with a strong concern for the issues pressing his people. While political violence, famine, economic disaster and AIDS ravage a new generation of Zimbabweans, Tuku continues voicing messages of solidarity, unifying people whose hope must feel distant, if there at all.

Tuku’s style of music is uniquely his own, and has come to be known as 'Tuku music'. It is driving and infectious, combining elements of hard 'mbaqanga' rhythems from South Africa, Zimbabwean 'jit' percussions, and smoother 'mbira' rhythems of the Shona people. With this unique sound come the famous lyrics, in both native dialects and English, poeticizing the struggles of his times as both a Zimbabwean and an African, and always as a man of hope.

He questions the power politics of his country that's seen opponents of the government routinely persecuted and grave situations mishandled, while more than 7 million of his countrymen rely on foreign aid, and one in four suffer from AIDS, with no stability or progress in sight.

When asked in a recent interview about the divisiveness of Zimbabwean politics in the face of these grave problems, Tuku lamented how frustrating it was to witness a government “spending so much time, energy, and often scarce resources on issues of conflict and power” and added, “why we can’t just combine all our energies to deal with these real-life issues is a mystery to me”. As some of our time’s biggest issues increasingly demand cooperation, he asks questions not only of Africa’s fate, but of the fate of us all.

For Tuku’s music to reach his people constitutes another struggle in itself. His latest album, Tsimba Itsoka, has suffered delays due to problems in sourcing foreign currency to import production materials. Moreover, as Zimbabweans live with the highest inflation rates in the world, incomes from CD sales are quickly eroded in the time between sale and the receipt of royalties, according to Tuku’s manager Debbie Metcalfe. Even the country's top-selling artist cannot escape such woes, and like other Zimbabwean artists, now has to rely largely on income generated from live shows.

By all reports it's precisely these live shows of Tuku which should not be underestimated. The magic of Oliver Mtukudzi seems to be his tenacity to dance, and make others join him, in the very face of hopelessness. Through the turmoil reaches a rythem and voice so clear and strong - the embodiment of the unity of which he speaks - to a nation, perhaps even a world, badly in need of it.

Oliver Mtukudzi and The Black Spirits perform on Thursday September 13th at the Prince Bandroom, with special guest, Systa BB.

Italy, tuscany (photograph by Mara Micheloni)

Australia, gum tree in anglesea