May 05 2015 58 mins 39
This Hip Deep edition explores the legendary early career of Thomas Mapfumo, a singer, composer and bandleader whose 1970s music set the stage for the birth of a new nation, Zimbabwe. Using rare, unreleased recordings, and recollections by Mapfumo, key band members, and prominent Zimbabweans who lived through the liberation struggle, this program traces the development of chimurenga music. Central to the program, are research materials gathered by Mapfumo biographer Banning Eyre, and commentary by ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino, author of Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe. One of the great stories of African music’s role in history is told here as never before.
