Learn the spiritual, historical and cultural background of Zimbabwe as you sing in the traditional Shona language.
A workshop will take place on Saturday, July 29 from 3:30-5 p.m. at Char’s Landing with Mayo Rainos Mutamba and Port Alberni’s Marim Bam Buzz Band.
Mutamba is a multi-disciplinary artist, community learning facilitator, speaker, researcher and PhD student at the University of Toronto. He is a musician, dancer and storyteller. His music is centered around mbira, an instrument that has been played in Zimbabwe for hundreds of years. He tells Zimbabwean-based historical stories and folk tales.
Storytelling and song have been a part of Mutamba’s life since he was a child in a small village in Zimbabwe where he grew up. His love for storytelling was deepened by his large family for whom telling stories was a ritual every night—gathered around burning fire under the watching eye of the moon.
To this day Mutamba draws upon stories that his grandmother, sisters, mother and other relatives inherited from his ancestors. He has told stories in schools, community centres, festivals, healing circles and around fires. Mutamba performs with the mbira band Nhapitapi, but can also be seen performing solo. He has performed at major festivals in Canada such as Afrofest in Toronto. He has also performed in Canada, the U.S. and Zimbabwe. The dance floor will be open.
The music of Marim Bam Buzz has been played to people in the Alberni Valley since 1999. The instruments were made after a few enthusiastic attendees of a Marimba Muzuva concert thought a Port Alberni marimba band would be an excellent community building project.
The marimbas built were the Zimbabwean marimbas that are based on Shona music. Marimbas are finely crafted xylophones made from hardwoods such as vermilion, mahogany and peduk (Marim Bam Buzz used peduk). The keys are fine-tuned to reflect the tones played in African societies. Each key has a resonator which amplifies the sound, producing a unique musical effect, bell-like tones of the soprano marimba to the deep, percussive tones of the bass (Marim Bam Buzz used PVC pipes and wood plugs covered with cellophane which gives the buzz).
Marimbas are about five feet long with their heights varying from two feet to more than five feet.
This style of this music originated in Zimbabwe in the 1960s when traditional Mbira”tunes and rhythm were transposed to the much louder seven-piece marimba ensemble format.
In the Marim Bam Buzz ensemble there are seven marimbas (three sopranos, two tenors, a baritone and bass) along with percussion instruments: hoshos, cow bells, triangle and various hand drums. Over the years and a hundred odd gigs later the band members have changed, but overall the energy and attitude remains the same.
Tickets are $25 and available at Char’s Landing.