Stella Chiweshe

Stella Chiweshe _is_ the Queen of Mbira Music, as well as the first female Mbira player to gain recognition on a national or international level.

Stella Rambisai Chiweshe is one of the few musicians in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, who for more than 35 years has been a traditional Mbira musician. When Zimbabwe was still a Rhodesian colony, Stella secretly was recognized as a Mbira player at forbidden ceremonies. Before independence Mbira instruments had to be kept hidden, because the colonial government had banned the instrument fearing its magical powers. Playing Mbira was punished with prison. After playing through the night at forbidden reunions, Stella would return to her every-day-struggle of survival as a young girl within a colonial environment.

Chiweshe is nicknamed “Ambuya Chinyakare” (Grandmother of Traditional Music). She is a well respected and important woman in the music business too, where bands perform in night clubs and festivals. She set an example for all women musicians in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe before independence she released more than 20 singles of Mbira music of which her first single Kasahwa went gold in 1975. After Independence she was invited to become a member of the original National Dance Company of Zimbabwe, where she soon took the part as leading Mbira solo player, dancer, and actress.

She is one of the most original artists in the contemporary African scene using popular music to show the deepness and power of her traditional spiritual music at home and abroad. Stella introduces Mbira music to the occidental context without losing the relation to her Zimbabwean tradition: She creates warm dance grooves as well as popular songs always based on Mbira rhythms.

The fusion of Stella’s music and contemporary guitars has not only made her an international figure, but also as Zimbabwe’s cultural Ambassador. Apart from her merit combining Mbira with Marimba in modern Zimbabwean music, she has toured Europe regularly since 1983 and has released seven internationally successful albums. Kumusha won her a 1993 Billboard Music Award for performance on the Adult/Alternative/World Music Album of the year.

Mbira music, from Zimbabwe, is the basic element of the Bantu Shona culture. The sound of the mbira is the material medium of the culture, made of ceremonies to satisfy religious, healing and spiritual needs. What you hear is not simply what is played as such, but your ear selects the tones to form melodies.

The sound of the mbira will immerse you in the depths of African knowledge of the spirits. Stella Chiweshe, the Mbira Queen of Zimbabwe, is the great grand daughter of Munaka, the historical resistance fighter who was hanged together with Mbuya Nehanda by the British occupants.

In addition to her successful international performing and recording career she has worked in theatre and film. She not only introduced the combination of mbira and marimba into the modern Zimbabe soundscape, but she is the only woman in her home country to lead her own band. Stella took a leading role in the formation of the Zimbabwe Musician's Union.

Born 1946 in Mujumhi, a village in Mhondoro Zimbabwe, the woman now known by her people as Ambuya Chinyakare (Grandmother of Traditional Music) has had to struggle hard every step of the way to becoming her true self, the Queen of Mbira. The colonial power, Britain, had banned the mbira during the first war of liberation, the Church told her that it was the work of the Devil, even her own people told her that it was taboo, an instrument that a woman could never play. Yet by the mid-sixties, she had become recognised as a gifted /maridzambira/, playing at healing ceremonies, weddings, funerals, concerts and parties and her debut single, /Kasahwa/, had gone gold. After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, she joined the National Dance Company and toured throughout Zimbabwe, Mozambique and then Australia, India, North Korea and Europe. Since 1987 she has been on a continual tour of Europe, North America and Zimbabwe. So far she’s recorded 22 local singles and 7 international albums, became the first Zimbabwean female mbira player to gain international recognition, been awarded an MA from Harare University, won two ZIMA Awards in 2005 and healed countless troubled souls.

What is M'bira?

M'bira is both the name of the instrument and the overall music for the Shona people from Zimbabwe.
The m'bira dzaVadzimu, the classic Zimbabwean thumb-piano, is a medium for playing songs handed down from generation to generation for centuries, used for maintaining contact with the spirits of the Shona people. It is used for nearly every occasion: weddings, funerals, healing, ceremonies for the ancestors, meditations, concerts ...

BAND MEMBERS:
     
Trance Hits (CD 1)
Stella Chiweshe – mbira, mbira dze Guruwuswa, lead vocals, ngoma, backing vocals
Taurai Chinama – ngoma
Gideon Zamimba – guitar, synthesizer

Classic Hits (CD 2)
Stella Chiweshe – lead vocals, mbira, hosho, ngoma
Alphias Chikazhe – soprano marimba, backing vocals
Charles Willie – lead guitar, backing vocals
David Tapfuma – baritone marimba
Ephraim Saturday – lead guitar
Eric Makokora – bass guitar, backing vocals
Gilson Mangoma – alto marimba, backing vocals
Gordon Mapika – drum kit, backing vocals
Joshua Areketa – bass guitar
Leonard Ngwenya – soprano marimba, backing vocals
Maruva Chikwatari – hosho, backing vocals
Michael Kamunda – alto marimba, backing vocals
Samson Mirazi – baritone marimba, backing vocals
Tonderai Zinyawu – drum kit
Washington Masango – bass guitar, backing vocals
Virginia Mukwesha – mbira, hosho, backing vocals

Special guests (from 3 Mustaphas 3):
Houzam Mustapha – drum kit
Sabah Habas Mustapha – bass guitar

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Downloads from Stella Chiweshe

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