From the Archive: Three Versions of an Oliver Mtukudzi Song

The upbeat electric version, the live version, and the acoustic remake of a Tuku song.

As our archive keeps growing, some of our older pieces might have gotten lost in the shuffle. Every now and then we'll dig in and find some highlights and revisit them. Here's one now.

I've been listening to a lot of Oliver Mtukudzi's music lately. I recommend it. I keep waiting to run across a dud, but it hasn't happened yet. I suppose there must be one out there in the nearly five dozen albums he released in a 40-year career. But we'll see.

One of the songs that really grabbed me is called "Cheka Ukama." I liked it so much I thought I'd share it here and so I tried to find some background on it. Which got a bit confusing. But here's how it goes (take this with a grain of salt).

It seems that the song first came to life on an album called Africa (1980), which is credited to by Oliver Mtukudzi and The Black Spirits. You can find it here at Bandcamp, along with a bunch of other Tuku music. It's the kinda funky electric piece that first grabbed me. It's the one embedded above.

The song was later re-released, in 1997, on an album called Ndega Zvangu. It's more than twice as long and it's acoustic - just Tuku and his guitar. It's the first one embedded below. I prefer the electric version just a bit, but the acoustic version is nothing to sneeze at. Version three is a live version of the electric version. It takes things at a slightly slower pace than the initial release, but it's just fine too.

Enjoy them all.