Pick of the Week - Thomas Mapfumo #2 (Zimbabwe)

A 1993 song from one of Zimbabwe's great musicians.

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I'd been listening to African music (casually) for about a decade when I ran across The Best of Thomas Mapfumo: Chimurenga Forever, a 1995 CD release from the Hemisphere wing of EMI Records. I suspect that, in those pre-internet days, it was the most readily available of Mapfumo's releases up to this point. Which was how it came to my attention.

This was the first time I really sat up and took notice of African music. I doubt that it's possible to wear out a CD (and I probably dubbed it to cassette for mobile listening) but I listened to it a lot.

There's not a dud in the bunch and there were several songs that still stand out. I'll probably be circling around to those in the future, but for today I wanted to highlight "Zvenyika." It first appeared a few years earlier, in 1993, on Chimurenga International, from Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited.

Enjoy it. I've done so many more times than I can count.

I was lucky enough to see Mapfumo live (twice!) when I lived in California. Here's a short reminiscence.