This is amazing thumb piano music - a favorite driving, work time and downtime cd
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Attention mbira fans: you're about to spend 16 bucks.

Garikayi Tirikoti has been playing and building the mbira (Zimbabwean "thumb piano") for years, but only in 2001 did Limitless Sky producers Michel & Rosa Tyabji convince him to sit down and record his own music. The result is Maidei, a beautiful CD of original Shona mbira music, multitracked by Tirikoti on mbira, hosho (shaker), ngoma (drum), and voice, with some backing vocals by his nephew Lee Mumbani. The musical changes are subtle, rising and falling against the traditional cyclical background patterns. While the tracks are similar, the discerning listener will find plenty of variety, along with crisp recording, rich arrangements, and stellar playing. And the full lyric translations in the liner notes help convey a sense of the songs' meanings. "Sarirambi" is a plea for ancestral guidance in the face of persistent poverty. "Kugara Hunzwara" urges relatives to "stay together in understanding." And Tirikoti gets the blues on "Maidei" and "Chengeto" - songs of lost love.

You might consider this the sacred jazz of the Shona people, music that is played to influence the weather, mark celebrations, and heal trouble minds and bodies. For a great background on mbira music, see http://www.mbira.org/mbiramusic.html or just pick up this CD and enjoy. Singing and playing with great soul, Tirikoti conveys universal themes that speak directly to the heart. Your 16 bucks will be well spent.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
"Music that exudes a profound spirituality, a resistance to colonialism's lasting grip and a remembrance of one's ancestors, all set to a contagious and intricate rhythmic beat" - Rob Walsh, Ink 19
                            Read more...
                        

                            
The spiritually charged music of Zimbabwe’s Shona people has inspired a worldwide cult following. Recordings of the mbira, a 22-iron-pronged hand piano, circulate among the faithful but rarely make it into record stores. This one, coming from a new label specializing in Tanzanian music, stands out from the pack. Tirikoti is a phenomenon, in part because he uses a range of mbiras in different tunings to expand the instrument’s sonic range and in part because he plays with amazing speed and precision. Not that this is chops music — the magic comes from a hypnotic alchemy of interaction among musicians. On these seven tracks, Tirikoti and his nephew create a virtual village using overdubbing to build a complex mesh of mbira lines and rich choral passages of call-and-response with independent voices cutting across the harmonies. On "Usaore Moyo (Don’t Lose Heart)," the effect is joyous and bubbly; "Chinembiri Chii (What Is Popular?)" has a pulsing downbeat and mournful vocals. The layering results in occasional rhythmic looseness, but for the most part, the sound is natural, and crisply recorded to do justice to details. Another plus is the lyrics (well translated in the notes), which provide genuine insight into Shona culture.
                            Read more...