In the early 1980s, soon after Zimbabwe's independence and the floushing of the local music scene, it wasn't easy to get hold of vinyl from Zimbabwe. You had to know someone who was going and ask them. In these times I was fortunate to get hold of the early Thomas Mapfumo LPs as well as LPs from Devera Ngwena and Flavian Nyathi and some of the Zimbabwe Hits compilations. The tracks being shared today come from a cassette I copied from a friend at the time and was simply entitled Top Shungu Hits. It includes hit parade songs from Speed Limit, Sugar Lump, Devera Ngwena and The Storm.
I hope you enjoy this burst of musical energy!
ENJOY MF
Was born 1980,and i love the old Zimbabwean music.My dad back in the days used to own a record bar down in Kariba , it was called Mushandirapamwe Record Bar.I used to spend lots of time with him especially on weekends listening to viynals and lps like these.
ReplyDeleteThanks you so much for such wonderfull uploads,really appreciate it
nice memories. I am trying to collect such music, you can also follow my youtube channel Nyamutatanga Makombe
DeleteI believe the track called Devera Ngwena here is actually Zhimozhi by the artist of that name, also found on Harare Hit Parade Vol. 1.
ReplyDeleteThanks for digitising this Matt; you never know how long that cassette might last!
ReplyDeleteApparently there was a "Top Shungu Hits Vol. 2" released in 1981 which included Devera Ngwena Jazz Band, Hallelujah Chicken Run Band and Jairos Jiri Sunshine Kwela Band. You can see a label image via Google.
You'd have to think that this was related as the first release to that, and would probably date therefore to 1980 or 1981.
Théo,
On the v/a compile "Hits Of Zimbabwe Vol. 1" (Zimbabwe ZML-1002, 1980) the group are billed as "Devera Ngwena Jazz Band", and the piece itself is titled "Devera Ngwena Zhimozhi".