Today we have a guest post from Zimfest by Benn loxo listener, DJ Earball:

“Maybe we’re special here, maybe not. For all I know, other regions of the world also may have events as stunning as Zimfest (www.zimfest.org ), the annual Zimbabwean Music Festival that rotates around cities on the upper left-hand edge of North America. This year, it was here in Olympia, leaving me no excuse for not attending.

The festival is really a living tribute to Dumisani “Dumi” Maraire, a Zimbabwean player and teacher who was largely responsible for bringing mbira and marimba music to this region in the years he spent teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle. The festival began in 1991, and has continued growing even since Dumi passed on in 1999.

The 16th festival featured mbira, ngoma, and marimba players from the Northwest and beyond. Along with Olympia’s own Mukana Marimba, groups came from Texas, New Mexico, California, Colorado, British Columbia, Sweden…and yes, Zimbabwe. Watching the youthful members of Mzungo Marimba Band sing (in Shona, of course) and play and dance on a sun-drenched Friday afternoon was blissful, if a bit culturally jarring. But it was the festival’s finale concert two days later that sealed the deal. With alternating groups performing from different sides of the stage, it was a non-stop party from early evening until well after midnight. There were the locals: Hokoyo, a youth marimba group from Eugene, Oregon, and Nyamuziwa Marimba from Seattle. There was mbira ambassador Erica Azim (who runs mbira.org) playing solo and with two of her teachers, Cosmas Magaya and Beauler Dyoko. Those two elder mbira players also played a beautiful set together.

And then there were some Zimbabweans pushing traditional instruments in new directions. Fafi (a.k.a. 3 Percent) is a NYC-based DJ/rapper who incorporates mbira into his music. The song Wantchito is from a recently released EP and features 4Fathaz on mbira.

The four young Zimbabweans who make up Bongo Love manage to combine the sounds of mbira, marimba, and drums into a revelation of modern sound. Their festival-finale show had even the most sleep-deprived all-weekenders up dancing past midnight. The track Ekhya (Kogae) is from their album Afrocoustics.

Enjoy! And come visit me at SoundRoots.org for more music.”

Thanks for the music, Scott.

Bongo Love – Ekhya (Kogae)
Fafi – Wantchito