MF GALAXY

HOW A DREAM-LIKE STATE LED HIM TO A DREADLOCKED MBIRA MASTER; CREATING HIS DEBUT ALBUM WITH HIS COUSIN; ON MBIRA GREATS THOMAS MAPFUMO AND CHIWONISO MARAIRE; RESTORING MBIRA FROM COLONIAL MINDSETS TO ITS IMMORTAL GREATNESS LISTEN/DOWNLOAD   What is the Zimbabwean musical instrument called the mbira? It’s a wooden resonator box with metal keys, called kalimba in Cameroon and thumb piano in the West, although “chime-box” offers a better description of the instrument’s sound. Its pristine voice is perfectly suited to cathedrals, ancient caves, and modern concert halls. But the origins of the mbira are lost in the mists of time. Westerners who know mbira most likely do so from the work of Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo, a fusion musician who helped resurrect the mbira which the British colonial dictatorship had banned because of its religious and cultural gravity. Mapfumo’s chimurenga (struggle) style was a cultural-nationalist concoction that changed modern Zimbabwean music, sei...