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Volume CXXXIII, Number 2 |
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The sounds of Zimbabwe: mbira master plays Bowdoin
LESLIE BRIDGERS
STAFF WRITER
This Friday, Comas Magaya and two members of the Vakasara Mbira Group will display their talents on the Zimbabwean "thumb piano," traditionally known as the mbira. The Vakasara Mbira Group specializes in mbira dzavadzimu, or mbira of the ancestral spirits. This darker and more complex mbira music is used in spiritual ceremonies, but just as often the lighter and jazzier side of the genre can be heard blasting from the neighborhood Zimbabwean block party. The party, however, really gets going when this simple instrument, consisting of a wooden sound board and about 23 metal keys, is accompanied by gourd shakers and Shona singing. With three musicians in place for this week's performance, concert-goers are sure to get the real deal.
Leading the musicians from the Vakasara Group is commanding mbirist Cosmas Magaya. As a precocious eight-year-old growing up in rural Mhonodoro, Magaya used to steal away with his older cousin's mbira. He was forced to teach himself, because his family had deemed him too young to learn. After months of practice, Magaya put on a surprise performance for those who had forbidden him from even handling the instrument. Soon after Magaya revealed his gift, his talent was regularly requested at religious ceremonies. Magaya went to school for business and held jobs in the same field, but ultimately, he has spent his life spreading his music. Through world tours, celebrated CDs, university classes, and a book, Magaya has become internationally renowned for his mastery of mbira.
As both the story of this man and the depiction of the music suggest, this concert should prove pleasing to the ear and easing to the soul. More than that, it will be the gateway to making mbira masters out of all of us. Starting up this fall, Bowdoin's musicologist Joanna Bosse is coordinating the college's own mbira group. Last year, Bosse led an Afro-Cuban group for Bowdoin's newly-instated tradition of a campus World Music Ensemble. Bosse describes both the yearly ensemble and this Friday's performance as parts of "an attempt to incorporate more diverse kinds of music not only as new courses and subjects but also as concerts and lectures."
So instead of waiting for the doors of Thorne to let you in to an array
of supposedly ethnic foods, take a detour to Gibson's recital hall and
satisfy a different taste bud.
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