Zimfest 2007
The Zimbabwean all day charity event featuring music, culture, sports and more, returns to London on 1 September 2007.
Every year thousands of Zimbabweans and friends of Zimbabwe gather in a field for Zimfest, to listen to music, play sport, eat and drink - and all for a good cause. The festival has expanded every year (last year's attendance of 5,000 is expected to grow yet again) and this year there is a kaleidoscopic programme of Zimbabwean music and culture which energises the traditional beerfest format.
Zimfest 2007 will be taking place on Saturday, 1 September 2007, 12 noon – 10 pm, at Prince George’s Playing Fields, Bushey Road, Raynes Park, London SW20. Musical acts performing include Chiwoniso (Chi), Paul Lunga, Watership Down, Bush Guru, SpiritTalk, Mbira, Anna Mudeka, Thabani plus a few surprises. There will also be Braai, beer, football and social sports, sadza, gochi gochi, stands, kiddies tent, dance workshops and other cultural happenings.
Tickets are £16 in advance from www.wezimbabwe.org or £20 at the gate. The charity behind the event is WEZIMBABWE, a registered non-partisan non-political charity formed by Zimbabweans in the UK in 2001. WEZIMBABWE tries to make a difference for people in Zimbabwe who cannot help themselves. All proceeds from their events including Zimfest go towards educating children, helping victims of abuse and helping those most in need.
These are some of the artists performing throughout the day:
Anna Mudeka has been a professional singer, dancer and drummer since the age of 14. She has toured Japan with the late Ephat Mujuru and was also a member of Thomas Mapfumo's Blacks Unlimited. She has worked and performed with other well-known musicians including Leon Ruselsson and Stella Chiweshe, the Queen of Mbira. Since coming to the UK in 1995, Anna has continued to perform both traditional and original modern Zimbabwean music. She tours nationally and internationally with The Tambai Ensemble, through which she promotes her aim to teach and perform music and dance rooted in African traditions, with a vision to enrich cultural diversity using the arts to promote awareness and understanding of minority cultures. Anna also runs workshops and gives solo performances based around mbira. To date Anna has recorded five CD albums: 'Chirungu', 'Rwendo Nevadzimu', 'Cham'tengure', 'Hamunyare' and the latest one 'Zvachose'.
Chiwoniso (Chi) melds the conventional and the modern, using contemporary instruments and traditional African instruments to create a unique style of R'n'B Afro-pop. After making her presence felt on the Zimbabwean pop scene as a member of the group Andy Brown & the Storm (who attained a U.N.E.S.C.O. Prize for Arts), she decided in 2001 to concentrate on her solo career. She has been fronting her acoustic group Chiwoniso & Vibe Culture for the past four years, and was also a core member of the multinational all-women’s band Women’s Voice. On top of this Chi has worked on the soundtracks for movies and documentaries by an array of Zimbabwean writers and film producers in the last ten years. Her musical collaborations have included recording with Marie Boine, Brilliant, Kris Kristoffersen and Sinead O’Connor on the CD celebrating the 100th commemoration of the Nobel Peace Prize Awards, composing and performing for the UNDP Africa 2015 song project “Les Tams-Tams de l’Afrique”. In one review, Afropop Worldwide editor Banning Eyre pointed out: “A young singer like Chiwoniso is able to take the music and messages of her ancestors and turn them into a pop sound that young people can really get. Chiwoniso is more than a promising new African star, she is a voice of hope and a guiding light for a society in crisis.”
Hailing from West London, Thabani , the Roots-Soul collective combine Soul, Afro and Groove influences to their potent mix of 'brilliant front line' tunes with a modern contemporary edge. Led by charismatic Zimbabwean singer and songwriter Tee Nyoni, together with a tight musical ensemble of brass, guitar, drums, African percussion and backing vocals, Thabani produce a classic 'Soulful Wall Of Sound', Tee brings the energy of a young James Brown, the voice of Marvin Gaye and the songwriting influences of Curtis Mayfield and Fela Kuti! The group was recently featured on Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 (Shareeha Asante: “Thabani's music has a laidback and infectious soulful groove which also retains the rhythms and spirit of Africa through the melodic vocals of Tee Nyoni”) and with their conscious lyrics, fused with a passionate musical landscape, the band have earned a massive live following all over Europe and they have also headlined events at the Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott's.
Paul Lunga is one of Zimbabwe’s preeminent jazz musicians and composers. Born in Mzilikazi Bulawayo Township, Paul has performed professionally for over 30 years. He learned his art from the township jazz veterans of western Zimbabwe and South Africa. His specialty is trumpet and flugelhorn, although he plays all the instruments of the ensemble. Paul has released four CDs so far - 'Ketchup', 'Zimbabwe jive', 'Township jazz' and 'Real-time Afro Jazz' - and has shared the same stage with Abdulla Ibrahim, Basil Coetzee, Hugh Masekela, Oliver Mtukudzi, Dorothy Masuka and many more. He has performed in Harare, Johannesburg, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Frankfurt, New York, Paris and many more venues around the world. With his band Jazz Impacto, Paul performs regularly in Zimbabwe and has toured in the UK.