Gig: Masaisai

Masaisai

Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar). Friday, February 5, 2010.

Dashed over to The Gladstone to check out the first of a series of free Friday night shows in the Melody Bar put together by folks from Music Africa in celebration of Black History Month. I'd seen Masaisai before, at the same venue no less, last August and had been keeping my eye out for another chance to catch 'em. Playing a soulful, highly danceable variety of Zimbabwean chimurenga music, based around the mbira¹, the group managed to fit eight people on the tiny Melody Bar stage — although that left the marimba on the floor in front of everyone. I arrived a bit past eight, in time to catch about a half-hour of the show's first half. Last time I'd seen 'em, they'd been confined to a relatively short showcase-style set, so it was illuminating to see them with a chance to stretch out a bit more. Besides their first-class rockin' party tunes, we got to hear some different angles on the ingredients of their music. Vocalist Tich Maredza, for example, played a couple songs solo with acoustic guitar before the break, including, I believe, a cover of a Tuku song.

The second set started by leaning more towards the traditional end of the band's repertoire, with a couple more rootsy mbira-based numbers, the first with a simmering hypnotic groove, the second a prayer with intertwining vocal parts from Makuri and Evelyn Mukwedeya (who we got to hear singing more during the longer set) and a slowly building backbeat. But after that, as the full band got going again, there was a good-sized crowd of people dancing in front of the stage, which is how it would stay for the rest of the set. From time to time, even members of the band would jump down to join in.

Solid musicianship all around, including from a guest drummer playing, we were told, with only five minutes' practice with the band.² A full hour's worth for the second set, and the band definitely raised the temperature in the room — enough that the cold blast of winter air that blew in whenever anyone passed through the door beside the stage was a bit of a relief. A good time — worth seeing again for sure.

Listen to a track from this show here.

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¹ The thumb piano, close cousin of the kalimba.

² I didn't quite manage to catch his name — it might have been Winston Mapeka — but unfortunately I can't credit him properly. We were told he has "played with every popular chimurenga musician in Zimbabwe", and that showed in his technique — I love those little fills takka-takka-bam-bam-bam that come on top of the regular beat.