Andy Brown fine-tunes album in Dubai

By Mtandazo Dube

Andy “Muzukuru” Brown’s mysterious nature continues to grow unabated. While it is common for local musicians to go to the United States, the UK or South Africa, to record, mix or master their albums, the Kumawere Kongonya hit-maker is in Dubai, putting final touches to his latest offering Chiwoko.

The enigmatic guitar maestro left the capital for Johannesburg on Tuesday, before proceeding to the United Arab Emirates commercial city where he is expected to take advantage of the advanced technology in that country to make his sound the best ever.

The Sunday Mail Leisure caught up with Brown shortly before he took off for South Africa and the unpredictable musician warned that his latest offering would put everyone else to think they are better off the market the moment his hits hit the streets.

“Dubai has the latest technology at the moment as far as the making of music is concerned. Because of the complexity of Arabic music, which is played with plenty of instruments, it is only wise to visit them and try to find out just what it is that makes them so good at mixing their sound.

“Those people can mix a hundred instruments and make the listener feel like they are listening to them individually and that is what I seek. The album has already been recorded; all that I will be doing is to master and mix the tracks,” said Brown.

Brown will be back towards the end of this week, during which a launch of the album will be planned followed by a nationwide tour to promote the album. The 12-track album, which has reworked versions of Harare and Tichamboshaina, was recorded at Sunshine Studios in Eastlea, a recording company owned by Isaac Chirwa together with a host of investors.

When asked on the wisdom of having his artiste master mix his album in Dubai, Brown’s manager Rory Duncan said his team keeps track of the latest trends in music circles around the world and together they settled for Dubai.

“Check the trends these days, music producers are looking for a new sound and Dubai has provided the world with one. We view Brown as an international act — we do not want him to restrict his sound to his Zimbabwean fans only but spread his wings widely.

“We have an American and Australian tour on the cards and we believe that this new sound is simply going to blow them away. Andy is a very skilled guitarist and when they see what he can do with it from rock to his other Afro-sounds, I can assure you he will be a hit,” said Duncan.

Chiwoko becomes Brown’s 14th album to date, marking several years of up and downs for the music man. His other albums include Chimvuramabwe (1990), Feed Me (1991), Let the Children Play (1995), Harare (1997) and his 2009 production Set, to mention just a few.

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