Urban groover Madiz inspired by Macheso

By Givemore Muzariri

HARARE- Itai Madzikura aka Madiz, one of the pioneers of urban grooves is buying music instruments and could be playing with a live band as early as next month. By doing this, Madiz, now a high-riding rhumba artiste could take his music career to another level.

“I have been urged by the likes of Alick Macheso to use a band  when playing live shows and I hope to start that next month,”  he said. Since launching his career in the late 1990s, he has produced two albums, Rhumba Plus and Bluetooth. He hopes to release his third album around April next year.

Madiz started music at a very tender age. In a telephone interview, Madzikura said he started singing in 1998 while he was in Gweru at Matinunure Secondary School. “I started singing gospel before I moved to the rhumba genre that I am playing these days.

“Originally, I’m Catholic and when I started singing, I teamed up with my friends who were from Aline Church and we formed a group called Joyful Repainters,” he said. Madiz said as Joyful Repainters they used to perform at different functions in Gweru and other places.

He said in 1999, he decided to join another group called the Returns, which danced to different rhythm and blues songs. “When I was with Joyful Repainters, I felt that I was suppressing my talent as I am naturally a good dancer.

“This forced me to join another group from Gweru called the Returns that was into dancing of R&B,” he said. Madiz said his commitment to the two groups became more strenuous as the rehearsing times were now clashing.

“When I was accepted in the two groups I started having problems with members of the groups as I used to miss rehearsal times. This forced the two groups to drop me,” he said.

After being expelled from both groups, he was forced to concentrate on his schoolwork as he was about to sit for his Ordinary Level examinations. “It was hard to take the expulsion but I had no option. This, however, gave me time to focus on my school work,” he said.

Soon after completing his examinations, he left for Botswana where he stayed for a year. “When I came back to Zimbabwe a year later, I revived my dancing career as a solo actor and that was the time I met a guy called Nasty Tricks.

“During that time Nasty Tricks had released his famous song called Chimoko and this was the time I composed my own called Kupinda Newe,” he said. Madiz said after producing a successful single, he decided to record an album with Sounds of Africa, which was owned by Dr Zobha and Tony G.

“When we got to Sounds of Africa with Nasty Tricks, we recorded Kupinda Newe. “Dr Zobha advised me to sing rhumba music despite the fact that we had recorded a hit song,” he said.

Madiz said at first he was opposed to the idea but after some time, the two decided to give it a try and they recorded the rhumba song Amina.

“At first I was not sure if Zobha’s idea was going to work but the response that we got from Amina was shocking and I decided to specialise in rhumba music,” he said.