Amara Brown shines at Winter Jazz Festival

By Richmore Tera

AMARA Brown, the daughter to the late musician Andy Brown, proved that music indeed runs in the family when she put up a sterling performance during opening of the Winter Jazz Festival at Jazz 105 in Harare last week.

The diva — who was clad in a red outfit with a zebra motif in front —thrilled the audience with renditions of her late father’s songs like “Tichangoshaina”, “Zindoga”, “Harare” and “Mawere Kongonya”, among others.

The 24-year-old Amara, was making her maiden appearance at the festival, also impressed by showcasing her dancing skills. To many people, Amara is the young girl in a 1990s cooking oil advert in which she appears alongside legendary musician Oliver Mtukudzi with the band Oli and the Vines.

“I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to honour my father. As emotional as it was, I drew a lot of inspiration from him and he was always a pillar of strength for me,” she said. Amara also revealed her interests, which, apart from music, also include dancing.

“I am passionate about music and dance which have taken me to many places around the world. The more that I have travelled around the globe the more I discovered that Zimbabwean artistes like my father, had a lot to offer to the world,” she said. Her control of the crowd was amazing while her vocal clarity was simply out of this world.

“I looked up to my dad and respected him a lot. I was privileged to share the stage with him at one time and I used that moment to learn more about music,” she said.

Born on September 6, 1988, Amara said she has a lot to offer in the music world. “My father might have passed on but his music legacy lives on and I am here to keep the torch burning,” she said.

Meanwhile, this year’s edition of the Winter Jazz Festival opened to a rather slow start but several artistes still managed to give a good account of themselves. Mbare Trio, Jazz Invitation, Summer Breeze and Amara gave the festival a lively feel.

The ceremony had a lot of thrills with Speaker of Parliament Austin Zvoma — who was also the guest of honour — taking time to entertain jazz lovers alongside his longtime friends, Mbare Trio, with the rendition of “Stick By Me” being a crowd favourite.

Despite the old temperatures the “old boys from Mbare” led by Friday Mbirimi were in fine form and showed the younger artistes how it is done.

So thrilling was the performance by Mbare Trio that one fan, Vincent Terera, pledged three pairs of shoes to the group. The group also introduced their new album “Rufaro”. Apart from Mbare Trio, Jazz Invitation and Summer Breeze also thrilled fans with their acts. The Herald