By Chris Kusema
The marriage of dance and chart success in gospel music has always been frowned upon traditionally. If you ask any old generation gospel purists they will tell you that gospel music was always seen as too holy and dancing was not applauded.
Fast forward a few years down we have seen the emergence of artists like Saba, Obert, Enos, Ashley who love their dancing and that has changed the gospel map. Zimpraise is another outfit that has made that crossover with huge success. Their three live dvd recordings suggest quite an evolution.
Inspite of the visa cancellations to some of our Zim artists this 14 strong contingent, got their visas approved even thoough they used the same agency used by Y2K who had visas for Jah Prayzah and Sulu cancelled. If you ever doubted the power of prayer what more evidence do you want?
Ahead of their two legged tour, tickets were selling like hot cakes.
The first leg of this tour kicked of at the All Nations Church to a packed auditorium. The opening acts which included Highest Praise, Rhema Praise and Tinashe the rapper warmed up the stage for the tourists.
Highest praise opened up and this youthful group did their thing. The more mature Rhema praise who had the likes of Kieron Bygraves, Gettie and Lazarus Stazio, Derrick Maphosa, and William Ponjole followed right after.
Also gracing the same stage was Tinashe the rapper who flowed like the Save river. The 20 strong Zimpraise (including a few of their UK based ambassadors) came on stage and serenaded the punters with their popular hits.
The well rehearsed backline were on point and complimented well with the choir and with a few years of attending music shows both secular and gospel under my belt, I had not seen anything like this in a very long time.
The sound system was top notch, and kudos to the sound engineers who did an excellent job. The only hindrance at this Dudley venue was the time factor as the punters were left wanting more and that reminded me that I was never going to miss the second leg.
This first show created a frenzy on facebook as people were scurrying all over the UK looking for tickets for the Dunstable show. I can safely say that these tickets were so on demand just like the brazilian weave. This was evident on the night as the 1500 capacity arena was filled to the brim.
This evening started at 17:30 HRS and the pace was set right from the off with Obert Mazivisa and his Trumpet Echoes which seemed only right, as he was the master cheerleader, with his dances, arms outstretched and urging the crowd between every beat and every tune.
He was followed up by the Green Arrows band who only played one song and I am told because of time they had to come off stage, to allow more time for the tourists.
Zimpraise managed the stage with no problem at all with massive infectious energy flooding the stage and carrying everyone along for a relentlessly bouncy ride. The 3 hour set was packed with familiar radio and youtube-friendly anthems.
Sungano and Musandikanganwe were standouts with the lead singers firing up the sing alongs. These anthems brought the eruption that had been waiting to happen, even though the sound quality wasn’t the best. Sungano was the huge encore everyone wanted.
Their 6 piece band was well rehearsed and did not miss a single note with their RIFFS,RUNS,SOLOs and BASSLINES. To put it simply they were on point. The choir is one of the best choirs around and their vocal prowess was well coordinated.
Conducted by Wellingtone Kwenda they rocked the joint as they belted their well known tunes. The crowds were on their feet all night long as this Joseph Madziyire led ensemble delivered, as they are well known for.
With the popular faces like Pastor Gee, Lloyd Tevedzai and Tembalami within their ranks what could go wrong. These solo artist got to do their thing with their popular hits like mabiribobi, tomurumbidza and batai.
Tembalami led a tribute to the Godfather of gopsel music baba Mechanic Menyeruke with his popular song Moses to commemorate his forty long years in the gospel music business and what a touching tribute as the crowds sang along to this hit.
As the evening drew to the end the crowds were dancing away not minding the slight overcrowding for one bit.
This well attended, and well planned event has been the best Zimbambwean event ever. It has managed to do what all the past events like Zimfest or SummerJam have failed to do. That is unite the Zimbabwean people in the UK at one major event. These events have mainly catered for secular music only.
I would have liked my brother Ivan Mudzudzu to attend this show and I have had this conversation so many times.
Both secular music lovers and Christians or church folks if you like, were brought together at these 2 venues. And I know for a fact that no one will disagree with me that this was worth every penny.
Zimpraise and Mokoomba are the best outfits out of Zimbabwe at the moment as they are taking the international scenes by storm. Everyone loves Zimpraise. Why wouldn’t you?
[nggallery id=118]
