Zvaa Zvinhu: Urban grooves legend Alexio Kawara in first ever UK show

Today Alexio Kawara will be performing in the UK with a host of other musicians from the Urban Grooves era from the early 2000s. He performed at the Zimbabwe German Society on 4 August reviving his popular Thursday night series in Harare. Apart from the KuChina Series, in October he will also perform at the Jacaranda Music Festival in Harare in October.

Form maybe temporary but class is certainly permanent.

Kawara has 7 number 1 hit songs locally in 24 years. He cannot perform all crowd favorites in one show.

“I am doing a show in the UK on 2 September. This will be my debut show in UK though I have toured Southern Africa and the USA, where I only saw 2 Zimbabweans in the audience.

“This will be a good experience. This one is different as I will meet a lot of good friends, some of whom knew me as the old Alexio. They left the country a long time ago.”

Kawara’s visa was due to arrive in the UK in time for the show. Also travelling with him where Extra Large, Trevor Dongo and Plaxedes.

“I am so excited after a long time without any public performances. KuChina helped me to build my brand. It has earned me fans and friends in the music industry. It has helped me to perform with a lot of other musicians I hosted.

“I have decided to re-ignite the memories, having fun and bringing back the Shades of Black experience.”

The show will take place at the Dunstable Conference Center featuring Sanii Makhalima, Ngoni Kambarami, Decibel, Madiz and Maskiri.

This diverse lineup illustrates the depth of Kawara’s catalogue with music from almost all genres.

“The UK show is about the Urban Grooves era and one or two of the most popular songs. The old school songs will quench the nostalgia. The show is called “The Link Up.”’

Alexio worked with trailblazing producer Delani Makhalima whom he describes as “Daring.” He said: “He was Makhalima was daring to push a genre with no existing audience back then. Museve, Sungura and Chimurenga music were dominant on radio with very little fusion from the likes of Tendai Mupfurutsa on songs like “Sweet Temptation.”’

“Delani was passionate about what he was doing in the studio. He was very experimental. He would spend sleepless nights in the studio creating new sounds. He really enjoyed what he was doing.

“The young minds like Tonderai Makoni, Take 5, Yanai, Nota contributed what they had. They had different approaches like hip-hop and other categories called Vhuzhwa from “Mufushwa” or fusion. Delani processed all these sounds into Urban Grooves.”

Makhalima has since spoken on Youtube with “So Profound” about those heady days when he shook up, not just the local music scene, but also Radio 3 which was dominated by international music.

Makhalima auditioned Kawara, a former Vainona school alumni in the studio in 1999. Kawara had written a song inspired by his hard working and caring mum, now a widow.

Simply called “Amai” the song did extremely well on the local charts and received extensive airplay. Kawara sang lead.

The song had everything; a positive message (Kawara’s lyrics), a harmony group (Guess), a spoken baritone intro (Makhalima) and a flawless production featuring 2 great lead artists on each verse.

Gogo Kawara (Alexio’s mum) smiles fondly when she remembers those days when everywhere she went her son’s voice could be heard on radios everywhere.

Guess represents the period of great acapella groups around the year 2000 and the beauty of 1999 before Zimbabwe entered into dark, uncharted waters.

The innocence and purity of Kawara’s lyrics on “Amai” may as yet be unmatched in these days where popular albums are preceded by sex-tapes or hidden sexual meanings. What a way to close the 19th century.

DJs were also great students of music back then and the likes of Innocent Tshuma pushed the Urban Grooves brand. This position was not given, it was earned. When Urban Grooves are criticized today, it does feel like Double Jeopardy or winning a murder case but having to go through it again on appeal.

Of course, Urban Grooves is a broad term which defeats itself sometimes. It marked the beginning of some very coarse lyrics and erosion of values while giving voice to innocent crooners like Plaxedes Wenyika, Roy and Royce, Betty Makhaya, Ronnie Huni and Sanii Makhalima.

Given the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that wiped out almost an entire generation, not sparing the best musicians from the previous era, these new artists were more than welcome.

Harareans were mostly being buried at Warren Hills which soon became overwhelmed at this time. Mbudzi cemetery was opened near Waterfalls and Glen Norah only to soon be also overwhelmed.

The new Millennium brought another side to Kawara’s music venturing successfully into hip-hop.

He explains: “We were really looking for a producer who was relevant at that time to add 2 more songs to an album. We ended up working on “Ndinomhanya” and “Kumba kwedu with Fortune Mparutsa. He had done some songs with Innocent Utsiwegota and Excel so he already had a sound. He had connections with Gilbert Muvavarirwa who connected me to him. I had tried to work with him before but to no avail but Muvavarirwa linked us up.”

Fortune Muparutsa himself was a fusion artist of the 1990s coming from the Runn family with his brothers.

Kawara is a walking encyclopaedia of Zimbabwean music, most of which is undocumented on the internet. Excellent work has been done in print. Websites have maintenance costs that sometimes mean the death of the likes of Peter Johns, the great DJ, who had his own website (with his intellectual property on it) meant the loss of such websites. Social media has made things easier in terms of maintenance costs.

Explaining further about working with Mparutsa, Kawara said: “I worked with him on my first album after I did “Amai” (and other songs with Guess) and with other producers. Mparutsa had more experience than Delani. He worked with old school gadgets with physical and analogue consoles connected to computers. He was not so reliant on softwares like “Auto tune.” He featured on my song “Ndinomhanya” as a rap artist. He added his own feel to songs. He even made backing vocals for his artists. He was very professional and wanted his money upfront.” The versatility of Mparutsa was such that he was a rap artist and also a lead singer on songs like “Simbarashe”and “Wangu ndega.”

It’s 15 years since he released “Pfimbi Yangu” the album that featured “Shaina.” “Shaina” was produced by MacDonald Chidavaenzi.

It became one of Zimbabwe’s true monster hits seemingly surpassing “Amai,” “Tinodanana” (featuring Tererai and produced by MacDee) and “Musikana akanaka” (produced by MacDee) before it. Kawara has even been nicknamed “Shaina.”

Any artist would survive on this catalogue alone even without writing any further new songs. Promoters seem to have let Kawara down in this regard. It’s over 20 years since local artists started UK shows for the diaspora. Not once has Kawara been invited. That also includes Leonard Zhakata.

Here is a summary of his award winning songs including “Amai” which was done by “Guess” and produced by Delani Makhalima for Shamiso entertainment:

• Musikana akanaka
• Chibvugubvugu
• Tinodanana
• Karwiyo aka
• Shaina
• Zvaa zvinhu

These 7 songs were number 1 hits in Zimbabwe.

Some of the key highlights of his career are:

2006 Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA) “Best male Urban Groove award.”
2006 ZIMA: “Song of the year” (Tinodanana)
2007 National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA): “Outstanding Album” (Pfimbi Yangu)
2008 ZIMA: “Song of the year” for Shaina.
2nd Position for Videos of the year (Shaina) 2009
2011 Victors Awards: “The Most Promising Musician”

Kawara explains: “I have 6 albums namely: Usazondisiya, Rwiyo rwangu, Pfimbi yangu, Kana, Tose and Oyi as well as some singles in between.”

“Pfimbi Yangu” had songs like “Shaina” and “Karwiyo aka.” One of Zimbabwean music’s key figures, since 2000, Clive “Mono” Mukundu made his mark with Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits as a lead guitarist. Those were the days when Debbie Metcalfe was managing the band.

When she was fired together with the likes of Mukundu it was shocking news for most music followers. Mukundu had been saving for a studio and buying equipment for this on his numerous tours with the band. He persuaded Kawara in a new direction, to sing with a band with live instruments.

Mukundu explains: “Alexio Kawara is very much respected by other musicians and producers. The whole music fraternity respects his beautiful voice. He has got a very good voice. He is a great composer.”

“I produced on my own album testing my studio. Before opening doors in 2007 I did a test album called “Poor and famous” and I did a song for my wife Jean featuring Alexio Kawara. In 2012 I added Prudence’s voice on it.

“When Oliver Mtukudzi came into my studio I played 2 songs for him and asked him to feature. He chose this particular songs because he empathized with my wife because is an orphan and also because Sam Mtukudzi his son played saxophone on the song before his premature death. Tuku also respected my marriage.”

“After I started running my studio I offered him a free album recording as token of appreciation for his work on my album ‘Poor and Famous.’ He had helped me for free and came all the way to my studio in Mufakose for free. I recorded all the songs except “Shaina” which was recorded by Jairos Hambahamba and produced by Macdonald Chidavaenzi.” “Shaina” was overheard by Andy Brown in the studio studio who insisted on featuring his guitar lines on it. Brown, an accomplished musician and guitarist, laid down his guitar lines that very same day.

Mukundu is a strong supporter of African music. “Karwiyo aka” had been recorded as an R ‘n B song. Once Kawara left the studio Mukundu started working on an Africanised version with a bass guitar and faster tempo.”

The result was simply stunning when first head in 2008 and became a popular wedding dances’ tune, and a hit song. It was a peak-Mukundu production. It helped that Kawara approved this particular version.

Today Kawara has a band called “Shades of Black” that consists of “Eddie Bass,” Cornellius “3D keys” Muponda on keyboards, Lesley Gurumani on drums, Wellington Mutepaire on guitar and Deborah Nzombe on vocals and others come in now and then.

The band will not be going to UK on this particular visit. “I will be playing with guys already in the UK. Hopefully in future we can go with the band.” As a consolation Kawara will be perfomirng with Ngoni Kambarami on “Shamwari” and Tererai Mugwadi on “Tinodanana” in the UK.

Muponda is an accomplished and well-respected keyboard player in the current band. He is also a producer. He has featured for other artists notably Mokoomba guitarist Trust Samende’s “House of groove Series” as a keyboardist.

Muponda is respected by his peers. That Muponda is now producing most of the songs is a plus in that the live songs can retain the album feel, which matters for some audiences. He worked with Kawara extensively on “Kana” the next album after “Pfimbi Yangu.”

That “Kana” didn’t reach the heights of the previous albums is one of life’s great mysteries. The nature of Dj-eeing in Zimbabwe has certainly changed towards talk shows and brand promotion and less music especially even less new music.

One artist I spoke to privately explained that music videos have become a key driver since around 2010. But fans of Kawara’s music appreciate this album very much. Requests are often made at shows for some of the songs on this album.

Kawara’s music has been better protected from piracy than most. It was available on CD. It is available on popular streaming services like Spotify.

Youtube has become another key driver of streamed music. “Kana” does not seem to be available on YouTube but is on spotify and other streaming services. The sad part is most consumers are only exposed to pirated music. Some artists have harnessed piracy to increase their exposure. Not Kawara.

While sampling the album many years ago I came across song number 9 with the title “Newe.” It led me into researching Kawara’s music and I was impressed by the consistency over the years.

“Newe” was recorded at Monolio Studios owned by Mukundu though like the rest of the album it was recorded by different producers. Jah Prayzah’s backing vocalist Fatima “Stimela” Katiji featured on backing vocals.

Kawara harnessed Zimbabwe’s rich institutional memory when commissioning Keith Farquharson to mix and master the album in South Africa.

“Newe” opens with mbira lines by Kawara himself with a very strong vocal performance by Kawara. It is one of the favourites of Kawara’s wife of 15 years, Bertha. They have 2 children. That Bertha loves this song is not a surprise as Kawara pours his heart out as usual on new beginnings.

When this song is played at live shows for Kawara’s audiences they sing along word for word just as they do on the other songs if not even more. Wider audiences seem enamoured to music videos in these days of Youtube streaming.

A key skill Kawara added along the way was mastering the Mbira instrument which he was taught by the late accomplished mbira teacher and performing artist Taku Mafika. Kawara says: “Mbira has limited chords and notes in Key C or Key F mostly. It is in both rhythm and lead sections.”

Kawara had a productive relationship with Muvavarirwa of Shamiso entertainment, the father of the now revived “Urban Grooves” genre. Press reports years ago mentioned that there was an album completed by the two around 2015 which remains un-released due to business disagreements.

Perhaps this album would have been key to Kawara’s modern brand placement and an introduction to new audiences. He released some singles since then. Rumour has it Kawara is working on a new album with Jairos Hambahamba being mentioned as one of the producers.

Hopefully more info will be made available as it takes shape. Approached on the new album Kawara said it was to early to tell but he wants to produce something soon that will be career redefining. He is scaling down on performances.

How has his voice changed over the years considering he has been in the business for over 20 years? Kawara laughs before answering the question. He said: ‘Voice change with maturity. The more you sing the better you become. My own judgement is my voice has become better with experience.

I know people like to singalong to songs that resonate with their experiences so we will make sure we do this.” Artists like Oliver Mtukudzi went through changes in voice but handled it well even re-recording popular tunes with adjusted arrangements as he mellowed with age.

Watch this link for another detailed interview with Kawara, Mukundu and Chidavaenzi