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With his inimitable vocal style, tainted with soul, his powerful lyrics dealing with his people’s everyday reality, Oliver Mtukudzi, singer, songwriter and excellent guitarist is one of the emblematic figures of African urban music.
Drawing on traditional Shona – three quarters of the population of Zimbabwe - and South African (Jive, Mbaqanga, Urban Zulu) music, he has invented his own language, baptised “Tuku Music”: a hard-hitting, swinging, spellbinding and elegant compound of the rhythms of southern Africa.
Photograph: D.R.
Curiously, very few people have heard of Oliver Mtukudzi (Tuku to his fans) outside of southern Africa. Tuku’s twenty-year long career is measured out by 35 original albums (most of them best-sellers); but it is above all his love of the stage (he plays for enthusiastic audiences in the furthest reaches of the country) which has earned him a place in people’s hearts.
Tuku made his professional début in 1977 when he joined Wagon Wheels – a now legendary group – and Thomas Mapfumo. Success was immediate: their first single, Dzandimomotera, very quickly sold more than 100 000 copies, and it was followed by Tuku’s first four-track album, which was also very successful. It was with musicians from Wagon Wheels that Tuku formed the Black Spirits, the group that accompanied him throughout his career.
In 1980, when Zimbabwe became independent, Tuku and the Black Spirits recorded Africa, one of the most important albums of the period, whose two big successes, Zimbabwe and Mazongonyedze, revealed to this young country one of its first great voices. Since Independence Oliver has produced two albums every year. He has become producer and arranger; he is a prolific songwriter and, with his famous generous voice, an extraordinary singer.
In all these domains, Tuku has made so many innovations that his music is easily discernible from all the other Zimbabwean styles. Obviously, one can not claim that his music has undergone no recognisable influence (the traditional Mbira styles, the South African Mbaqanga style and Zimbabwean “JIT Music” deeply influenced him); but all the styles, as for Katekwe, his clan’s traditional percussion (Korekore clan), have been integrated into an art, which is indisputably his own;
But more than the specificity of his music, Tuku’s durable popularity is due to his talents as a songwriter, a man of words. Most of his songs deal with the economic and social problems that govern everyday life, so with his contagious humour and the optimism present in all his music he has seduced both young and old alike.
Tuku Music, recorded in 1998 in one of Johannesburg’s best studios is a careful production destined to bring Oliver Mtukudzi’s music and his universe to an international audience. It comes very close to the ambience created by the group in their concerts, an atmosphere which has built up over all the concerts and tours.
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