Rise up

2006 release by the single most popular musician in Zimbabwe for over 25 years. Mapfumo draws on such an array of genres - African jazz, classic R&B, Shona spirit music, rock, reggae and a variety of local Zimbabwean styles - that he has formed ... Full Descriptiona completely new style of music, which he calls 'Chimurenga'. Loping rhythms form the bedrock for the groove which is constant, incessant and which underpins the horns, the vocals, the African girl's chorus and chants - it is as unique and in it's own way as influential on his country as Fela Kuti or even western performers such as James Brown. The Zimbabwean protest singer Thomas Mapfumo's chimurenga, or protest, music was the soundtrack to the struggle for his country's independence throughout the 1970s. Since the 1980s it has been directed against the country's corrupt leadership, headed by its erstwhile savior, Robert Mugabe. Sung in his native Shona, Mapfumo's 2006 release, RISE UP, is a mix of smooth, Westernized reggae rhythms (he was forced to move to Oregon in the early '90s) and the more familiar bubbling dance styles of his homeland, with his songs' subjects spanning such characteristically controversial material as families being sundered through lack of work, teenage pregnancies, and political resistance.