Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Richmore Tera
12 July 2008
Harare — IMAGINE sungura musician Alick Macheso playing mbira during live shows or incorporating the instrument on his next album?
Impossible, you may say, but the fact is that the musician has been intensively practising mbira during the past two weeks.
For now, all Macheso - arguably the best bassist in the country at the moment - wants is to learn how to play all musical instruments without necessarily fusing them into his sungura beat.
Macheso this week professed his deep love for mbira and said he acquired a set with which he is currently practising.
"When I saw someone selling the instrument, I fell in love with the tune he was playing. I also asked him to teach me the tune, although now I have composed my own original ones," he said.
But, are there any plans of fusing the mbira into his music during lives shows and recordings?
"No, I don't think so. I haven't thought about it and playing mbira is just a pastime from my major business, which is sungura music.
"It's a good instrument, very traditional, and I think as a musician I should be conversant with it, together with a host of other instruments.
"One of the days I might end up being like a music academy responsible for teaching my children and other people how to play all these various music instruments.
"Ndinotoda kudzidzira kana masaxophone, kana keyboard, zviridzwa zvese (I would love to learn how to play virtually every instrument)," he confessed.
Meanwhile, Macheso also took the opportunity to explain how he got a deep gush on his forehead.
"We were relaxing with my guys at home outside when someone pushed a metal garden table that had been propped against the wall, injuring me in the process. It is nothing serious, although I received five stitches after having gone to Chitungwiza Central Hospital for treatment.
There had been numerous versions on how he got injured with some even extreme suggestions that he was assaulted with an iron bar by a man whose wife he was reportedly going out with.
Others suggested he was a victim of domestic violence.
A few others are still content that it was a case of domestic violence.
"Uku ndiko kunonzi kutsvaga mhosva pasina. I have been staying here in Chitungwiza for many years now but there is never a time when I was involved in a fight with anybody for any reason whatsoever.
"Had it been that I frequented nightclubs, pamwe zvainzwika, but I don't go there, most of the time I will be here at home if I am not doing business. That's very malicious and laughable," he said.
He added that he was taking medication prescribed to him by doctors at the hospital.
"When I returned from our tour of Mozambique, I was also surprised to hear that some people were saying I returned home with malaria.
"Anyway, these are some of the things that happen in life."
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