Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Richmore Tera
11 July 2009
Harare — VETERAN musician Andy Brown believes the late "box guitarist", Ngwaru Mapundu is a legend whose music was pregnant with great artistry and meaning.
Mapundu's music is popularly known as dzamagitare, following a popular programme hosted by Simon Pashoma-Ncube on the then ZBC Radio 2 and has spawned the likes of Kireni Zulu.
As part of his tribute, Andy Brown decided to include Mapundu's music on his recently released album Set.
Among the most famous and successful artistes of the magitare era were Josaya Hadhebe and George Sibanda, who made many records which sold well in the old townships of Southern Rhodesia..
Andy Brown said the song, VaDriver, first carried on one of his earliest albums and remixed here for the second time, was originally written by Mapundu.
Andy Brown is one of the country's most prolific music composers and guitarists and when he redid Mapundu's VaDriver, many people thought it was his original composition, owing to the novel way he did it.
"Although Mapundu passed away a long time ago, he is still a music legend.
"He was great writer, writing music with great meaning, although he played in trains. In fact, the song VaDriver is his, and I decided to remix on Set for the second time as a way of remembering him.
"When you do someone's song you put your soul into it and it's something that I've always been doing. Even my own song, Mapurisa is being done by other artistes who include some Australians who liked it and decided to do it their own way," said Andy Brown. But what does his latest offering mean to him as an artiste?
"I think it's just a continuation of my imagination and creativity. And having it marketed and distributed by RTP is just a starting point of bigger things. We are starting from home, we can now sit down like people and share ideas." We are now starting on a new ground," he said.
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