Published by the government of Zimbabwe
23 July 2009
Harare — MUSIC is an art that requires ingenuity and talent. Listening to a song by the late Leonard Dembo, Chengeto, the other day, I couldn't help but marvel at his artistry especially the fusion of the lyrics and the instruments.
They flowed flawlessly. His songs were never fragmented.
The guitars stood out clearly but without overshadowing the lyrics and the balance was perfect and impeccable.
It therefore did not come as a surprise when the late hitmaker won five gold discs for brilliant LPs like Chitekete and Ruva Rashe during his short but illustrious career.
The inimitable Dembo was simply being rewarded for his good craftsmanship in his industry, something that several local musicians have not learnt to master over the years.
Others who made it during his time include the late Biggy Tembo, Marshal Munhumumwe, James Chimombe while superstar Oliver Mtukudzi and self exiled Thomas Mapfumo are among few artistes who have managed to harness their talents and nurture the good craftsmanship required in coming up with good quality music.
In all the works of these artistes who made it during their time, there is no doubt that while working on their musical projects they vowed that they would want to record music that would not only appeal to their present fans, but even for generations to come.
I am sure that they wanted their music to remain relevant and continue to appeal to a lot of people, even decades after they had passed on.
They took pride in the artworks they were doing and that was easily reflected in their music.
Exhibiting such high levels of ingenuity, talent and a passion to endear themselves to their fans, some of them were able to grace international stages with honour and still continue to be revered years after their death.
It is, however, sad to note that a number of local musicians are failing to exhibit the good craftsmanship in music that produces good quality jams, where one can listen to the message, without the constant interruption of the bass guitar, interjecting the flow of the lyrics.
Several musical projects that we listen to on a day to day basis are so bad that even lyrics are drowned in the instrumentation, making it virtually impossible for one to hear what the musician would be singing about.
In instances where the musician would have done a good job of coordinating instruments, you would then have to contend with meaningless lyrics, that do not even add value to the song.
Despite the effort that the musician would have put into the project, the music naturally fails to sell, let alone capture an audience prepared to lend an ear to such a shoddy project.
Music is the symphony of melodical words, instrumentation and the artiste's personal passion, and this is what musicians should look at before they rush to the studio to produce something that will not sell, let alone capture the audience's attention.
Local musicians cannot afford to ignore the competition that globalisation has brought to the fore, where fans are now spoilt for choice, because they can now listen to any type of music from anywhere in the world, at the click of a button.
Surely having been exposed to good music, no one is willing to settle for second best, and that should be a warning sign to our local guys that gone are the days when fans would just buy their CD's for lack of choice.
They should start working on producing good quality musical projects and possibly emu late the likes of Dembo, whose music we still enjoy today - 13 years after his death.
Music producers, on the other hand, should not just rush to record half-backed albums without putting in all the attention that the music deserves.
They should also encourage different styles and desist from the habit of foisting a certain music style on upcoming artistes who come to their studios with their own beat but end being encouraged to imitate top-selling artistes, creating monotony in the industry. Until that time when musicians and their producers sit down and do their homework, listeners are never going to take them seriously.
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