We are Singers Too!
When Clever Mukazi saw his video Wakanditambisira Nguva signing off Zimbabwe Television’s Sunday Edition on May 20, something inside him told him that part of his struggle to gain recognition in the fledgling urban grooves music industry had been won.
The 25-year old is part of Soul Bone, an urban grooves outfit comprising four disabled friends fighting to prove to society that disability is really not inability. Soul bone intends to break new ground as the first successful disabled urban grooves group.
The new video, off the album Ndangariro, is about two ‘lovebirds’ who get along quite well until the girl finds a better suitor, hence the boy’s lament that she wasted his time.
“It’s actually a true story that happened to me,” said Mukazi. The video might be new but the song was recorded along with five others in 2005 “after a struggle.”
This struggle started in 2001 when the four friends – Mukazi, Bright Kadengu (24), Goodnews Nyamakawo (23) and Victor Nyamakawo (21) – decided to follow their dreams and embark on a musical career while still schooling at Danhiko.
Initially, they were a heptad, but two other members left Harare, while the third, Takura Mlambo passed away in 2003. Soul bone did the song Taku in his memory.
But the reduction in number did not correspond to a reduction in their problems in finding someone to produce their music for them. Quite the opposite was true in fact – Soul bone knocked on door after door in search of a producer.
“We were getting the same response that our music was good,” Kadengu frowned. “But no one was willing to invite us to their studios. It was promises, promises, and promises. Unfulfilled promises.”
Finally, they found refuge in Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa’s High-Density studios where they were helped to record their demo.
At last things seemed to be moving; ‘Flash’ Gordon Mutekedza was brave enough to produce the album Ndangariro.
Metro, Soul bone said, also promised to market their music “but they asked us to produce our own copies since they said they were not guaranteed of any returns if they did it for us at first.”
In effect they were told to get popular before they could dream of enjoying any sales from their music. Needless to say, Soul bone was short on cash and only managed to fund the production of copies that went to Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe stations.
At Power FM, the piece A Song for Amai received trickles of airplay, and virtually nothing was heard on Radio Zimbabwe.
The video was actually done in April this year to revitalise Ndangariro’s fortunes, which the group saw as waning if it did not get enough support from the national broadcaster.
This had the group fuming: “These radio stations and producers should take us seriously because our music is as good as any one else’s. We deserve a chance to record and to be on the air waves.”
A well wisher had donated musical equipment and also chipped in with funds for the recording of the demo, but as fate would have it, Soul bone was robbed of the rig at their Waterfalls home in August 2003.
But the group promised to soldier on despite the setbacks, vowing to “reach the highest level.”
Other songs on the eight-track album are Zvondibaya, Wandizadzikisa, Uchakunda and instrumental versions for Wakanditambisira Nguva and A song for Amai.
Currently living at the Cheshire Home for the disabled in the Avenues area, Soul bone survives by vending fruits near the Avenues Clinic.
“We are just doing this to put food on the table, but the truth is that music is our life, said Mukazi.
The 25-year old is part of Soul Bone, an urban grooves outfit comprising four disabled friends fighting to prove to society that disability is really not inability. Soul bone intends to break new ground as the first successful disabled urban grooves group.
The new video, off the album Ndangariro, is about two ‘lovebirds’ who get along quite well until the girl finds a better suitor, hence the boy’s lament that she wasted his time.
“It’s actually a true story that happened to me,” said Mukazi. The video might be new but the song was recorded along with five others in 2005 “after a struggle.”
This struggle started in 2001 when the four friends – Mukazi, Bright Kadengu (24), Goodnews Nyamakawo (23) and Victor Nyamakawo (21) – decided to follow their dreams and embark on a musical career while still schooling at Danhiko.
Initially, they were a heptad, but two other members left Harare, while the third, Takura Mlambo passed away in 2003. Soul bone did the song Taku in his memory.
But the reduction in number did not correspond to a reduction in their problems in finding someone to produce their music for them. Quite the opposite was true in fact – Soul bone knocked on door after door in search of a producer.
“We were getting the same response that our music was good,” Kadengu frowned. “But no one was willing to invite us to their studios. It was promises, promises, and promises. Unfulfilled promises.”
Finally, they found refuge in Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa’s High-Density studios where they were helped to record their demo.
At last things seemed to be moving; ‘Flash’ Gordon Mutekedza was brave enough to produce the album Ndangariro.
Metro, Soul bone said, also promised to market their music “but they asked us to produce our own copies since they said they were not guaranteed of any returns if they did it for us at first.”
In effect they were told to get popular before they could dream of enjoying any sales from their music. Needless to say, Soul bone was short on cash and only managed to fund the production of copies that went to Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe stations.
At Power FM, the piece A Song for Amai received trickles of airplay, and virtually nothing was heard on Radio Zimbabwe.
The video was actually done in April this year to revitalise Ndangariro’s fortunes, which the group saw as waning if it did not get enough support from the national broadcaster.
This had the group fuming: “These radio stations and producers should take us seriously because our music is as good as any one else’s. We deserve a chance to record and to be on the air waves.”
A well wisher had donated musical equipment and also chipped in with funds for the recording of the demo, but as fate would have it, Soul bone was robbed of the rig at their Waterfalls home in August 2003.
But the group promised to soldier on despite the setbacks, vowing to “reach the highest level.”
Other songs on the eight-track album are Zvondibaya, Wandizadzikisa, Uchakunda and instrumental versions for Wakanditambisira Nguva and A song for Amai.
Currently living at the Cheshire Home for the disabled in the Avenues area, Soul bone survives by vending fruits near the Avenues Clinic.
“We are just doing this to put food on the table, but the truth is that music is our life, said Mukazi.
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