The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo
WHILE jazz music is considered to be a genre that caters for a niche market on the local music scene, there has never been a shortage of talent in that area.
Despite the abundance of talent, however, the visibility of the genre has been dwindling. There has not been much innovation and effort in promoting the culture.Gone are the days when there used to be numerous jazz festivals and events that were being held in the country.
Of late, there are only a few venues that host jazz events, pushing the genre closer to extinction from the local music industry, at least in the mainstream sense. The Sunday Mail Leisure had a chat with former patron of the Zimbabwe Jazz Festival, Gibson Mandishona, and he shared his insight on the jazz situation in the country.
He highlighted that the local jazz movement has had its highs and lows over the past 20 years with a lot of factors playing a part. “There has been a lull in vibrant activity on the jazz scene, mainly because Jazz does not readily appeal to young people and furthermore, jazz spots are on the decline,” said Mandishona.“During the early ’90s there seemed to be a revival of jazz music, which had climaxed during the decade between 1980 and 1990. This was mainly due to numerous jazz hot-spots in Harare and Bulawayo.
“There were also budding jazz artistes spearheading the movement and these included Sam Mataure, Penny Yon, Philbet Marowa, Mbirimi Brothers, Kelly Rusike, Dudu Manhenga, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Edith WeUtonga and Josh Meck to name just a few.”
He said that the local jazz scene was more active in the ’80s with the country not only producing many talented acts but there were also plenty of spaces for them to perform. “The ’80s were undoubtedly the most vibrant in the history of the latter jazz movement in Zimbabwe because during this period we had several jazz musicians some of whom had returned to the country at Independence and there was an abundance of jazz venues and promoters.”
He said that several factors had caused the decline in the popularity of jazz in the country.“There has been a decline in the number of jazz musical artistes, promotional activities and jazz events such as festivals and jam sessions.
The current wave and emerging ecstatic musical genres such as sungura, hip-hop and dancehall, are readily more appealing to the restive young generation so there has also been a gradual decline in the number of audience-listening musical spots.”
Over the past few years, jazz festivals seem to have vanished from the local entertainment scene and this has also been attributed to several factors. “Besides the issue of venues, festivals have been abandoned because of the decline in enthusiastic promoters and a decrease in the number and quantum of jazz artistes. “In the past such festivals were benefiting society by instilling interest in jazz among the young and contributing to charities such as the National Jazz Hunger Concert of 2002. “Some secondary schools were also influenced to promote local jazz groups, having been inspired by jazz festivals.”
He added that there was a need to resuscitate the local jazz movement as there was a lot of potential and talent floating around. “There is a need for the revival of jazz musical festivals with a fresh thrust and for this to be possible we need to have new and novel sponsors.
Not only should there be incorporation of jazz infusions into current trendy sounds such as dancehall and sungura but there should be a search for innovative jazz stagecraft. “Other key areas to be looked at are jazz music education and ready availability of musical instruments and learning materials on the market.”
During the late ’90s Mandishona was patron of the Zimbabwe Jazz Festival, working with artistes that included Sam Mataure, Penny Yon, Mainos Mudukuti, Hilton Mambo and Fungai Malianga.
The festival promoted over 15 jazz groups, which staged shows at a variety of venues like hotels, concert theatres and entertainment stadiums.The success of the festival got to attract companies, private institutions and embassies to come on board.
