Valentine Cascarino
Parallel lines never meet in science, but musically they’ve met in South Africa in the form of Kampi Moto and George Phiri. The two have recently combined their talents to produce a superb album, both acoustic and harmonious.
If you ask Congolese youth who their favourite musician is, they’ll definitely say Papa Wemba. But the elderly will say Kampi Moto. He is the one half of the duo releasing the album Acha Masimango this weekend.
Phiri, of course, has in his long career already collaborated with the likes of Stimela and Tshepo Tshola. Moto’s only smash hit, Ndele Kuchilili, was released in 1976 in Lusaka. Since then he has spent time playing in obscure clubs on the African continent. He last recorded 12 years ago in Malawi and although his album won that country’s album of the year award, he has kept his fans in suspense until now.
So, the two vagabond artists have lots in common. The African terms for the rhythms driving their new offering are manganje and mashasha. Maganje is one of the famous dances of Malawi, used principally during celebrations and ceremonies, while mashasha is a ballad-like, slow-moving dance from Congo in which the body moves in a manner believed to relieve stress. The fusion of these two styles forms a new groove the artists have called manganje-mashasha. It can be best described as quirky and out-of- step.
“Music is above all language. I sometimes play rock, not because I’m white but because I understand the language of music,” says Phiri.
“Working with Kampi has helped me to expand my African musical roots. He’s a talented artist who’s been through the ups and downs of music. While working with him I began to learn how to speak some of the Central African languages, like Lingala, as well as getting to know his interpretation of music.”
Moto also sees the experience of making Acha Masimango as an act of cultural exchange that has involved a wide variety of artistic voices, including McCoy Mrumbata, Jimi Indi, Vusi Maseko, Delphin Mpoyi and Peter Chekunze.
But how will such an unusual offering fare in the South African market today, a musical environment that dogmatically pigeon-holes genres? To Phiri, the issue at stake concerns more than the album’s success. He says it gives him great joy to have found a stable and African-orientated recording company like Sheer Sound. “I’ve toured the world extensively,” Phiri says, “and no record company would have refused to release this album. But helping to make the world understand that Africa has what it takes to produce good music is itself a great achievement. I wish all African artists who’re recording in Europe would do the same. How many European artists have ever thought of recording an album in an African studio?”
Phiri was born in Malawi and started playing guitar when he was 12. Over decades he has assembled an extensive knowledge of African rhythms, augmented during his periods of residence in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He was acknowledged as a driving force behind the well-known Zimbabwean band Wells Fargo that won that country’s best band award in 1976.
Moto began singing at an early age with his school choir and joined his first professional band, Orchestra Panda, in 1962. In 1969 he moved to Zambia where he joined two outfits: the Amagus Company and later the Highlight Bantu Band. It was in 1976, while working with another band called Fire Family in Lusaka, that his only smash hit Ndele Kuchilio was recorded. The two artists first met at a Botswana club in 1996. And when Moto came to South Africa a year later, they began to dream of creating a team that will push them to the ranks of Africa’s greatest.
It seems their time has come.
Acha Masimango will be launched at Mega Music Warehouse at Johannesburg’s Newtown Cultural Precinct on November 4. For more information Tel: 082 262 7909